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C# get Files from directory with specific CreationTime

i am writing a short code to move files from one directory to another. My code is simple, working fine and looks like this:
public void copy()
{
string sourcePath = #"/Users/philip/Desktop/start";
string destinationPath = #"/Users/philip/Desktop/Ziel";
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(sourcePath)
foreach (string s in files)
{
string fileName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(s);
string destFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(destinationPath, fileName);
System.IO.File.Copy(s, destFile, true);
}
}
The Programm gets all files from the sourcepath and combines the targetpath in the foreach loop vor every file, containing of target path and filename. Then it moves it. Everything works fine.
My aim is now, not to store all files from my directory into the string array. I only want to get the files that have CreationTime after 01.07.2021. Is there an easy and quick way to do it?
I already used this to get the files, but it specifies a singular date and not all files after a specific date:
var files = Directory.GetFiles(sourcePath).Where(x => new FileInfo(x).CreationTime.Date == DateTime.Today.Date);
I would be glad if you could help me out.
Best regards,
Liam

If you want to avoid having to check the creation date on every single FileInfo you can order your files. Like so:
var directory = new DirectoryInfo(sourcePath);
var fileInfos = directory.GetFiles().OrderByDescending(fileInfo => fileInfo.CreationDate);
var result = new List<FileInfo>();
foreach (var fileInfo in fileInfos)
{
if (fileInfo.CreationDate >= DateTime.Today)
result.Add(fileInfo);
else
break; // We can break early, because we ordered our dates descending
// meaning every date after this one is smaller
}
This has upsides and downsides, ordering a huge collection of files could take longer than "just" simply iterating over all and comparing the dates, but you'll need to benchmark it on your own

You could use FileInfo
FileInfo fileInfo = new(s);
if (fileInfo.CreationTime >= DateTime.Parse("01/07/2021"))
{
...
}

How to Remove Directories From EnumerateFiles?

So I'm working on a program that will list all the files in a directory. Pretty simple. Basically, when I do this: List<string> dirs = new List<string>(Directory.EnumerateFiles(target));, I don't want it to include the directory and all. Just the file name. When I run my code;
List<string> dirs = new List<string>(Directory.EnumerateFiles(target));
Console.WriteLine($"Folders and files in this directory:\n");
foreach (string i in dirs) {
Console.WriteLine($"> {i}");
}
it gives me the following:
C:\Users\Camden\Desktop\Programming\Visual Studio\C#\DirectoryManager\DirectoryManager\bin\Debug\DirectoryManager.exe
I just want the DirectoryManager.exe part, so I looked it up and I found that you can replace strings inside of strings. Like so: i.Replace(target, "");. However, this isn't doing anything, and it's just running like normal. Why isn't it replacing, and how should I instead do this?

Use methods from the System.IO.Path class.
var fullfile = #"C:\Users\Camden\Desktop\Programming\Visual Studio\C#\DirectoryManager\DirectoryManager\bin\Debug\DirectoryManager.exe";
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(fullfile); // DirectoryManager.exe
var name = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fullfile); // DirectoryManager

The simplest way is to use the Select IEnumerable extension
(you need to have a using Linq; at the top of your source code file)
List<string> files = new List<string>(Directory.EnumerateFiles(target)
.Select(x => Path.GetFileName(x)));
In this way the sequence of files retrieved by Directory.EnumerateFiles is passed, one by one, to the Select method where each fullfile name (x) is passed to Path.GetFileName to produce a new sequence of just filenames.
This sequence is then returned as a parameter to the List constructor.
And about your question on the Replace method. Remember that the Replace method doesn't change the string that you use to call the method, but returns a new string with the replacement executed. In NET strings are immutable.
So if you want to look at the replacement you need
string justFileName = i.Replace(target, "");

