Question

I have a program where the user should be able to locate any folder and the program will return the files/folders (sub directories) within the path that was selected, as well as the date and size of each file/folder.

I used the folderBrowserDialog to allow the system to be searched, including networks (most every where else I was looking ONLY returned the C:\, but we have more than just this. The folderBrowserDialog allows this to happen. Earlier I thought I found some code that would help me futher with what I am trying to accomplish, but it turned out to be what I don’t need, at least it was a learning experience, except for the recursion process.

I believe I have the code for the size of the files and directories as well as the date time. I found those size and date.

At the moment when I build the code I am given two error messages

1. 'DD.Form1.GetFileSize(double)' not all code paths return a value. 

2. The name 'txtFile' does not exist in the current context 

and only the first part of the code runs (with the folderBroweserDialog), the textbox isn’t working and I would like for the user to enter the path and it search for the path and bring up the same data – Folder/File names and paths including subdirectories along with date and size of all. What do I need to do to get this working properly? Thank You

Here is my code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.IO;

namespace DD
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

        }

        private void browse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //
            // This event handler was created by double-clicking the window in the designer.
            // It runs on the program's startup routine.
            //
            DialogResult result = folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog();
            if (result == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                //
                // The user selected a folder and pressed the OK button.
                // We print the number of files found.
                //
                string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath);
                MessageBox.Show("Files found: " + files.Length.ToString(), "Message");
            }

            //Obtaining the sub directories in a folder
        }

        void DirSearch(string sDir)
        {
            try
            {
                foreach (string d in Directory.GetDirectories(sDir))
                {
                    foreach (string f in Directory.GetFiles(d, txtFile.Text))
                    {

                    }
                    DirSearch(d);
                }
            }
            catch (System.Exception excpt)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(excpt.Message);
            }
            {
                //Obtaining the date and time of a file
                // Write file containing the date with BIN extension
                //

                string n = string.Format("text-{0:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin",
        DateTime.Now);
                File.WriteAllText(n, "aaa");
            }
            //Obtaining the size of a file
        }
        private string GetFileSize(double byteCount)
        {
            string size = "0 Bytes";
            if (byteCount >= 1073741824.0)
                size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1073741824.0) + " GB";
            else if (byteCount >= 1048576.0)
                //etc...     

                return size;

        }

    }
}

Answer 1

Ok, I have taken a quick look at the article you referenced and here are some comments that may help out.

First lets take a look at

private string GetFileSize(double byteCount)         
{
             string size = "0 Bytes";
             if (byteCount >= 1073741824.0)
                 size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1073741824.0) + " GB";
             else if (byteCount >= 1048576.0)
                 //etc...
             return size;
} 

What this should look like is something more like this

private string GetFileSize(double byteCount)
{
        string size = "0 Bytes";
        if (byteCount > = 1073741824.0)
        {
           size = String.Format("{0:##.##}", byteCount / 1073741824.0) + " GB";
        }
        else if (byteCount >= 1048576.0)
        {
            //do something else in here
        }
        return size;
}

You do not have to use the braces in the if/else statement to deliniate your blocks of code to execute if it is only a single line, I have included here for clarity. The C# compiler will associate the next executable line of code after and if or else with that if or else unless you use the {} to indicate the block or end the if or else line itself with a “;”

The next problem you are having, is with the textFile.Text reference in the foreach loop. This is most likely a Textbox control on the form in the example. The parameter that you are filling in there is a filter for the type of files you are searching for. So you most likely do not have a Textbox on your form that has the name textFile.

Edit:
There is no one line command to get a list of all files recursively in a directory structure built in to the .NET framework. So you have the method below to do that for you. The way you would use this to have a single list of all the paths would be as follows.

List<FileInfo> DirSearch(string sDir)
     {
         List<FileInfo> filesList = new List<FileInfo>();
         try
         {
             foreach (string d in Directory.GetDirectories(sDir))
             {
                 foreach (string f in Directory.GetFiles(d, txtFile.Text))
                 {
                    fileList.Add(new FileInfo(f));
                  }
                 DirSearch(d);
             }
         }
         catch (System.Exception excpt)
         {
             Console.WriteLine(excpt.Message);
         }
         return fileList;
     } 

Now you can print out the details of each of those files by something like this.

foreach (FileInfo fi in new DirSearch("c:\"))
{
     console.Writeline(String.Format("Filename: {0}   Size:  {1}", fi.Name, fi.Length));
}