Question

What would be the fastest way to search for a file programtically in C#. I know the relative location of the file, lets say its "abcd\efgh\test.txt". I also know that this file is on my E:\ drive. “abcd” is a subdirectory on some directory in E:\ drive.

Thanks

Answer 1

Since you know the root directory you want to search and a string pattern for a filename, you can create a DirectoryInfo with the root directory:

DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"E:\");

And then call GetFiles() to get all the matches. Passing SearchOption.AllDirectories will ensure the search is recursive.

List<FileInfo> matches = 
    new List<FileInfo>(dir.GetFiles(partialFilename, 
        SearchOption.AllDirectories));

Or if you know part of the path (instead of the filename):

List<DirectoryInfo> matches =
    new List<DirectoryInfo>(dir.GetDirectories(partialDirectoryName,
        SearchOption.AllDirectories));

And then you can navigate to the file from there.