[Jayme65]

Hi,

I have to get a directory file list, filtered on multiple extensions...and sorted!

I use this, which is the fastest way I've found to get dir content filtered on multiple extensions:

Dim ext As String() = {"*.jpg", "*.bmp","*png"}
Dim files As String() = ext.SelectMany(Function(f) Directory.GetFiles(romPath, f)).ToArray
Array.Sort(files)

and then use an array sort.


I was wondering (and this is my question ) if there would be a way to do the sorting IN the same main line? A kind of:

Dim files As String() = ext.SelectMany(Function(f) Directory.GetFiles(romPath, f).Order By Name).ToArray

and, if yes, if I would gain speed doing this instead of sorting the array at the end (but I would do my test and report..as soon as I get a solution!!)?
Thanks for your help!!

[couttsj]

The "Dir" command contains a number of sort options. If one of those options fits your purpose, you could use the "Shell" command to output the sorted list to a file, and then read the file.

Shell "cmd.exe /c Dir *.jpg, *.bmp, *.png /o:d > DirList.txt"

This sorts the files by date.

J.A. Coutts

[Jayme65]

Ah yes, that could be an idea!!

At the moment I've tested a :

myFiles = myExtensions.SelectMany(Function(ext) Directory.GetFiles(myPath, ext)).OrderBy(Function(x) x).ToArray

Which gives exactly the same time!

But, for people interested in this topic, I've found that calling GetFiles once then filtering results by file extension is far better...especially when the number of extensions to look for is raising!

Dim supportedExtensions As String = "*.zip,*.aaa,*.bbb,*.ccc,*.ddd"
Dim files As String() = Directory.GetFiles(romPath, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
Array.Sort(files)

For Each fi As String In files
 If supportedExtensions.Contains(Path.GetExtension(fi)) Then
 ...
 End If
Next

...gives invariably the same amount of time whatever the number of extension is...which is not the case of my previous code.
In my case, on 20000 files, 6 extension types: 0.2sec for this method against 0.6sec for the previous one!