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How to make program read every folder inside the directory and every file inside each folder

I am trying to create a program that reads the folders inside the main directory and for each folder read each file (PDF) then move on to the next folder.
The code below is where i declare strings and start with a foreach statement.
string input_Path = #"C:\Users\username\Desktop\testinp\";
string output_Path = #"C:\Users\username\Desktop\testinp\output\";
string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(input_Path, "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(input_Path, "*.pdf");
foreach (string dir in dirs)
{
string dirName = dir;
}

Here is a complete explanation of how to do it along with code examples. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/file-system/how-to-iterate-through-a-directory-tree

Accessing files within child directories

I am trying to access the files in the images directory that lies within another directory but when I run my code it doesn't print out anything:
string path = #"C:\Path";
DirectoryInfo DFolder = new DirectoryInfo(path);
Collection cDetails = new Collection(DFolder);
string DFPath = DFolder.Name;
DirectoryInfo imDetails = new DirectoryInfo(imPath);
// Get Desired Directories
List<string> directoryFilter = new List<string> {"images", "videos", "RAW"};
List<DirectoryInfo> directoryList = DFolder
.GetDirectories("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Where(x => directoryFilter.Contains(x.Name.ToLower()))
.ToList();
string dpath = directoryList.ToString();
foreach (DirectoryInfo record in directoryList)
{
foreach (FileInfo file in record.GetFiles(#"*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
{
Console.WriteLine(file); //It compiles but doesn't print anything on the console
}
}

Note: This isn't really an answer, so I'll delete it shortly, but wanted to give some sample code to test with in case it helps.
Your code works fine for me, so it seems that the problem is that either the directories don't exist, or they don't contain any files.
Here's a test program you can run which creates a bunch of directories under c:\temp, some of which have the names we care about. The names we care about are also found at different levels of depth in the path, yet they are all discovered:
static void CreateTestPathsAndFiles()
{
// Paths to create for testing. We will put a file in each directory below,
// but our search code should only print the file paths of those files that
// are directly contained in one of our specially-named folders
var testPaths = new List<string>
{
#"c:\temp\dummy1",
#"c:\temp\dummy1\raw", // This should print
#"c:\temp\dummy2",
#"c:\temp\dummy2\extra",
#"c:\temp\dummy3",
#"c:\temp\dummy3\dummy31",
#"c:\temp\dummy3\dummy32\raw", // This should print
#"c:\temp\extra",
#"c:\temp\images", // This should print
#"c:\temp\notUsed",
#"c:\temp\notUsed\videos", // This should print
#"c:\temp\raw", // This should print
#"c:\temp\videos\dummy1",
};
// Just something to make a unique file name
int fileId = 0;
// for testing, ensure that the directories exist and contain some files
foreach(var testPath in testPaths)
{
// Create the directory
Directory.CreateDirectory(testPath);
// Add a file to it
File.CreateText(Path.Combine(testPath, $"TempFile{fileId}.txt"))
.Write($"Dummy text in file {fileId}");
// Increment our file counter
fileId++;
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create our paths and files for testing
CreateTestPathsAndFiles();
// Now set our root directory, search for all folders matching our
// special folder names, and print out the files contained in them
var path = #"C:\Temp";
var directoryFilter = new List<string> {"images", "videos", "raw"};
// Get ALL sub-directories under 'path' whose name is in directoryFilter
var subDirectories = new DirectoryInfo(path)
.GetDirectories("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Where(x => directoryFilter.Contains(x.Name.ToLower()));
foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in subDirectories)
{
foreach (FileInfo file in subDir.GetFiles(#"*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
{
// We're using the FullName so we see the whole file path in the output
Console.WriteLine(file.FullName);
}
}
GetKeyFromUser("\nDone! Press any key to exit...");
}
Output
Note that the 5 files we expected to find are listed, but no others:

foreach (FileInfo file in record.GetFiles(#"*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
{
Console.WriteLine(file); //It compiles but doesn't print anything on the console
}
SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly will only search files in C://Path/images but not its subfolders.
a possible fix for this is to simply change your 2nd foreach loop to look like this:
foreach (FileInfo file in record.GetFiles(#"*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
Console.WriteLine(file); //It compiles but doesn't print anything on the console
}
Edit:
Using SearchOption.AllDirectories as parameter is supposed to catch all cases of subfolders within your subfolder e.g. something like C://images//dir//somefile.txt instead of only taking the files within the topdirectory(in this case C://images). Which is(as i understood your question) exactly the kind of behaviour you were looking for.
Full code:
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Directory Info
string path = #"C:\Path";
DirectoryInfo DFolder = new DirectoryInfo(path);
string DFPath = DFolder.Name;
// Get Desired Directories
List<string> directoryFilter = new List<string> { "images", "videos", "raw" };
List<DirectoryInfo> directoryList = DFolder.GetDirectories("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).Where(x => directoryFilter.Contains(x.Name.ToLower())).ToList();
string dpath = directoryList.ToString();
foreach (DirectoryInfo record in directoryList)
{
foreach (FileInfo file in record.GetFiles(#"*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)) //searches directory record and its subdirectories
{
Console.WriteLine(file);
}
}
}
Final Edit: Sample output given the following structure:
C://Path//images//images.somefile.txt
C://Path//images//temp//images.temp.somefile.txt
C://Path//raw//raw.somefile.txt
C://Path//vidoes//videos.somefile.txt