An alternative to using Directory.EnumerateFiles, would be DirectoryInfo.EnumerateFiles. This method returns an IEnumerable<FileInfo>. You can then make use of the FileInfo.Name property of each of the returned objects. Your code would then become:
var files = new DirectoryInfo(target).EnumerateFiles();
Console.WriteLine("Files in this directory:\n");
foreach (FileInfo i in files) {
Console.WriteLine($"> {i.Name}");
}
For just the list of file names:
List<string> fileNames = new DirectoryInfo(target).EnumerateFiles().Select(f => f.Name).ToList();
Alternatively, if you want both files and directories, you can use EnumerateFileSystemInfos. If you need to know if you have a file vs a directory you can query the Attributes property and compare it to the FileAttributes flags enumeration.
var dirsAndFiles = new DirectoryInfo(target).EnumerateFileSystemInfos();
Console.WriteLine("Folders and files in this directory:\n");
foreach (var i in dirsAndFiles) {
var type = (i.Attributes & FileAttributes.Directory) == FileAttributes.Directory ? "Directory" : "File";
Console.WriteLine($"{type} > {i.Name}");
}
The FileSystemInfo.Name property will return either the file's name (in case of a file) or the last directory in the hierarchy (for a directory)--so just the subdirectory name and not the full path ("sub" instead of "c:\sub").

how to convert FileInfo object to string

i am picking txt files from a folder in that i am ordering those file according to their respective modify date after ordering these files i've to read contents of each one by one. what will be the possible solution for this. cause i am not able convert FileInfo object to string following is the snippet.
in output : i want all files sorted according to modified date and want to read it one by one.
thanks
string sourcePath = #"C:\sample\*.log";
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourcePath);
FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles(sourcePath).OrderBy(order => order.LastWriteTime).ToArray();
foreach (var item in files)
{
listBox1.items.Add(item)
}

Use File.ReadAllText and FileInfo.FullName property to get the path :
listBox1.items.Add(File.ReadAllText(item.FullName));
If you are only looking to get FileName of the file then use FileInfo.Name property like:
listBox1.items.Add(item.Name);
If you are looking to get file path then use FileInfo.FullName like:
listBox1.items.Add(item.FullName);

use the method File.ReadAllText to read each file.
string sourcePath = #"C:\sample\*.log";
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourcePath);
FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles(sourcePath).OrderBy(order => order.LastWriteTime).ToArray();
foreach (var item in files)
{
string filecontent = File.ReadAllText(item.FullName);
//do your job here
......
listBox1.items.Add(item.Name);
}

How to convert FileInfo into FileInfo[]

I have been working on a program that requires a different approach to finish a job using try and catch nested within another try/catch.
For this purpose I have had to create a set of files as strings and then converted them to FileInfo.
IEnumerable<string> paths = null;
foreach (String fil in paths)
FileInfo h = new FileInfo(fil);
So That wasn't so difficult, I require FileInfo to be in the form of a FileInfo[] array to continue the program however.
System.IO.FileInfo[] files = null;
Simply put, what is the best method to convert one type to the other, either directly from the string of from the converted FileInfo into a FileInfo array (FileInfo[])?

Yeah or create a single-item array:
FileInfo[] files = new FileInfo[] { info };

Why not directly?
paths.Select(p => new FileInfo(p)).ToArray();

Use:
var result = paths.Select(p => new FileInfo(p)).ToArray();

You could just use Linq select to create your FileInfo[]
IEnumerable<string> paths = null; // assuming you are going to fill this with filenames
FileInfo[] fileInfos = paths.Select(p => new FileInfo(p)).ToArray();

Get file name with system IO

I'm working on a C# script that has to access a random file during runtime, the problem is that the files are being generated on the fly by another source and I have no means of knowing their names, I have solved a first issue which is to get how many files there are in my working directory:
s = #"C:\Imagenes";
System.IO.DirectoryInfo d = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(s);
int files;
files = d.GetFiles().Length;
Debug.Log(files.ToString());
return files;
Now I would like to acces a random element in my working dicrectory, but since I don't have a clue what their names are, is there a way to get their names by index or something?

DirectoryInfo.GetFiles will give you array of fileInfo objects. From that you can get the file name using FileInfo.Name

You need to use the FileInfo objects that are returned by d.GetFiles():
DirectoryInfo d = new DirectoryInfo("c:\\path");
foreach (FileInfo file in d.GetFiles())
{
string name = file.Name;
}

try
FileInfo[] fileinfos = d.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo FI in fileinfos)
{
string fullname = FI.FullName;
string name = FI.Name;
// do someting...
}
see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4cyf24ss.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.fileinfo.aspx

Not sure why you want a random file, but this should work (except files get deleted during calculation of length and getting a rondom one)
int length = d.GetFiles().Length;
Random rnd = new Random();
var randomFile = d.GetFiles().ElementAt(rnd.Next(0, length-1);