Directory.EnumerateFiles Method (String, String)

The following wildcard specifiers are permitted in the searchPattern parameter.

Characters other than the wildcard specifiers represent themselves. For example, the searchPattern string "*t" searches for all names in path that end with the letter "t". The searchPattern string "s*" searches for all names in path that begin with the letter "s".

You can specify relative path information with the path parameter. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory, which you can determine by using the GetCurrentDirectory method.

The EnumerateFiles and GetFiles methods differ as follows: When you use EnumerateFiles, you can start enumerating the collection of names before the whole collection is returned; when you use GetFiles, you must wait for the whole array of names to be returned before you can access the array. Therefore, when you are working with many files and directories, EnumerateFiles can be more efficient.

The returned collection is not cached; each call to the GetEnumerator on the collection will start a new enumeration.

The following example shows how to retrieve all the text files in a directory and move them to a new directory. After the files are moved, they no longer exist in the original directory.

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string sourceDirectory = @"C:\current";
            string archiveDirectory = @"C:\archive";

            try
            {
                var txtFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(sourceDirectory, "*.txt");

                foreach (string currentFile in txtFiles)
                {
                    string fileName = currentFile.Substring(sourceDirectory.Length + 1);
                    Directory.Move(currentFile, Path.Combine(archiveDirectory, fileName));
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

The following example enumerates the files in the specified directory that have a .txt extension, reads each line of the file, and displays the line if it contains the string "Europe".

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            // LINQ query for all .txt files containing the word 'Europe'. 
            var files = from file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(@"\\archives1\library\", "*.txt")
                where file.ToLower().Contains("europe")
                select file;

            foreach (var file in files)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}", file);
            }
            Console.WriteLine("{0} files found.", files.Count<string>().ToString());
        }
			
        catch (UnauthorizedAccessException UAEx)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(UAEx.Message);
        }
        catch (PathTooLongException PathEx)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(PathEx.Message);
        }
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference