Question

I’m developing a winform application that will search for a string in the filenames of a specified source directory.. The problem is I need to access the file ..

Example: The search result is a .flv or .swf — When the search is finished .. the result should be accessible.

This is what I have so far ..

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            txtOutput.Text = "";

            foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles("C:\\Users\\John\\Desktop\\Sample"))
                if (Path.GetFileName(file).Contains(txtSearch.Text))
                    txtOutput.Text += txtOutput.Text + file + ", ";
        }

With this code I was able to search the file but it is not accessible .. also the output of the search came with the path of the file .. ( something like this c:\users\John\desktop\sample\Filename.swf ) I need a file name only, not the whole path..

I’m using a Multiline Textbox for the output, should I use something else? .. If you have a better suggestion please help me.

Answer 1

If you are looking for files with certain extension, then use search pattern of EnumerateFiles or Directory.GetFiles methods. Also use Path.GetFileName to get file name from file path:

var path = "C:\\Users\\John\\Desktop\\Sample";
txtOutput.Text = String.Join(", ", Directory.GetFiles(path, "*" + txtSearch.Text)
                                            .Select(f => Path.GetFileName(f));

Your txtSearch.Text suppose to have extension of searched files (i.e. .swf or .flv). Thus search pattern will be *.swf or *.flv.

So, if your search textbox has text .swf and there are two sfw files in your sample directory, then you will get output as file1.swf, file2.swf.

---

If you want to search any substring in file name:

var path = "C:\\Users\\John\\Desktop\\Sample";
txtOutput.Text = 
     String.Join(", ", Directory.GetFiles(path, "*" + txtSearch.Text + "*")
                                .Select(f => Path.GetFileName(f)));

And instead of multiline textbox, use listbox for displaying files:

listBox1.DataSource = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*" + txtSearch.Text + "*")
                               .Select(f => Path.GetFileName(f))
                               .ToList();

UPDATE: opening files

private void listBox1_DoubleClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var fileName = listBox1.SelectedItem as string;
    if (fileName != null)
    {
        var path = Path.Combine("C:\\Users\\John\\Desktop\\Sample", fileName);
        Process.Start(path);
    }
}