Article
11/18/2011

Directory.EnumerateFileSystemEntries Method (String, String, SearchOption)

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

When it is called by trusted applications, returns an enumerable collection of file names and directory names that match a search pattern in a specified path, and optionally searches subdirectories.

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public Shared Function EnumerateFileSystemEntries ( _
    path As String, _
    searchPattern As String, _
    searchOption As SearchOption _
) As IEnumerable(Of String)

public static IEnumerable<string> EnumerateFileSystemEntries(
    string path,
    string searchPattern,
    SearchOption searchOption
)

Parameters

path
Type: System.String
The directory to search.

searchPattern
Type: System.String
The search string to match against the names of directories in path.

searchOption
Type: System.IO.SearchOption
One of the values of the SearchOption enumeration that specifies whether the search operation should include only the current directory or should include all subdirectories.
The default value is TopDirectoryOnly.

Return Value

Type: System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<String>
An enumerable collection of file-system entries in the directory specified by path and that match searchPattern and searchOption.

Exceptions

Exception	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains invalid characters as defined by GetInvalidPathChars. - or - searchPattern does not contain a valid pattern.
ArgumentNullException	path is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic). -or- searchPattern is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	searchOption is not a valid SearchOption value.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path is invalid, such as referring to an unmapped drive.
IOException	path is a file name.
PathTooLongException	The specified path, file name, or combined exceed the system-defined maximum length. For example, on Windows-based platforms, paths must be less than 248 characters and file names must be less than 260 characters.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
UnauthorizedAccessException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Remarks

The following wildcard specifiers are permitted in the searchPattern parameter.

Wildcard character	Description
*	Zero or more characters.
?	Exactly one character.

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

Share via