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Error while trying to rename files using C#

I have the following code to rename files in the following tree as from 00000001.pdf to the last file with this 8 character left padding, e.g: 00000100.pdf
Folder1
subfolder1
childfolder1
pdffile1
pdffile2
childfolder2
pdffile3
pdffile4
subfolder2
childfolder3
pdffile5
pdffile6
But for some reason in some of those child folders it keeps renaming them with no end.
Some times it just jumps to another number, as if it was an async operation. But if I stop and start again it goes okay until the second next folder, when it messes up again.
But this error only happened within 19 folders.
Indeed their pdf names are different from the others, but I don't see how it is related.
The other files were named something like "DOCUMENT_01" and so on, but these are:
0000000100000001.pdf
0000000200000001.pdf
0000000300000001.pdf
etc
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Digite a pasta 'pai' onde serão buscados pdfs dentro das pastas 'filhas':");
string path = Console.ReadLine();
foreach (string dir in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(path))
{
foreach (string subdir in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(dir))
{
Console.WriteLine($"{dir} - {subdir}");
int n = 1;
foreach (string pdffile in Directory.EnumerateFiles(subdir, "*.pdf", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
Console.WriteLine(n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0') + " " + new FileInfo(pdffile).Length);
File.Move(pdffile, subdir + $"\\{n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
n++;
}
Console.WriteLine("\n\n");
}
}
}
What could be going wrong?
It should await for the File.Move method to end to add the n + 1 and then moving to the next pdffile as a synchronous operation. So why does it jumps numbers after a random time and why it keeps going forever other times?
And just to remember, if I stop the program and start again and put the folder that was messed up as the first one, it goes ok and only when it goes to the next folder, or the folder after next that it start to give me this error again.
Hope that I could make myself clear... Thanks for your attention!
EDIT: will try using FileInfo class to give me the parent folder with the SearchOption.AllDirectories option and exclude this 3 stage loop plus actually working for any kind of tree structure
EDIT2: Tried, worked as a "tree indepent" script but getting the same result with the files name after the first folder... As it's really fast, in 3 seconds it goes from 00000169.pdf to 00006239.pdf in a folder with just 330 items.

