CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vb.net
Mike the Gardener
Mike the Gardener

Reputation: 105

Retrieve the name of the most recent file in a directory using VB.Net

Let's say I am looking for a file that has a name that starts with GLNO1_ I can have hundreds of files that start with those characters, but I want to retrieve the name of the file that starts with those characters that is the most recently modified.

For example, Lets say I have files GLNo1_1, GLNo1_2, GLNo1_3 etc. up to _1000 and number 556 is the file that was modified the most recent.

In VB.Net, how do I retrieve that file name.

The file extensions are of .csv

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4654

Answers (1)

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 941317

You'll have to enumerate the files and pick the last one. That's a job for Linq:

    Dim dir = New System.IO.DirectoryInfo("c:\foo\bar")
    Dim file = dir.EnumerateFiles("GLNo1_*.csv").
        OrderByDescending(Function(f) f.LastWriteTime).
        FirstOrDefault()
    If file IsNot Nothing Then
        Dim path = file.FullName
        '' etc..
    End If

Never overlook the odds that there will be more than one "last one". If your program hasn't run for a while then more than one file could easily have been added by whatever software generates the *.csv files. You generally need to keep track of the files you've already seen before.

Upvotes: 5

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