Number of files in a folder?

Seymour Clufley · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:03 am

This is a ridiculously basic question and I'm sorry to ask it.

Is there a fast way to get the number of files in a directory, on Windows?

I had a look in PureArea and found this but that simply loops through all the files with NextDirectoryEntry. Surely there's an API call or something which can get the number more quickly than that?

It doesn't need to check sub-directories.

Shield · **Joined:** Fri Jan 21, 2011 8:25 am **Posts:** 549

There is no other way, at least not as far as I know.
You have to iterate through the directory to count the files.

The main reason for that being the file system's access management.
In that folder there might be some files you're not allowed to see, so the operating system
has to check your access rights for every file.

buddymatkona · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 4:29 am **Posts:** 241

For this kind of thing I usually use a script but you can still drive the action from PB.
http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=48004&sid=a5ea2392b1b045d21e5ffcfa185f6029

MachineCode · **Joined:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:16 pm **Posts:** 1460

Seymour Clufley wrote:

I had a look in PureArea and found this but that simply loops through all the files with NextDirectoryEntry

Actually, that's pretty fast (once you delete the recursion into subfolders of it).

Or maybe populate an (invisible) ExplorerListGadget() with your path and count its files:

Code:

If OpenWindow(0,0,0,400,400,"",#PB_Window_SystemMenu)
  ExplorerListGadget(0,0,0,400,400,"C:\Windows\",#PB_Explorer_NoFolders)
  SetWindowTitle(0,Str(CountGadgetItems(0)-1))
  Repeat : Until WaitWindowEvent()=#PB_Event_CloseWindow
EndIf

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Number of files in a folder?

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