Question

I have some files with this pattern:

PrefixyyyyMMddHHmmss.txt

That Prefix is always the same.

For example :
Prefix20120830115800.txt

Prefix20120829114200.txt

Prefix20120829134621.txt

I want to write a function to get one day and range and returns all files that their names are in input range from that day:

ReadFiles(string filesLocation, DateTime fromDate, int range)

Now I use this approach:

for (int i = 0; i <= range; i++)
{
    SearchFolderForFiles(location, fromDate.AddDays(i));
}

SearchFolderForFiles(//params)
{
//…
  string searchTemplate = string.Format("Prefix{0:yyyyMMdd}*.txt", date);
  DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(location);
  FileInfo[] myFiles = di.GetFiles(searchTemplate);
//…
}

But I think it should be better way(specially we have range not separated days)

Thanks

Answer 1

You could do it with linq.

Horrible example, but you can see what i’m getting at 🙂

        DateTime startDate = DateTime.Now;
        DateTime endDate = DateTime.Now;

        var myFiles = new DirectoryInfo(location).EnumerateFiles()
            .Where(f => DateTime.Parse(System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f.Name).Replace("Prefix", "")) >= startDate
            && DateTime.Parse(System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f.Name).Replace("Prefix", "")) <= endDate);