delete a folder and its content

I just followed this tutorial to delete a folder and its content
public ActionResult Product_Delete()
{
string idnumber = "07";
string path1 = #"~/Content/Essential_Folder/attachments_AR/" + idnumber;
DirectoryInfo attachments_AR = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath(path1));
EmptyFolder(attachments_AR);
Directory.Delete(path1);
....
}
private void EmptyFolder(DirectoryInfo directory)
{
foreach (FileInfo file in directory.GetFiles())
{
file.Delete();
}
foreach (DirectoryInfo subdirectory in directory.GetDirectories())
{
EmptyFolder(subdirectory);
subdirectory.Delete();
}
}
But using this its deleting all the contnet in 07 folder, but its not deleting the 07 folder finally.
I'm getting error in this line Directory.Delete(path1);
Once I debug I can see run time error with below message
Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS
Express\~\Content\Essential_Folder\attachments_AR\07'.
but path1 value is ~/Content/Essential_Folder/attachments_AR/07

The reason is that Directory.Delete cannot recognize ~ in the path.
You need to convert it to an absolute path using Server.MapPath() like you did it here:
DirectoryInfo attachments_AR = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath(path1));
You may also want to convert it once, and use in both methods:
public ActionResult Product_Delete()
{
string idnumber = "07";
string mappedPath1 = Server.MapPath(#"~/Content/Essential_Folder/attachments_AR/" + idnumber);
DirectoryInfo attachments_AR = new DirectoryInfo(mappedPath1));
EmptyFolder(attachments_AR);
Directory.Delete(mappedPath1);
....
}
By the way, there is absolutely no need to remove files manually. You can use
public ActionResult Product_Delete()
{
string idnumber = "07";
string mappedPath = Server.MapPath(#"~/Content/Essential_Folder/attachments_AR/" + idnumber);
Directory.Delete(mappedPath, true);
}
which will remove all folders, subfolders and files recursively, and then will remove directory itself.

you cannot delete a directory by giving its physical path. from a web application using Directory.Delete(), so you have to convert it into absolute path by using Server.MapPath()
Use : Directory.Delete(Server.MapPath(path1));
Or you can use Like the following without using EmptyFolder() method :
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath(path1));
dir.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToList().ForEach(file=>file.Delete());
// will delete all files in the folder and its sub folder
//so you don't need to iterate each sub folder and files in it
Directory.Delete(Server.MapPath(path1));

you should delete the directly using full path instead of relative path. Try with
Directory.Delete(attachments_AR.FullName);

Just take separate path of the folder in variable and pass this variable in Directory.Delete(.) Like :
var path = Server.MapPath(#"~/Test");
DirectoryInfo attachments_AR = new DirectoryInfo(path);
Directory.Delete(path);

Why don't you use method from Directory class (MSDN documentation):
public static void Delete(
string path,
bool recursive
)
Your code will be cleaner and simplier but much more important is that when building path manually you can achive path long limit. I get issue like this and solution was use this method.

Here is a solution what I did and it is deleting the root folder too:
public ActionResult Product_Delete()
{
string idnumber = "07";
string path1 = #"~/Content/Essential_Folder/attachments_AR/" + idnumber;
DirectoryInfo attachments_AR = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath(path1));
EmptyFolder(attachments_AR);
if (attachments_AR.Exists && IsDirectoryEmpty(attachments_AR.FullName))
attachments_AR.Delete();
}
private static void EmptyFolder(DirectoryInfo directory)
{
foreach (FileInfo file in directory.GetFiles())
{
file.Delete();
}
foreach (DirectoryInfo subdirectory in directory.GetDirectories())
{
EmptyFolder(subdirectory);
subdirectory.Delete();
}
}
public static bool IsDirectoryEmpty(string path)
{
return !Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries(path).Any();
}

How to get approximate file path?

