Recursive method to search for a directory and return true if the search name is found

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I am trying to write a function to search a root directory and return true if a directory is found with a certain name within the root directory.

I cannot get it to work, it always returns false, even if it finds the directory with the same name - what am I doing wrong - please!!! (my forehead is sore)

bool NameIsInDirectory(const CString& rootPath, const CString& searchName)const
{ 
   CFileFind finder;
   CString folderName;
   CString folderPath;
    
   // build a string with wildcards 
   CString strWildcard(rootPath); 
   strWildcard += _T("\\*.*"); 
 
   // start working for files
   BOOL bWorking = finder.FindFile(strWildcard);
   
   while (bWorking)
   {
	   bWorking = finder.FindNextFile();
	   
	   // skip . and .. files; otherwise, we'd recur infinitely
	   if (finder.IsDots()) 
		   continue;
	   
	   // if it's a directory, recursively search it
	   if (finder.IsDirectory())
	   {
		   CString path = finder.GetFilePath();
		   CString name = finder.GetFileName();
		   if(!name.Compare(searchName))
		   {
			   //bFound =  true;
			   return true;
		   }
		   NameIsInDirectory(path, searchName); 
	   }
   } 
   finder.Close();
   return false;
}

Posted 15-Dec-11 4:52am

Jackie Lloyd

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2 solutions

Solution 1

The Compare method in CString is case sensitive.

'a' and 'A' are seen as different characters.

Try CompareNoCase().

If that isn't enough of a change, walk through it with the debugger and see how the code is analyzing the data, and see where it goes wrong.

Posted 15-Dec-11 5:09am

JackDingler

Comments

Jackie Lloyd 15-Dec-11 11:17am

Hi, thanks again, you are very helpful. But it is not the case that is the problem It finds the directory fine, and when I was using the flag bFound, it sets it to true. It stays true when I carry on stepping through with the debugger then it gets reset to false at the end.

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Addy Tas · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-15T05:17:00

Hi,

You've got to take the result back from the recursion.

try:

bool NameIsInDirectory(const CString& rootPath, const CString& searchName)const
{ 
   bool result = false;
   CFileFind finder;
   CString folderName;
   CString folderPath;
    
   // build a string with wildcards 
   CString strWildcard(rootPath); 
   strWildcard += _T("\\*.*"); 
 
   // start working for files
   BOOL bWorking = finder.FindFile(strWildcard);
   
   while (bWorking && ! result)
   {
	   bWorking = finder.FindNextFile();
	   
	   // skip . and .. files; otherwise, we'd recur infinitely
	   if (finder.IsDots()) 
		   continue;
	   
	   // if it's a directory, recursively search it
	   if (finder.IsDirectory())
	   {
		   CString path = finder.GetFilePath();
		   CString name = finder.GetFileName();
		   if(!name.Compare(searchName))
		   {
			   //bFound =  true;
			   result = true;
                            break;
		   }
		   result = NameIsInDirectory(path, searchName); 
	   }
   } 
   finder.Close();
   return result;
}.

Next to that you might take a serious look at doing a case sensitive search or not. you could even leave that to the user if you add another bool (ignoreCase) to parameter list.

Hope this works for you.

Cheers, AT