Finally! .NET 2.0 Directory Search Improvements

This may seem insignificant to most, but I was thrilled to see that Microsoft added a static method overload to the Directory.GetFiles() method to include a recursive "SearchOption", which specifies whether the search should return files in only the current directory or search through all subdirectories as well.

public static string[] GetFiles (
 string path,
 string searchPattern,
 SearchOption searchOption
)

But, before I got too excited, I found they still don't allow multiple search patterns. You must make a call for each pattern you are searching for. :-(

Still, this improvement saves having to write or reuse that recursive directory search function you've been using forever. It also allows for quick and easy accumulation of files into a collection. For example:

           
    ArrayList files = new ArrayList();
    try
    {
        files.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\", "*.jpg",
                       SearchOption.AllDirectories));
        files.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\", "*.bmp",
                       SearchOption.AllDirectories));
        files.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\", "*.tif?", 
                       SearchOption.AllDirectories));
     }
     catch (UnauthorizedAccessException expectedException)
     {
     }

As small as this change seems, it's a welcome change!

Terry