GetFileSystemEntries(System.String)

Returns the names of all files and subdirectories in a specified path.

Syntax

public static string[] GetFileSystemEntries (string path)

Parameters

path
The relative or absolute path to the directory to search. This string is not case-sensitive.

Returns

An array of the names of files and subdirectories in the specified directory, or an empty array if no files or subdirectories are found.

Exceptions

Type Reason
ArgumentNullException path is null .
ArgumentException path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-specific invalid characters.
System.Security.SecurityException The caller does not have the required permission.
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException path was not found.
System.IO.PathTooLongException The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
System.IO.IOException path is a file name.
UnauthorizedAccessException The caller does not have the required permission.

Type	Reason
ArgumentNullException	path is `null` .
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-specific invalid characters.
System.Security.SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
System.IO.PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
System.IO.IOException	path is a file name.
UnauthorizedAccessException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Remarks

The order of the returned file and directory names is not guaranteed; use the erload:System.Array.Sort method if a specific sort order is required.

The erload:System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries and erload:System.IO.Directory.GetFileSystemEntries methods differ as follows: When you use erload:System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries, you can start enumerating the collection of entries before the whole collection is returned; when you use erload:System.IO.Directory.GetFileSystemEntries, you must wait for the whole array of entries to be returned before you can access the array. Therefore, when you are working with many files and directories, erload:System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFiles can be more efficient.

This method is identical to Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(string, string) with the asterisk (*) specified as the search pattern.

The path parameter is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. To obtain the current working directory, see Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.

The path parameter is not case-sensitive.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

Permissions

Type	Reason
System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission	Requires permission to access path information for the specified directory. See System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermissionAccess.PathDiscovery

Requirements

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Assembly Versions: 1.0.5000.0, 2.0.0.0, 4.0.0.0