As commented already, it is not a good idea to move or rename files “WHILE” the code is enumerating though the list of those files as the posted code appears to do. This will cause obvious problems and you should simply mark the files somehow, then later come back and rename or move them.
More importantly, the big issue related to renaming/moving files is exactly as you describe with your current issue. The problem is that the errors are erratic and not consistent. Making it very difficult to trace. However, the problems you describe are classic trademarks of moving/renaming files while enumerating through those files.
With that said, the best way and easiest way to traverse an unknown number of folder levels given a starting folder is by using recursion. In a lot of cases, recursion can be avoided with some well though out loops, however when we do not know how many levels of folders there are, then, using a simple loop or foreach loop paradigm may be doable, however, you will most likely be adding variables and code that only makes this more complex. This is shown in the current code with the addition of the dir variable to keep track of “when” a different folder is used. Recursion is suited ideally for this situation.
In this case, this recursive method will be called ONCE for each folder and subfolders from a given “starting” folder location. This means that each time this recursive method is called is when a different folder is beginning to be processed. So n would always start at 1 and we do not need to keep track of the current folders path.
So the signature of this method will take a DirectoryFolder object as a “starting” folder. First we create some variables; a FileInfo array pdffiles to hold the pdf files in the given folder; in addition to a DirectoryInfo array foldersInThisFolder to hold all the other folders in this starting folder. Lastly an int n to index the files as the posted code is doing.
Next we get all the pdf files in this “starting” folder. If there are pdf files in this folder, then we loop through those files and process them. Next, we get all the other folders in this “starting” folder. Then start a loop through each folder. For each folder in this collection we will make the recursive call back to this method using the next folder as the “starting” folder, then the whole process continues until the loop through those folders ends.
static void TraverseDirectoryTree(DirectoryInfo startingFolder) {
FileInfo[] pdffiles = null;
DirectoryInfo[] foldersInThisFolder = null;
int n = 1;
Console.WriteLine(startingFolder.FullName);
// get all the pdf files in this folder
try {
pdffiles = startingFolder.GetFiles("*.pdf");
}
catch (Exception e) {
// you may want to catch specific exceptions
// however in this example we do not care what
// the exception is, we will simply ignore this.
// in most cases pdffiles will be null if an exception is thrown
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
if (pdffiles != null) {
foreach (FileInfo pdffile in pdffiles) {
Console.WriteLine(pdffile.FullName + " -> " + n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0') + " " + pdffile.Length);
//File.Move(pdffile.FullName, pdffile.DirectoryName + $"\\{n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
// add file path to a list of files to rename later?
n++;
}
// start over wiith the sub folders in this folder
foldersInThisFolder = startingFolder.GetDirectories();
foreach (DirectoryInfo dirInfo in foldersInThisFolder) {
TraverseDirectoryTree(dirInfo);
}
}
}
Usage…
Console.WriteLine("Type the folder you want to start with:");
string path = Console.ReadLine();
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
TraverseDirectoryTree(di);
Edit… after further testing it appears that what you are wanting to do is simply “rename” the pdf files. As suggested a simple solution is to save the files that we want to rename, then, after we collect the files we want to rename, we simply loop through those files and rename them. This should eliminate any problems by renaming files while enumerating though the files collection.
To help, I created a Dictionary<string, int> called filesToRename. While recursively looping through all the folders, we will add the full path of each pdf file we want to rename as the Key and the int value n as the Value. After the dictionary is filled we would simply loop through it and rename the files.
private static Dictionary<string, int> filesToRename = new Dictionary<string, int>();
Then replace the commented-out line in the recursive method TraverseDirectoryTree…
//File.Move(pdffile.FullName, pdffile.DirectoryName + $"\\{n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
With…
filesToRename.Add(pdffile.FullName, n);
Then after the dictionary is filled we would loop through it and rename the files, something like…
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
TraverseDirectoryTree(di);
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, int> kvp in filesToRename) {
int index = kvp.Key.ToString().LastIndexOf(#"\");
string dir = kvp.Key.ToString().Substring(0, index);
File.Move(kvp.Key, dir + $"\\{kvp.Value.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
}
I am hoping this makes sense…

Answer as Klaus Gütter helped me, I just added .ToList() to the Directory.EnumerateFiles so it made a fixed list first, and then made the foreach for each file
It will rename every pdf within the folder and it's subfolders
Console.WriteLine("Type the folder you want to start with:");
string path = Console.ReadLine();
string dir = "";
int n = 1;
foreach (string pdffile in Directory.EnumerateFiles(path, "*.pdf", SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToList())
{
FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(pdffile);
if (fi.DirectoryName == dir)
{
Console.WriteLine("\t" + n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0'));
File.Move(pdffile, dir + $"\\{n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
n++;
}
else
{
n = 1;
dir = fi.DirectoryName;
Console.WriteLine("\n\n" + dir);
File.Move(pdffile, dir + $"\\{n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0')}.pdf");
Console.WriteLine("\t" + n.ToString().PadLeft(8, '0'));
n++;
}
}

