Checking the contents of a folder on demand

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epluslike..

Checking the contents of a folder on demand

in Programming Questions • 1 year ago

Hi everybody, I am working on a project which relies on my sketch checking how many files there are in a folder on demand, perhaps in a regular interval, 1000ms?

I have some code which allows me to find out how many files are in a particular folder, but i'm still a little new to processing and I don't understand how to trigger this. If one of you could point me in the right direction, I would be grateful.

Also, while i'm asking, is there a way to create a relative search path in Processing?

Thanks,

eplus.

String path = "/Users/Eplus/Dropbox/Dropbox/Apps/iStopMotion/Exports";
String[] filenames = listFileNames(path);
String[] listFileNames(String dir) {
File file = new File(dir);
if (file.isDirectory()) {
String names[] = file.list();
println(names);
return names;
} else {
// If it's not a directory
return null;
}
}

Replies(2)

calsign

Re: Checking the contents of a folder on demand

1 year ago

It is quite simple to wrap your code in a function like so:

int filesInFolder(String path) {
//Create the file
File file = new File(path);
//Check to see if it's a directory
if(file.isDirectory()) {
//Get the list of files
String names[] = file.list();
//And return how many there are
return names.size();
} else {
//And if it's not a directory
return -1;
}
}

For relative search path... you basically have no control over where the sketch will be located on the users system, so relative search paths should be used only for items in the sketch's folder. If you want the user to choose what directory to search from, you can use selectFolder()...

epluslike..

Re: Checking the contents of a folder on demand

1 year ago

Cool beans, thanks. I never could figure out what the deal is with return and making a method with anything other than void, was about. That helped me a lot, thanks.

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