System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories Method

Returns the names of the subdirectories (including their paths) that match the specified search pattern in the specified directory, and optionally searches subdirectories.

Syntax

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

Parameters

path
The relative or absolute path to the directory to search. This string is not case-sensitive.
searchPattern
The search string to match against the names of subdirectories in path. This parameter can contain a combination of valid literal and wildcard characters (see Remarks), but doesn't support regular expressions.
searchOption
One of the enumeration values that specifies whether the search operation should include all subdirectories or only the current directory.

Returns

An array of the full names (including paths) of the subdirectories that match the specified criteria, or an empty array if no directories are found.

Remarks

The path parameter can specify relative or absolute path information, and is not case-sensitive. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. To obtain the current working directory, see Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.

searchPattern can be a combination of literal and wildcard characters, but doesn't support regular expressions. The following wildcard specifiers are permitted in searchPattern.

* (asterisk)

Zero or more characters in that position.

? (question mark)

Zero or one character in that position.

Characters other than the wildcard are literal characters. For example, the searchPattern string "*t" searches for all names in path ending with the letter "t". The searchPattern string "s*" searches for all names in path beginning with the letter "s".

searchPattern cannot end in two periods ("..") or contain two periods ("..") followed by Path.DirectorySeparatorChar or Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, nor can it contain any invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the Path.GetInvalidPathChars method.

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

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

Requirements

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Assembly Versions: 2.0.0.0, 4.0.0.0
Since: .NET 2.0