SearchOption.AllDirectories not working

Per

I'm a beginner and I'm trying to step through all files in a directory and its subdirectorys. I have this:

Imports System
Imports System.IO

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
   For Each filePath As String In IO.Directory.GetFiles("C:\test", "*.*", IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories) '
      MsgBox(filePath)
   Next filePath
End Sub

But I get the error message 'SearchOption' is not a member of 'IO'

What to do?

3 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Niradhip Chakraborty18y ago
check out the vb code:
1. #Region "GetFiles (string Path)"
2. '''
  
  ''' Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories
  '''
3. Public Shared Function GetFiles(ByVal path As String) As String()
4. Dim files As New ArrayList()
5. getFiles(path, files)
7. Return DirectCast(files.ToArray(GetType(String)), String())
8. End Function
9. Private Shared Sub getFiles(ByVal path As String, ByRef files As ArrayList)
10. Try
11. Dim folders As String() = Directory.GetDirectories(path)
12. For i As Integer = 0 To folders.Length - 1
13. getFiles(folders(i), files)
14. Next
17. Dim curFiles As String() = Directory.GetFiles(path)
18. files.AddRange(curFiles)
19. Catch
20. End Try
21. End Sub
22. #End Region
24. #Region "GetFiles (string path, string[] searchPatterns, bool includeSubFolders) +1 overload"
25. '''
  
  ''' Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories.
  '''
26. ''' search patterns (ie, "*.exe")
27. Public Shared Function GetFiles(ByVal path As String, ByVal searchPatterns As String(), ByVal includeSubFolders As Boolean) As String()
28. Dim files As New ArrayList()
29. If includeSubFolders Then
30. getFiles(path, searchPatterns, files)
31. Else
32. Try
33. For i As Integer = 0 To searchPatterns.Length - 1
34. Dim curFiles As String() = Directory.GetFiles(path, searchPatterns(i))
35. files.AddRange(curFiles)
36. Next
37. Catch
38. End Try
39. End If
40. Return DirectCast(files.ToArray(GetType(String)), String())
41. End Function
44. '''
  
  ''' Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories.
  '''
45. ''' A series of valid search patterns, separated
46. ''' by ";". For example "*.jpg;prog*.exe"
47. Public Shared Function GetFiles(ByVal path As String, ByVal searchPattern As String, ByVal includeSubFolders As Boolean) As String()
48. Dim patterns As String() = searchPattern.Split(";"C)
49. Return GetFiles(path, patterns, includeSubFolders)
50. End Function
52. Private Shared Sub getFiles(ByVal path As String, ByVal searchPattern As String(), ByRef files As ArrayList)
53. ' Try to get the current directory's folders
54. Try
55. Dim folders As String() = Directory.GetDirectories(path)
56. For i As Integer = 0 To folders.Length - 1
57. getFiles(folders(i), searchPattern, files)
58. Next
59. For i As Integer = 0 To searchPattern.Length - 1
62. Dim curFiles As String() = Directory.GetFiles(path, searchPattern(i))
63. files.AddRange(curFiles)
64. Next
65. Catch
66. End Try
67. End Sub
68. #End Region
Note: In your code,you are using 'searchoption' which is not a member of IO. It means
Imports System.IO doesn't have any definition for 'searchoption'.

Check out the following articles for more information:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/files/findallfiles.aspx
http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/jschreuder/archive/2006/05/31/12272.aspx
Per18y ago
Oh, that was a lot of code for this and I don't know how to change your code to VB.

And, why does my code not work?
Niradhip Chakraborty18y ago
you could get a list of all files in a directory and its subdirectories, and you could also apply search pattern(s) when doing the same thing. The documentation comments should be descriptive enough
//Code
using System.Collections;
using System.IO;

#region GetFiles (string Path)
///

/// Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories
///
public static string[] GetFiles (string path)
{
    ArrayList files = new ArrayList();
    getFiles (path, ref files);

    return (string[])files.ToArray(typeof(string));
}
private static void getFiles (string path, ref ArrayList files)
{
    try
    {
        string[] folders = Directory.GetDirectories (path);
        for (int i=0;i
            getFiles (folders[i], ref files);


        string[] curFiles = Directory.GetFiles (path);
        files.AddRange (curFiles);
    }
    catch
    {}
}
#endregion

#region GetFiles (string path, string[] searchPatterns, bool includeSubFolders) +1 overload
///

/// Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories.
///
/// search patterns (ie, "*.exe")
public static string[] GetFiles(string path, string[] searchPatterns, bool includeSubFolders)
{
    ArrayList files = new ArrayList();
    if (includeSubFolders)
    {
        getFiles (path, searchPatterns, ref files);
    }
    else
    {
        try
        {
            for (int i=0; i
            {
                string[] curFiles = Directory.GetFiles (path, searchPatterns[i]);
                files.AddRange (curFiles);
            }
        }
        catch
        {}
    }
    return (string[])files.ToArray(typeof(string));
}


///

/// Gets all the files in the given folder path and all its subdirectories.
///
/// A series of valid search patterns, separated
/// by ";". For example "*.jpg;prog*.exe"
public static string[] GetFiles(string path, string searchPattern, bool includeSubFolders)
{
    string[] patterns = searchPattern.Split (';');
    return GetFiles (path, patterns, includeSubFolders);
}

private static void getFiles (string path, string[] searchPattern, ref ArrayList files)
{
    // Try to get the current directory's folders
    try
    {
        string[] folders = Directory.GetDirectories (path);
        for (int i=0;i
            getFiles (folders[i], searchPattern, ref files);


        for (int i=0; i
        {
            string[] curFiles = Directory.GetFiles (path, searchPattern[i]);
            files.AddRange (curFiles);
        }
    }
    catch
    {}
}
#endregion
Note: Hey this code is in c#. Change it to vb