Question

I have a directory with multiple sub directories that contain .doc files. Example:

C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\Released\500\test0.doc
C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\Released\501\test1.doc
C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\Released\502\test2.doc
...
C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\Released\520\test20.doc

In my code below, I am trying to display in a list box all of the files that end with extension ‘.doc’ that are in sub directories of C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\Released

So for example, I have

Dim root As String = "C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment"

For Each fileFound As String In Directory.GetFiles(Path.Combine(root, "Released\*\*.doc"))
        ListBox1.Items.Add(fileFound)
    Next

But it keeps throwing out Illegal characters in path error.
Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong?

Answer 1

The filesystem doesn’t understand the double * in released\*\*.doc
Directory.GetFiles oveload that takes only one argument doesn’t like the partial path specification (….*.doc)

Try with this

Dim root As String = "C:\Users\tmedina\Documents\testenviroment\released" 

For Each fileFound As String In Directory.GetFiles(root, "*.doc", SearchOption.AllDirectories)) 
    ListBox1.Items.Add(fileFound) 
Next 

The Visual Basic language doesn’t need to escape the \ character.
The Directory.GetFiles has an overload that takes your base path, a wildcard search string, and an option to search all of the subfolders of the base path.