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First Posted 17 Apr 2004
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Scan the Directory / Files (Calculating the size)

By | 17 Apr 2004 | Article
Scans through the directory recursively and calculates the total size.

Screenshot

Introduction

It's a simple program which scans a directory recursively through the subfolders and sum up the size of the files. It also displays the size of the individual files, and eventually the total size of the directory.

Explanation

Observe the follows:

using System;
using System.IO;

We need to include System.IO, as we are working on Files and/or Directories.

The program starts as follows:

static void Main(string[] args) 
{
  //Creates an object of the class getFilesInfo 
  //and calls its function displayFileInfo()
  //The argument is passed to that function 
  //which is the path to a directory or a file.
  getFilesInfo obj = new getFilesInfo();
  obj.displayFileInfo(args[0]);

  // displayFileInfo() is the function which does everything and 
  // sets the static variable totsize to the total size of the dir/file
  //you passed as the argument.
  Console.WriteLine("Total Size = {0}", totsize);
}

Now, let's look at the crux of the program:

protected void displayFileInfo(String path)
{
  try
  {
    //Checks if the path is valid or not
    if(!Directory.Exists(path))
    {
      Console.WriteLine("invalid path");
    }
    else
    {
      try
      {
        //Directory.GetFiles() returns an array 
        //of strings which are not just
        //the file/directory name but the whole path to that
        //file folder.
        string[] fileList = Directory.GetFiles(path);
        for(int i=0; i {
          if(File.Exists(fileList[i]))
          {
            //File Info is a Class which extend FileSystemInfo class. 
            FileInfo finfo = new FileInfo(fileList[i]);
            //finfo.Length returns the File size. 
            totsize += finfo.Length;
            Console.WriteLine("FILE: "+fileList[i]+" :Size>"+ finfo.Length); 
          }
        }
      }
      catch( System.NotSupportedException e1)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Error1"+e1.Message);
      }
      try
      {
        string[] dirList = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
        for(int i=0; i {
          Console.WriteLine("DIRECTORY CHANGED:" + dirList[i]); 
          //Call the function recursively to get 
          //the file sizes in the subfolder. 
          displayFileInfo(dirList[i]);
        }
      }
      catch( System.NotSupportedException e2)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Error2:"+ e2.Message);
      }
    }
  }
  catch(System.UnauthorizedAccessException e)
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Error:"+ e.Message);
  }
}

You should have observed that we can't find the size of a folder directly. We should sum up the size of the files it constitutes. I think it is so because a Folder is just a pointer which points to the files and other directories. It has no size by itself. And one more thing is that the methods:

Directory.GetFiles(path);
Directory.GetDirectories(path);

return not just the file/directory name but the whole path to that file/folder.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Srinivas Varukala

Web Developer

United States United States

Member

My name is Srinivas Varukala, a citizen of India.
I m pursuing my masters in CS in the US of A.
My interests r in:
C
C++
C#
Java n its variants.
My webspace: www.cs.odu.edu/~svarukal

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Comments and Discussions

 
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GeneralMy vote of 1 PinmvpDavidCrow9:42 14 Jan '10  
GeneralGreat app PinmemberMember 371701122:10 16 Mar '08  
Generala typo PinmemberArfeeng11:59 13 Jan '06  
GeneralRe: a typo PinmemberSrinivas Varukala12:43 13 Jan '06  
yeah you are right! i never observed it. My bad!
THanks for pointing it out.
 
Srinivas Varukala
virginia, USA.
GeneralRe: a typo Pinmemberryelpango16:04 11 Aug '09  
Generalgood PinsussAnonymous17:27 18 Apr '04  
GeneralYou can improve. PinmemberMr.Prakash15:11 18 Apr '04  
GeneralRe: You can improve. PinmemberSrinivas Varukala15:53 18 Apr '04  
GeneralRe: You can improve. PinsitebuilderPaul Watson4:48 12 May '04  
GeneralRe: You can improve. PinmemberMr.Prakash6:57 12 May '04  
GeneralRe: You can improve. PinsussAnonymous7:45 12 May '04  
GeneralRe: You can improve. PinmemberMr.Prakash6:20 13 May '04  
GeneralTry using delegates PinmemberMark Focas14:31 18 Apr '04  
GeneralRe: Try using delegates PinmemberSrinivas Varukala15:54 18 Apr '04  

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