Retrieving files from directory that contains large amount of files

c# file directory getfiles
eddyuk picture eddyuk · Oct 23, 2011 · Viewed 31.8k times · Source

I have directory that contains nearly 14,000,000 audio samples in *.wav format.

All plain storage, no subdirectories.

I want to loop through the files, but when I use DirectoryInfo.GetFiles() on that folder the whole application freezes for minutes!

Can this be done another way? Perhaps read 1000, process them, then take next 1000 and so on?

Answer

Haris Hasan picture Haris Hasan · Oct 23, 2011

Have you tried EnumerateFiles method of DirectoryInfo class?

As MSDN Says

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

Related questions

How do I get the directory from a file's full path?

What is the simplest way to get the directory that a file is in? I'm using this to set a working directory. string filename = @"C:\MyDirectory\MyFile.bat"; In this example, I should get "C:\MyDirectory".

Read More
Better way to check if a Path is a File or a Directory?

I am processing a TreeView of directories and files. A user can select either a file or a directory and then do something with it. This requires me to have a method which performs different actions based on the user's …

Read More
Delete files older than 3 months old in a directory using .NET

I would like to know (using C#) how I can delete files in a certain directory older than 3 months, but I guess the date period could be flexible. Just to be clear: I am looking for files that are older …

Read More