I have a list file path as follow:
C:\Data\Default.aspx
C:\Data\Global.asax
C:\Data\Web.config
C:\Data\bin\PerlsComWebProject1.dll
C:\Data\bin\PerlsComWebProject1.pdb
I have a method to get file from folder path, however I want to print result as below:
Data\Default
Data\Global
Data\Web.config
Data\bin\PerlsComWebProject1
Data\bin\PerlsComWebProject1
Call: GetFilePathWithOutExtention(#"C:\\Data");
My code is only return file without an extension.
void GetFilePathWithOutExtention(string path)
{
string[] paths = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach(var path in paths)
{
Console.WriteLine(Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(path));
}
}
Update: Thanks for your comments. "C:\Data\" is only a sample, sorry so make you confused. Actual, I have a any folder, I want to search this folder, get approximate path: this folder...\filename with out extention.
Ex: I have a path as follow: D:\EHO\Phase1\Data\Document\text.txt,....when I call method: GetFilePathWithOutExtention("D:\EHO\Phase1"), I want to output: Phase1\Data\Document\text, or GetFilePathWithOutExtention("D:\EHO\Phase1\Data"), output: Data\Document\text.
Thanks.

I think what you're looking for is Uri.MakeRelativeUri
So you could do something like this:
var folder = new Uri(#"C:\Data");
var paths = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(folder.LocalPath, "*.*", System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (var uri in paths.Select(p => new Uri(p)))
{
Console.WriteLine(folder.MakeRelativeUri(uri).ToString());
}
This prints
Data/Default.aspx
Data/Global.asax
Data/Web.config
Data/bin/PerlsComWebProject1.dll
Data/bin/PerlsComWebProject1.pdb

A generic answer, valid for all folders inside the machine drives, not only 1st level:
void GetFilePathWithOutExtention(string path)
{
// Get the name of the folder containing your path (for further remove in the items folder)
string parentFolderName = Directory.GetParent(path).FullName;
string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach(string fileItemPath in filePaths)
{
// Get the current folder without the initial folder path
string currentItemPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(fileItemPath).Remove(0, parentFolderName.Length);
Console.WriteLine(Path.Combine(currentItemPath, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileItemPath)));
}
}

you can just Show from the 4th char
void GetFilePathWithOutExtention(string path)
{
string[] filesName = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach(var fileName in filesName)
{
string pathToWrite = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName);
if(pathToWrite != null && pathToWrite.length >3 )
Console.WriteLine(pathToWrite.Substring(3,pathToWrite.length);
}
}

C# How to loop through the source folder or subfolders that match the destination

I need to overwrite files from a source to a destination directory.
The structure of each folder is different so i'm trying to do it in a generic way.
The thing is, each folder (source and destination) could have numerous subdirectories or none at all.
The code I currently have is this:
//copy and overwrite the files depending on whatever is in the destination
//search through the destination to find the file
foreach (var dstfile in Directory.GetFiles(targetDir))
{
//search through the source to find the matching file
foreach (var srcfile in Directory.GetFiles(sourceDir))
{
//cut off the source file from the source path
strSrcFile = srcfile.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last();
strDstFile = dstfile.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last();
//if the destination and source files match up, replace the desination with the source
if (strSrcFile == strDstFile)
{
File.Copy(srcfile, Path.Combine(targetDir, Path.GetFileName(strSrcFile)), true);
}
}
}
//look through the subfolders to see if any files match up
foreach (var srcFolder in Directory.GetDirectories(sourceDir))
{
//search through the source for the files
foreach (var srcFile in Directory.GetFiles(srcFolder))
{
//search through the destination for the files
foreach (var dstFile in Directory.GetFiles(targetDir))
{
As you can see there are a lot of foreach loops, is there a way to streamline this?

Make a hash (dictionary) of the destination directory, then walk the source directory and see if the files already exist.
Dictionary<string,string> lut1 = new Dictionary<string,string>();
foreach (var dstfile in Directory.GetFiles(targetDir))
{
strDstFile = dstfile.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last();
lut1 [strDstFile ] = dstfile;
}
foreach (var srcfile in Directory.GetFiles(sourceDir))
{
strSrcFile = srcfile.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last();
string dstfile;
if (lut1.TryGetValue(strSrcFile, out dstfile)) {
File.Copy( srcfile,dstfile,true);
}
}

I haven't tested this but this should work (Not 100% efficient), Should give you some pointers at least
public void UpdateFiles(string directory, string otherDir)
{
var dirFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(directory, "*",
SearchOption.AllDirectories);
var otherDirFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(otherDir, "*",
SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (var file in dirFiles)
{
string fi = Path.GetFileName(file);
var newFile = otherDirFiles.Where(x => fi == Path.GetFileName(x));
foreach(var foundFile in newFile)
File.Copy(file , foundFile, true);
}
}