Convert files following the order of a list C#

I need to convert images(like .jpg) to PDF files for an assignment for school. I have a ListBox where I put the pages of the PDF file, so the user can reorder the list and convert the files in that order.
I have the files in a temporary folder in order to get the files there to convert them to PDF.
My problem here is : how do I convert the files with the order that the user had chosen?
I already searched and I tried to do a Class with the strings ID and Name so i get the ID from the item in the ListBox and change it on a new list. And i think after, I do a foreach() loop where I get the files from the temporary folder and merge them in a new PDF file, but to do in the order I want, I think I have to compare the name of the file with the name in the list and, if it matches, convert and add it, if not, pass to the next file.
But I don't know how to do it.
Can please someone help me getting this right?
Thanks in advance!
I'm sending my code to:
//the open files button
private void proc2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
OpenFileDialog dialogo = new OpenFileDialog();
dialogo.Title = "Search files";
dialogo.InitialDirectory = #"E:\";
dialogo.Filter = "Images (.bmp,.jpg,.png,.tiff,.tif) |*.bmp;*.jpg;*.png;*tiff;*tif|All of the files (*.*)|*.*";
DialogResult resposta = dialogo.ShowDialog();
if (resposta == DialogResult.OK)
{
string caminhoCompleto = dialogo.FileName;
caminho2 = dialogo.SafeFileName;
caminhotb2.Text = caminhoCompleto;
string fish = "";
string path = #"C:\temporario";
if(Directory.Exists(path))
{
fish=Path.Combine(path, caminho2);
}
else
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
fish = Path.Combine(path, caminho2);
}
File.Create(fish);
listaimg.Items.Add(caminho2);
}
}
public string[] GetFilesImg4() //jpg files
{
if (!Directory.Exists(#"C:\temporario"))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(#"C:\temporario");
}
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\temporario");
FileInfo[] fileInfos4 = dirInfo.GetFiles("*.jpg");
foreach (FileInfo info in fileInfos4)
{
if (info.Name.IndexOf("protected") == -1)
list4.Add(info.FullName);
}
return (string[])list4.ToArray(typeof(string));
}

If both actions happen in the same process, you can just store the list of file names in memory (and you already do add them to listaimg):
public string[] GetFilesImg4() //jpg files
{
string tempPath = #"C:\temporario";
if (!Directory.Exists(tempPath))
{
foreach (string filename in listimga.Items)
{
if (!filename.Contains("protected"))
list4.Add(Path.Combine(tempPath, filename);
}
}
return (string[])list4.ToArray(typeof(string));
}
if these are different processes then you can just dump content of your listimga at some point and then read it from the same file. In the example below I store it to file named "order.txt" in the same directory, but logic may be more complicated, such as merging several files with a timestamp and such.
// somewhere in after selecting all files
File.WriteAllLines(#"c:\temporario\order.txt", listimga.Items.Select(t=>t.ToString()));
public string[] GetFilesImg4() //jpg files
{
string tempPath = #"C:\temporario";
if (!Directory.Exists(tempPath))
{
var orderedFilenames = File.ReadAllLines(Path.Combine(tempPath, "order.txt")); // list of files loaded in order
foreach (string filename in orderedFilenames)
{
if (!filename.Contains("protected"))
list4.Add(Path.Combine(tempPath, filename);
}
}
return (string[])list4.ToArray(typeof(string));
}
it's also a good idea to examine available method on a class, such as in this case string.IndexOf(s) == -1 is equivalent to !string.Contains(s) and the latter is much more readable at least for an English speaking person.
I also noticed that your users have to select documents one by one, but FileOpen dialogs allow to select multiple files at a time, and I believe it preserves the order of selection as well.
If order of selection is important and file open dialogs don't preserve order or users find it hard to follow you can still use multiple file selection open dialog and then allow to reorder your listimga list box to get the order right.

How to get all the paths of exe in my computer with c#

Yes there any way by which i can get the paths of exe? I mean suppose i have 20 exes in my local disk c i want to get the paths of the exe like "C:\myexe.exe or it can be C:\dir\myexe.exe"
string getpathforexe[] = themethord;
foreach(string printvalue in getpathforexe)
{
messagebox.show(printvalue.tostring());
}
so what will be themethord?

