I am using:
File.Exists(filepath) I would like to swap this out for a pattern, because the first part of the filename changes.
For example: the file could be
01_peach.xml 02_peach.xml 03_peach.xml How can I check if the file exists based on some kind of search pattern?
You can do a directory list with a pattern to check for files
string[] files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(path, "*_peach.xml", System.IO.SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly); if (files.Length > 0) { //file exist } If you're using .NET Framework 4 or above you could use Directory.EnumerateFiles
bool exist = Directory.EnumerateFiles(path, "*_peach.xml").Any(); This could be more efficient than using Directory.GetFiles since you avoid iterating trough the entire file list.
Get a list of all matching files using System.IO.DirectoryInfo.GetFiles().
Also see Stack Overflow questions:
And many others...
For more advanced searching against a specific pattern, it might be worth using file globbing which allows you to use search patterns like you would in a .gitignore file.
See here: File globbing in .NET
This allows you to add both inclusions & exclusions to your search.
Please see below the example code snippet from the Microsoft Source above:
Matcher matcher = new Matcher(); matcher.AddIncludePatterns(new[] { "*_peach.xml" }); IEnumerable<string> matchingFiles = matcher.GetResultsInFullPath(filepath); 