searching subdirectories

• • Reply

  13 years ago

  by mhastings

  mitchell hastings

  , United States

  Joined 13 years ago

     I'm running into a brick wall with this one.  scenario,  I have a large set of folders with a large number of pdf files contained within.  I can predict the name of the file but I don't know where it is in the subdirectory.  The end goal is for the server to find the file based on the name, and a starting directory path, then display that file in the adobe active x plug in the browser.   I can get it to work if I move all the pdf files into one large file, but then I run into an issue with some files having the same name which I've solved by appending a letter to the end of the name and using vbTextCompare to find all the similar files.  that works fine, but I don't want to have to duplicate all that data just for a search. 

  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

  thanks

  Report abuse
• • Reply

  13 years ago

  by myoungbl

  Marshall C Youngblood

  Mississippi, United States

  Joined 13 years ago

  This isn't tested, but is based on my post on recursively deleting all files and subfolder for a given path:

  http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/forums/thread/151330/

  I modified it to return a path to the file if found, or and empty string if not found.

  Private Function FindInSubFolder(ByVal StartPath As String, ByVal FileToFind As String) As String

     Dim myfolder As DirectoryInfo = New DirectoryInfo(StartPath)
     
  Dim mySubfolders() As DirectoryInfo = myfolder.GetDirectories()
  
     Dim strFiles() As FileInfo = myfolder.GetFiles()
  
     Dim strFoundFileName As String = ""
  
  
  
     FindInSubFolder = ""
  
  
  
     For Each myItem As FileInfo In strFiles
  
        If myItem.Name = FileToFind Then
  
           FindInSubFolder = myItem.FullName
           
  Exit Function
  
        End If
  
     Next

     'this point is reached when the file isn't found in the current folder.

     For Each myItem As DirectoryInfo In mySubfolders
  
        'recursivly search each subfolder
  
        strFoundFileName = FindInSubFolder(myItem.FullName, FileToFind)
  
        If strFoundFileName.Length > 0 Then
  
           FindInSubFolder = strFoundFileName
  
           Exit Function
  
        End If
  
     Next
  
  
  
     MsgBox("File Not Found")
  
  
  End
  Function

  However there is also the filesystem.getfiles method that will return a readonly collection of file names from the current folder and all subfolders matching the file pattern you supply. That method would return all occurances of a file, including multiple file pathnames if it exist in more than one folder by the same name. See this:

  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t71ykwhb(VS.80).aspx

  Hope this helps!

  Report abuse