# List of file names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386 "2006-02-07T14:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/1 "2006-02-07T14:40:38Z")
I want to get a list of all the files (file paths to be precise) in a particular folder and all it’s sub-folders in a format that I can import into an Access database. How can I go about doing that? Thanks Grim ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/2 "2006-02-07T14:47:09Z")
It would be nice to know what OS you’re on. If you’re on Windows 2000 or later (and probably earlier versions too), you can type dir /s \> output.txt to a command prompt to get a file listing. You’ll have to do some cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/3 "2006-02-07T14:47:24Z")
I want to get a list of all the files (file paths to be precise) in a particular folder and all it’s sub-folders in a format that I can import into an Access database. How can I go about doing that? Thanks Grim ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/4 "2006-02-07T14:49:00Z")
Windows XP - I’ll give that a try. Grim ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/5 "2006-02-07T14:52:26Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > You’ll have to do some cleaning. No Jokes!! Thanks - that gets me the raw data… Grim ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/6 "2006-02-07T14:59:35Z")
> [@grimpixie](#): > > No Jokes!! Thanks - that gets me the raw data… > > Grim Late chiming in I know, but “dir /s /b \>\whatever.txt” might be easier to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/7 "2006-02-07T15:02:03Z")
Or you could install a third-party utility such as [DirPrint](http://www.softpile.com/Utilities/File_Management/Review_02373_index.html) ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/8 "2006-02-07T15:16:46Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Late chiming in I know, but “dir /s /b \>\whatever.txt” might be easier to work with. Thanks - but judicious use of Find and Replace and then importing as a fixed-length text file did the job without too much hassle. The file name proved to be sufficient, although yours actually gave me what I aksed for 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/9 "2006-02-07T15:37:24Z")
Heh. Every once in a while, knowing good old DOS comes in handy for something. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/10 "2006-02-07T16:40:35Z")
You can do it in DOS. Open the command (DOS) window in the directory of concern. Say you want to make a text file which is a list of the files in the directory. For the sake of illustration we will call it GrimFiles.txt type DIR \> GRIMFILES.TXT the resulting is a text file which you can import into Windows programs. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/11 "2006-02-07T17:01:51Z")
You might prefer DIR /S /B This will give you the output in “bare” format, one filename per line. It will also recurse into subfolders as you requested. (the “/S” option) ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/12 "2006-02-07T18:12:03Z")
Also works if you tack a “.xls” on the end, to an Excel file. dir /s /b \>filelist.xls ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/13 "2006-02-07T19:24:15Z")
If you use dir /s /b \> filelist.txt, you get a either a brand new file, or you’ll overwrite an existing file of that name. If you use dir /s /b \>\> filelist.txt, you get either a brand new file, or you’ll append the results to an existing file. And you can filter the search parameters through use of various wildcards. You can also sort your output just about any way you want. Enter the command dir /? for help with this. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/14 "2006-02-07T21:59:07Z")
> [@grimpixie](#): > > I want to get a list of all the files (file paths to be precise) in a particular folder and all it’s sub-folders in a format that I can import into an Access database. It might help to know what operating system you’re running. On Unix or Mac OSX systems, the command would be: ls -R1 ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/15 "2006-02-08T01:19:30Z")
You can use the following sub as a starting point: ```auto Public Sub FolderDir() 'stores the file names from FOLDER into 'the table TABLENAME, in the field FIELDNAME Const FOLDER = "C: emp\" 'seems to need trailing backslash Const TABLENAME = "Table1" Const FIELDNAME = "FileName" Dim sFolderName As String, sFileName As String Dim db As Database, rs As Recordset sFileName = Dir(FOLDER) If sFileName = "" Then MsgBox "Invalid Folder!" Else Set db = CurrentDb Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(TABLENAME) Do Until sFileName = "" rs.AddNew rs(FIELDNAME) = sFileName rs.Update sFileName = Dir() Loop rs.Close Set rs = Nothing Set db = Nothing End If End Sub ``` ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-of-file-names/343386/16 "2006-02-08T04:51:37Z")
Merged two threads. - **xash** General Questions Moderator