What you essentially need is a safe, recursive, .exe search functions on a root folder, and you can apply it anywhere.
Something like this:
public static List<string> GetAllAccessibleFiles(string path, string searchPattern) {
List<string> dirPathList = new List<string>();
try {
string[] childFilePaths = Directory.GetFiles(path, searchPattern, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);
dirPathList.AddRange(childFilePaths);
foreach (string childDirPath in Directory.GetDirectories(path)) { //foreach child directory, do recursive search
List<string> grandChildDirPath = GetAllAccessibleFiles(childDirPath, searchPattern);
if (grandChildDirPath != null && grandChildDirPath.Count > 0) //this child directory has children and nothing has gone wrong
dirPathList.AddRange(grandChildDirPath); //add the grandchildren to the list
}
return dirPathList; //return the whole list found at this level
} catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex){
//Do something if necessary
return null; //something has gone wrong, return null
}
}
Be careful of a couple of things:
Not all directories are accessible. When you try to access an unaccessible directory, you would get UnauthorizedAccessException
By using recursive search, you want your search result to be failed only on the directory where you have no access right.
Nevertheless, if you apply this to all your folders, likely you will take very long time. It is best to apply it to particular folders which you want to search for .exe files.
Explanations:
In the function, given a path, if first lists the files in the directory top folder:
string[] childFilePaths = Directory.GetFiles(path, searchPattern, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);
dirPathList.AddRange(childFilePaths);
If any of your files matches your search pattern, you add those files. Then next you check each folder consisted in your path directory:
foreach (string childDirPath in Directory.GetDirectories(path)) { //foreach child directory, do recursive search
List<string> grandChildDirPath = GetAllAccessibleFiles(childDirPath, searchPattern);
if (grandChildDirPath != null && grandChildDirPath.Count > 0) //this child directory has children and nothing has gone wrong
dirPathList.AddRange(grandChildDirPath); //add the grandchildren to the list
}
If any of the directory consists of any child folders, do recursive search to the children directories, and add the results together in the dirPathList and finally returns it:
return dirPathList; //return the whole list found at this level
Then you could get all the files with ".exe".
And in the catch, you probably want to check for the unauthorized access Exception:
catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex){
//Do something
return null; //something has gone wrong, return null
}
You use it like this:
List<string> exefiles = YourClassNameWhoHasTheMethod.GetAllAccessibleFiles(testfolder, "*.exe"));
For example, you could test it with Recycle Bin like this:
string rbin = #"C:\$Recycle.Bin";
List<string> files = GetAllAccessibleFiles(rbin, "*.exe");
And these are what I get for the files:
C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3161714743-1342575415-982792061-1001\$IYFMY6V.exe
C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3161714743-1342575415-982792061-1001\$RYFMY6V.exe

How to get list of directories containing particular file using c#

I wish to get list of all the folders/directories that has a particular file in it. How do I do this using C# code.
Eg: Consider I have 20 folders of which 7 of them have a file named "abc.txt". I wish to know all folders that has the file "abc.txt".
I know that we can do this by looking thru all the folders in the path and for each check if the File.Exists(filename); But I wish to know if there is any other way of doing the same rather than looping through all the folder (which may me little time consuming in the case when there are many folders).
Thanks
-Nayan

I would use the method EnumerateFiles of the Directory class with a search pattern and the SearchOption to include AllDirectories. This will return all files (full filename including directory) that match the pattern.
Using the Path class you get the directory of the file.
string rootDirectory = //your root directory;
var foundFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(rootDirectory , "abc.txt", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (var file in foundFiles){
Console.WriteLine(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(file));
}
EnumerateFiles is only available since .NET Framework 4. If you are working with an older version of the .NET Framework then you could use GetFiles of the Directory class.
Update (see comment from PLB):
The code above will fail if the access to a directory in denied. In this case you will need to search each directory one after one to handle exceptions.
public static void SearchFilesRecursivAndPrintOut(string root, string pattern)
{
//Console.WriteLine(root);
try
{
var childDireactory = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root);
var files = Directory.EnumerateFiles(root, pattern);
foreach (var file in files)
{
Console.WriteLine(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(file));
}
foreach (var dir in childDireactory)
{
SearchRecursiv(dir, pattern);
}
}
catch (Exception exception)
{
Console.WriteLine(exception);
}
}

