Finding files in Folders using MapBasic
I have a few times seen requests for searching for files from a MapBasic application. The use case could be that you have a batch process that runs thru all tab files in a specific folder. In these cases the tables you need to work on are not open in MapInfo Pro and you might not even know their names.
So how would you get a list of these files? Here is one way.
I have created a .NET assembly that you can use from within your MapBasic sourcecode. The assembly has a number of methods but the specific methods we are interested in here are:
- Method FILEFindFilesInFolder(sPath, sMask) As Integer
- Method FILEFindFilesInFolders(sPath, sMask) As Integer
- Method FILEGetFindFilesFileName(nFileItem) As String
The first two can be used to search for files. The first looks in the specified folder only. The second also looks in subfolders. The both return the number of files found.
The last method is used to get the file names found.
Here's how to use the methods in MapBasic.
nNumFiles = FILEFindFilesInFolder(sPath, sMask)
'**If no files where found, nNumFiles is 0
If nNumFiles = 0 Then
Note "No files where found in this folder: " & sPath
Exit Sub
End If
'**Just a basic example of how to get the file names found
'**You'd probably do something a bit more clever with the files.
For nFile = 1 To nNumFiles
Print nFile & ": " & FILEGetFindFilesFileName(nFile)
Next
I have included a very basic application that shows how this works and how to declare the .NET methods in your MapBasic application.
If you are using mbLibrary (the MapBasic Common Libraries from Community Download: http://communitydownloads.pbinsight.com/code-exchange/download/mapbasic-common-libraries), the methods are declared in the FILELib.def. Just include that file to get access to the methods.