FileDialog.FilterIndex Property

 

Gets or sets the index of the filter currently selected in the file dialog box.

Namespace:   System.Windows.Forms
Assembly:  System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

Public Property FilterIndex As Integer

Property Value

Type: System.Int32

A value containing the index of the filter currently selected in the file dialog box. The default value is 1.

Use the FilterIndex property to set which filtering option is shown first to the user. You can also use the value of FilterIndex after showing the file dialog to perform special file operations depending upon the filter chosen.

System_CAPS_noteNote

The index value of the first filter entry is 1.

The following code example uses the OpenFileDialog implementation of FileDialog and illustrates creating, setting of properties, and showing the dialog box. The example uses the Filter and FilterIndex properties to provide a list of filters for the user. The example requires a form with a Button placed on it and the System.IO namespace added to it.

Private Sub button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
    Dim myStream As Stream = Nothing
    Dim openFileDialog1 As New OpenFileDialog()

    openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\"
    openFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*"
    openFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2
    openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = True

    If openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
        Try
            myStream = openFileDialog1.OpenFile()
            If (myStream IsNot Nothing) Then
                ' Insert code to read the stream here.
            End If
        Catch Ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show("Cannot read file from disk. Original error: " & Ex.Message)
        Finally
            ' Check this again, since we need to make sure we didn't throw an exception on open.
            If (myStream IsNot Nothing) Then
                myStream.Close()
            End If
        End Try
    End If
End Sub

.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
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