CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#methodsforeachreturn-value
Athanasius12
Athanasius12

Reputation: 37

Foreach Loop Within A Foreach Loop In A Method And Return Values

I have the following code where I am trying to enumerate through files on a shared drive, collect properties for each file, and then return each entry from that collection.

Visual Studio gives me "CS0161: 'Program.EnumerateYourFiles(string)': not all code paths return a value." error when I hover over the EnumerateYourFiles method. I am guessing that it has to do with the fact that the "l" variable I am trying to return is out-of-scope. How do I get that "l" variable into scope so it returns for the function?

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;


namespace FileShareMachine
{
    public class Program
    {
           

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(EnumerateYourFiles(@"E:\"));


        }
        public static object EnumerateYourFiles(string pathToSearch)
        {
            string filePath = pathToSearch;
            DirectoryInfo currentParentFileList = new DirectoryInfo(filePath);
            DirectoryInfo[] listOfSubDirectories = currentParentFileList.GetDirectories();
            List<string> listOfAllFiles = new System.Collections.Generic.List<string>();
            
          
            foreach (var parentPath in listOfSubDirectories)
            {
                string pathForEnumeration = parentPath.ToString();
                DirectoryInfo individualSubFolder = new DirectoryInfo(pathForEnumeration);
               
                try
                {
                    foreach (var eachFile in individualSubFolder.EnumerateFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
                    {
                        string individualPaths = eachFile.FullName.ToString();
                        string lastAccessed = eachFile.LastAccessTime.ToString();
                        string fileSize = eachFile.Length.ToString();
                        string creationTime = eachFile.CreationTime.ToString();
                        string lastWriteTime = eachFile.LastWriteTime.ToString();
                        string fileDirectory = eachFile.Directory.ToString();

                        //The following works like a dream. This is how you write to a file. You need an array or list
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(individualPaths);
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(fileSize);
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(fileDirectory);
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(creationTime);
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(lastAccessed);
                        listOfAllFiles.Add(lastWriteTime);

                 
                    }
                }
                catch (System.UnauthorizedAccessException)
                {
                    bool errorThrown = true;
                    if (errorThrown)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("The following path had an access error {0}", individualSubFolder);
                        continue;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        continue;
                    }

                }
            }

            //return listOfSubDirectories;
            foreach(object l in listOfAllFiles)
            {
                return l;
            }
         

        }

    }
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 323

Answers (1)

Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey

Reputation: 180858

foreach(object l in listOfAllFiles)
{
    return l;
}

isn't going to work.

Try

return listOfAllFiles

instead.

Consider returning something other than an object, like IEnumerable<string>, unless your use case requires object (it's not unprecedented; there are places in WPF that are like that).

If you're trying to return one item from the list each time you call the method, try

yield return l;

instead. Your method should then return a string.

Upvotes: 1

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