Finding empty folders in vb, and put them in a listbox.(already works, but I want it faster cause I've over 100.000 folders.

Question

Ok I've a problem:
I need to make al my empty folders invisible, but the problem is that I've a lot of empty folders.
So to do this quikly I tried to do this in VB2008.
But I can't find out how to actually search for those files in a certain map(so all maps in My documents or something)
and set them in a listbox, now that second isn't really a problem and I'm able to do that myself.
Then I want to change all items in that listbox(with all the path's of the empty folders) to hide those folders.


I got a little bit of code working:

Dim fihiddirectory as string
Dim fihid As FileInfo = New FileInfo(fihiddirectory)
fi.Attributes = FileAttributes.hidden         'this is to make the file hidden.

and then offcourse I set the listbox items in a

for each item in listbox1.items
fihidedirectory = item
fi.Attributes = FileAttributes.hidden         'this is to make the file hidden.
next

or something like that.

 

So All I need is a manner to find all empty directory's (the subdirectory's have to be empty too offcourse, if not than do not select)
and place them in a listbox.

Thank you.
 

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Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 1

This is the basis of what you need to do, just pass it your first folder, it will then search each folder in turn.

You can add your own code where show to hide folder and add to listbox

    Sub SearchFolders(ByVal DirToSearch As String)

        For Each DirToCheck In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(DirToSearch, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly)

            'Recurse into next folder
            SearchFolders(DirToCheck)

            'Count files & directories
            Dim FileCount As Integer = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(DirToCheck, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly).Count
            Dim DirectoryCount As Integer = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(DirToCheck, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly).Count

            'If empty do stuff
            If (FileCount < 1) And (DirectoryCount < 1) Then
                'something done here
            End If

        Next

    End Sub

Answer 2

Thank you, but now the problem is that I work on vista and some files are protected and can't be opened, so I got a exception that a file couldn't be opened,
How would I do that?

Thanks for your answer, this is definately what I need.


Ps.
For example:
acces to the path C:\Users\USER1\Documents\my Pictures is denied.
(translation from my system language.)

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Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 3

Ok I've now this:

Private Sub SearchFolders(ByVal DirToSearch As String)
For Each DirToCheck In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(DirToSearch, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly)
Try
'Recurse into next folder
SearchFolders(DirToCheck)
'Count files & directories
Dim FileCount As Integer = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(DirToCheck, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories).Count
Dim foldercount As Integer = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(DirToSearch, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories).Count
'If empty do stuff
If (FileCount < 1) Then
ListBox1.Items.Add(DirToCheck)
End If
Catch exception As Exception
End Try
Next
TextBox2.Text = ListBox1.Items.Count
End Sub

 

and to hide them I've:

Try
Dim fi As FileInfo
For Each item In ListBox1.Items
fi = New FileInfo(item.ToString)
fi.Attributes = FileAttributes.Hidden
Next
Catch exception As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Please add folders to the list.")
End Try

Does anyone now how I can speed it up, cause I've over 100.000 folders(I make folders for everything.)
I thought maybe translate the whole script to c++ but I Wouldn't now were to start.
Cause to only do like 800 folders it takes up to 10 minutes or something, and it crashes if I try to do it on all folders at ones, And that's what I want.


thanks.

---

Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 4

Is there a reason to show the items in a list box?

Why use the search all sub directories option?

Answer 5

How do you mean(with the search all sub directory's)?,
and there is not really a reason to show everthing in a listbox.
Thanks, that will make it faster I think.(That I didn't even think of that.)


But it is not enough to process 168.000 folders within let's say 1 hour.

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Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 6

Try this:

Dim todo As New List(Of DirectoryInfo)()
todo.Add(New DirectoryInfo("C:\Temp\Junk\empty"))

For i As Integer = 0 To todo.Count - 1
    Try
        todo(i).Delete()
    Catch e As System.IO.IOException
        todo.AddRange(todo(i).GetDirectories())
    End Try
Next

Answer 7

No doesn't work either, cause if there's a file lets's say 10 files under one folder, than that folder can't be grayed out.


