[RESOLVED] C# search directory for file

I've done this before with EXACT file names.. but I don't know how to do it with partial file names.

example

say I want to find the file "Dirk"

the actual file is...

DirkWeapon_Dagger

so basically find the first word of Dirk.

here is my uncompleted method... then I ran into logic problems

Code:

---

        private void LookForFile(string weaponName)
        {
            int stringLength = weaponName.Length;
            //add the addresses to the string array
            string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(GameRef.GetDocumentsDirectory + @"\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\RPGBXL\RPGBXL\Content\Items\Weapon");

            foreach (string file in files)
            {
                FileInfo f = new FileInfo(file);
                if (f.Extension == ".xml")
                {
                    //parses out that huge Directory address!
                    string filename = Regex.Match(file, @"[^\\]*$").Value;
                    string thisfile = filename.Remove(stringLength);
                    FilesToLoad.Add(filename);
                    if (thisfile == weaponName)
                    {
                    }
                }
            }
        }

---

Code:

---

DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo("MY_DIR_PATH");
FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
foreach(FileInfo f in files)
{
      if(f.Name.StartsWith("dirk")) //or f.Name.Contains("dirk"), if it's not necessarily in the beginning of the file name
          filesToLoad.Add(f.Name);
}

---

Thank you so much! And a lot less code!!

now I just need to have it filter for differences between

Dagger

and

Dagger of Doom, since searching for Dagger always returns Dagger of Doom 1st

I guess it would need to use some filter... I'll come back and post the solution if I find it.

Directory.GetFiles also takes a search pattern, so...

Code:

---

string[] fileNames = Diectory.GetFiles("Dirk*.*");
foreach(string filename in fileNames)
{
    //do stuff
}

---

you could sort the files by their name.
here's a quick example:

Code:

---

            DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\");
            var files = from f in dir.GetFiles()
                        orderby f.Name
                        select f;
            foreach (FileInfo f in files)
                MessageBox.Show(f.Name);

---

edit: acually, biged's solution is much better (and shorter)... sorry for confusing you.

Hrmmm.. I switched up the Naming scheme so that when the Weapon gets saved out it looks like this

Dagger-Weapon_Dagger
Dagger of Doom-Weapon_Dagger

now looking for "Dagger" loads perfectly fine as it considers Dagger- as one word
however looking for "Dagger of Doom" always fails since it considers Dagger of Doom- as several words..

I don't know regular expressions very well so I don't know what this does >>
string[] fileNames = Directory.GetFiles("Dirk*.*");

Oh I solved it - I sort of faked it out I guess.

I changed the file saving scheme to this Weapon_Dagger_ + Name of Weapon + .xml, since this is how I wanted it anyway.

so example: Weapon_Dagger_daggerofdoom.xml

Code:

---

        private void LookForFile(string weaponName)
        {
            string directory = GameRef.GetDocumentsDirectory + @"\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\RPGBXL\RPGBXL\Content\Items\Weapon\";
            string weapon = weaponName.Replace(" ", "");
            weapon = weapon.ToLower();

            DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(directory);
            FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();

            foreach (FileInfo file in files)
            {
                if (file.Name.Contains(weapon)) //or f.Name.Contains("dirk"), if it's not necessarily in the beginning of the file name
                {
                    string thisWeapon = directory + file.Name;
                    ReadWeapon(thisWeapon);
                }
            }
        }

---

works just fine!

It is not a regular expression. The asterisk is a wildcard, i.e., it will match *anything*. The only required bit is that the file starts with "Dirk".

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/07wt70x2.aspx