GetDirectories(System.String)

Returns the names of subdirectories (including their paths) in the specified directory.

Syntax

public static string[] GetDirectories (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 full names (including paths) of subdirectories in the specified path, or an empty array if no directories are found.

Exceptions

Type Reason
ArgumentNullException path is null.
System.Security.SecurityException The caller does not have the required permission.
ArgumentException path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains implementation-specific invalid characters.
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`.
System.Security.SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains implementation-specific invalid characters.
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

This method is identical to Directory.GetDirectories(string, string) with the asterisk (*) specified as the search pattern, so it returns all subdirectories.If you need to search subdirectories, use the Directory.GetDirectories(string, string, SearchOption) method, which enables you to specify a search of subdirectories with the searchOption parameter.

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.

The path parameter can 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 names returned by this method are prefixed with the directory information provided in path.

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 and its subdirectories. 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