The following shows how to narrow down your search by specific criteria (i.e. include only DLLs that contain "Microsoft", "IBM" or "nHibernate" in its name).
var filez = Directory.EnumerateFiles(#"c:\MLBWRT", "*.dll", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Where(
s => s.ToLower().Contains("microsoft")
&& s.ToLower().Contains("ibm")
&& s.ToLower().Contains("nhibernate"));
string[] allFiles = filez.ToArray<string>();
for (int i = 0; i < allFiles.Length; i++) {
FileInfo fInfo = new FileInfo(allFiles[i]);
Console.WriteLine(fInfo.Name);
}

Rename image files on server directory

I need some help in renaming some images in a directory located at /images/graphicsLib/.
All image names in /graphicsLib/ have naming convention that looks like this:
400-60947.jpg. We call the "400" part of the file the prefix and we call the "60957" part the suffix. The entire file name we call the sku.
So if you saw the contents of /graphicLib/ it would look like:
400-60957.jpg
400-60960.jpg
400-60967.jpg
400-60968.jpg
402-60988.jpg
402-60700.jpg
500-60725.jpg
500-60733.jpg
etc...
Using C# & System.IO , what is an acceptable way to rename all image files base on the prefix of the file name? Users need to be able to enter in the current prefix, see all images in the /graphicsLib/ that match, then enter in the new prefix to have all those files renamed with the new prefix. Only the prefix of the file gets renamed, the rest of the file name needs to be unchanged.
What I have so far is:
//enter in current prefix to see what images will be affected by
// the rename process,
// bind results to a bulleted list.
// Also there is a textbox called oldSkuTextBox and button
// called searchButton in .aspx
private void searchButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string skuPrefix = oldSkuTextBox.Text;
string pathToFiles = "e:\\sites\\oursite\\siteroot\\images\graphicsLib\\";
string searchPattern = skuPrefix + "*";
skuBulletedList.DataSource = Directory.GetFiles(pathToFiles, searchPattern);
skuBulletedList.DataBind();
}
//enter in new prefix for the file rename
//there is a textbox called newSkuTextBox and
//button called newSkuButton in .aspx
private void newSkuButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Should I loop through the Items in my List,
// or loop through the files found in the /graphicsLib/ directory?
//assuming a loop through the list:
foreach(ListItem imageFile in skuBulletedList.Items)
{
string newPrefix = newSkuTextBox.Text;
//need to do a string split here?
//Then concatenate the new prefix with the split
//of the string that will remain changed?
}
}

You could look at string.Split.
Loop over all files in your directory.
string[] fileParts = oldFileName.Split('-');
This will give you an array of two strings:
fileParts[0] -> "400"
fileParts[1] -> "60957.jpg"
using the first name in your list.
Your new filename then becomes:
if (fileParts[0].Equals(oldPrefix))
{
newFileName = string.Format("(0)-(1)", newPrefix, fileParts[1]);
}
Then to rename the file:
File.Move(oldFileName, newFileName);
To loop over the files in the directory:
foreach (string oldFileName in Directory.GetFiles(pathToFiles, searchPattern))
{
// Rename logic
}

Actually you should iterate each of the files in the directory and rename one by one
To determine the new file name, you may use something like:
String newFileName = Regex.Replace("400-60957.jpg", #"^(\d)+\-(\d)+", x=> "NewPrefix" + "-" + x.Groups[2].Value);
To rename the file, you may use something like:
File.Move(oldFileName, newFileName);
If you are not familiar with regular expressions, you should check:
http://www.radsoftware.com.au/articles/regexlearnsyntax.aspx
And download this software to pratice:
http://www.radsoftware.com.au/regexdesigner/