My.Computer.FileSystem.FindInFiles Method 

Returns a read-only collection of strings representing the names of files containing the specified text.

' Usage
Dim value As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String) = My.Computer.FileSystem.FindInFiles(directory ,containsText ,ignoreCase ,searchType)
Dim value As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String) = My.Computer.FileSystem.FindInFiles(directory ,containsText ,ignoreCase ,searchType ,fileWildcards)
' Declaration
Public Function FindInFiles( _
   ByVal directory As String, _
   ByVal containsText As String, _
   ByVal ignoreCase As Boolean, _
   ByVal searchType As SearchOption _
) As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String)
' -or-
Public Function FindInFiles( _
   ByVal directory As String, _
   ByVal containsText As String, _
   ByVal ignoreCase As Boolean, _
   ByVal searchType As SearchOption, _
   ByVal fileWildcards As String() _
) As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String)

Parameters

• directory
  String. The directory to be searched. Required.

• containsText
  String. The search text. Required.

• ignoreCase
  Boolean. Whether the search should be case-sensitive or not. Default is True. Required.

• searchType
  SearchOption Enumeration. Whether to include subfolders. Default is SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly. Required.

• fileWildcards
  Array of type String. Pattern to be matched. Required.

Return Value

Read-only collection of type String.

Exceptions

The following conditions may cause an exception:

• The path is not valid for one of the following reasons: it is a zero-length string; it contains only white space; it contains invalid characters; or it is a device path (starts with \\.\) (ArgumentException).

• The path is not valid because it is Nothing (ArgumentNullException).

• directory does not exist (DirectoryNotFoundException).

• directory points to an existing file (IOException).

• The path exceeds the system-defined maximum length (PathTooLongException).

• A file or directory name in the path contains a colon (:) or is in an invalid format (NotSupportedException).

• The user lacks necessary permissions to view the path (SecurityException).

• The user lacks necessary permissions (UnauthorizedAccessException).

Remarks

An empty collection is returned if no files matching the specified pattern are found.

Tasks

The following table lists examples of tasks involving the My.Computer.FileSystem.FindInFiles method.

Example

This example searches the directory C:\TestDir for any files containing the string "sample string" and displays the results in ListBox1.

Dim list As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection _
(Of String)
list = My.Computer.FileSystem.FindInFiles("C:\TestDir", _
 "sample string", True, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly)
For Each name As String In list
   ListBox1.Items.Add(name)
Next

In order to work, the project must contain a ListBox named ListBox1.

Requirements

Namespace: Microsoft.VisualBasic.MyServices

Class: FileSystemProxy (provides access to FileSystem)

Assembly: Visual Basic Runtime Library (in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)

Availability by Project Type

Permissions

The following permission may be necessary:

For more information, see Code Access Security and Requesting Permissions.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Manipulating Files and Directories in Visual Basic

Reference

My.Computer.FileSystem Object
SearchOption Enumeration
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection
Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.FileSystem.FindInFiles