But thanks anyway.

Ps. Is there a way with my code:


Dim fi As FileInfo
    Private Sub SearchFolders(ByVal DirToSearch As String, Optional ByVal hoi As String = "normal")
        Try
top:
            For Each dirtocheck In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(DirToSearch.ToString, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories)
                Try
                    'Count files & directories
                    Dim FileCount1 As Integer = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(dirtocheck, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories).Count
                    'If empty do stuff
                    If (FileCount1 < 1) Then
                        TextBox2.Text += 1
                        fi = New FileInfo(dirtocheck.ToString)
                        If hoi = "normal" Then
                            fi.Attributes = FileAttributes.Hidden
                        Else
                            fi.Attributes = FileAttributes.Normal
                        End If

                    End If
                Catch exception As Exception
                End Try
            Next
        Catch ex As Exception
            GoTo top
        End Try
    End Sub


To say like:

If he checked the folder than go to the next one,
cause when I normally do this with huge amounts of folders 3000> , the app doesn't respond at all.
I think that that is because it tries to do all at onces.
Hopefully you've got some ideas.


Thanks.

---

Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 8

I'm not sure I understand what it is you are attempting to do then.

The code I provided will find and delete all folders in a tree with nothing in them.

I guess it could result in empty folders if a parent folder contained only empty children folders.

Actually, I don't care for my answer all that much.  One should never use exceptions the way I have done.

Let me rewrite it for you.

Answer 9

Ok thanks,

What it is with your code is that it looks if the folder you selected doens't contains a file in it's directory(so in the folder),
but it doesn't check the subfolders, and it doens't check if a folder doesn't contain a file in a far far subdirectory, only in it's own contents.

Hope you understand, thanks.

---

Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 10

ok I've now deleted:

 SearchFolders(dirtocheck)

cause this maked the program redo his searsh, and we don't need that.

Now I can do like 1800 folders at ones(And really fast too, only 10 to 20 seconds), but when I try to do 3700 at ones it doesn't respond anymore.


Some Ideas?

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Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)

Answer 11

actually, my code does dive into subsolders as far as they go.  The two problems with it are:

1) it uses exceptions as part of standard work flow and that is a bad idea in general

2) once a folder is deleted a back propagation should take place to make sure that the deleted item was not the only item.

Technically though if you run my code it will recursively find and delete all truly empty folders (though it might  lave some new ones now empty)

Answer 12

Try this.  It has a back propagation that should clean up folders left empty by the deletion of the only child.  
There is a check to make sure we stay within the context of the root of the request, but use with caution.

Dim startPath As [String] = "C:\Temp\Junk\empty"
Dim startingDir As New DirectoryInfo(startPath)

Dim todo As New Queue(Of DirectoryInfo)()
For Each d As DirectoryInfo In startingDir.GetDirectories()
    todo.Enqueue(d)
Next

While Not todo.Count.Equals(0)
    Dim working As DirectoryInfo = todo.Dequeue()
    If Not working.Exists Then
        Continue While
    End If
    
    Dim subDirs As DirectoryInfo() = working.GetDirectories()
    If Not subDirs.Length.Equals(0) Then
        For Each d As DirectoryInfo In subDirs
            todo.Enqueue(d)
        Next
    Else
        Dim subFiles As FileInfo() = working.GetFiles()
        If subFiles.Length.Equals(0) Then
            If startingDir.FullName.ToLower() <> working.Parent.FullName.ToLower() Then
                todo.Enqueue(working.Parent)
            End If
            working.Delete()
        End If
    End If
End While

Answer 13

Srry But your code works slower than mine(and not forget Lloyd Quenby), and "stops responding" faster than mine.(By less folders)

But thanks anyway.

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Thanks for answering my questions, Please explain in code, and for other programming languanges than VB2008.net explain very clearly. My programming skills are:(1 to 5) Html = 4 php = 1 VB2008 = 3,5 c++ = 1 (starter)