I just did it this way in a console app... tested it to work for main target folder and sub folders, although probably not the most efficient.
Call this:
OperateOnSourceFiles(sourceDir, targetDir);
Which will check the current files in the source, and then recursively look through all source subdirectories.
private static void OperateOnSourceFiles(string source, string targetDir)
{
//Processes current source folder files
foreach (var file in Directory.GetFiles(source))
{
OverWrite(targetDir, file);
}
//Recursively processes files in source subfolders
List<string> subfolders = Directory.GetDirectories(source).ToList();
foreach (var subfolder in subfolders)
{
OperateOnSourceFiles(subfolder, targetDir);
}
}
Then your overwrite function could look something like this:
private static void OverWrite(string target, string sourcefile)
{
//Grab file name
var strSrcFile = sourcefile.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last();
//Search current target directory FILES, and copy only if same file name
List<string> targetfiles = Directory.GetFiles(target).Select(file=>file.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last()).ToList();
if (targetfiles.Contains(strSrcFile))
{
File.Copy(sourcefile, Path.Combine(target, Path.GetFileName(strSrcFile)), true);
}
//Recursively search current target directory SUBFOLDERS if any
List<string> subfolders = Directory.GetDirectories(target).ToList();
foreach (var subfolder in subfolders)
{
OverWrite(subfolder, sourcefile);
}
}
Feel free to correct me :)
Note: I realize it's still quite a lot of foreach loops, but at least they aren't nested, and makes life easier when debugging.

I liked the idea, so I tried this myself. Turned out a bit more complicated then I thought it would. Let's go into a deep dive, okay?
The basic idea is to synchronize directories, so we want references to DirectoryInfo instances.
var source = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\SynchSource");
var target = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\SynchTarget");
Synchronize(source, target);
Synchronize pretty much works in the following manner:
make sure all files are identical
make sure all directories are identical
go through all subdirectories and traverse
My implementation looks like this:
void Synchronize(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
SynchronizeFiles(sourceDir, targetDir);
SynchronizeDirectories(sourceDir, targetDir);
TraverseDirectories(sourceDir, targetDir);
}
Note the .Single() - we can never assume there is just one person/process working in the directories.
SynchronizeFiles does two things:
Copy/overwrite all files in the current directory into the target directory.
Remove redundant files that no more exist in the source directory
void MoveFiles(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
foreach (FileInfo sourceFile in sourceDir.GetFiles())
{
string targetFilePath = Path.Combine(targetDir.FullName, sourceFile.Name);
File.Copy(sourceFile.FullName, targetFilePath);
}
}
void RemoveRedundantFiles(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
foreach (var targetFile in targetDir.GetFiles())
{
var sourceFilePath = Path.Combine(sourceDir.FullName, targetFile.Name);
if (!File.Exists(sourceFilePath))
{
targetFile.Delete();
}
}
}
We can now assume all files in the current directory are the same, no more and no less. In order to traverse through the subdirectories, we first have to make sure the directory structure is the same. We do it in a similar manner to SynchronizeFiles:
Create missing directories in the target directory (CreateMissingDirectories)
Remove redundant directories that no more exist in the source directory (RemoveRedundantDirectories)
void CreateMissingDirectories(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo sourceSubDir in sourceDir.GetDirectories())
{
string targetSubDirPath = Path.Combine(targetDir.FullName, sourceSubDir.Name);
if (!Directory.Exists(targetSubDirPath))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(targetSubDirPath);
}
}
}
void RemoveRedundantDirectories(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo targetSubDir in targetDir.GetDirectories())
{
string sourceSubDirPath = Path.Combine(sourceDir.FullName, targetSubDir.Name);
if (!Directory.Exists(sourceSubDirPath))
{
targetSubDir.Delete(true);
}
}
}
We are at the state that files and directories in the current level of hierarchy equal. We can now iterate through all subdirectories and call Synchronize:
void TraverseDirectories(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo targetDir)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo sourceSubDir in sourceDir.GetDirectories())
{
DirectoryInfo targetSubDir = targetDir.GetDirectories(sourceSubDir.Name).Single();
Synchronize(sourceSubDir, targetSubDir);
}
}
And we are done.
For huge directory hierarchies, a big amount or large files or even concurrent processes working in the directory, there is much room for improvement. There is a lot of work to do for it to be fast (you may want to cache GetFiles / GetDirectories), skip unnecessary File.Copy calls (get a file hash before assuming a copy is needed).
Just as a side note: Other than synchronizing files every now and then, depending on the requirement, you may want to have a look at FileSystemWatcher, which can detect all changes recursively in a selected directory.