VB Forum / Win API / July 2008

Sifting through gigabyte drives is going to take time, no matter what
method you use.  Using (compiled) VB should be comparable, but the
trick is to search each directory only once.

Try this example:  Add a Listbox and Command button to a new form
and paste in the code below.  Adjust the function call to see different
results....

(The returned item is a Collection which you can use, or save for later)

HTH
LFS

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim tmp
 Command1.Enabled = False
 Command1.Caption = "Working"
 Command1.Refresh
 With List1
    .Clear
    .Visible = False
    For Each tmp In FileList("e:\projects", "*.txt", True)
      .AddItem tmp
    Next
    .Visible = True
 End With
 Command1.Caption = "Done"

End Sub

Public Function FileList(ByVal Path As String, Optional Pattern As String = "*.*", Optional Recursive As Boolean = False) As
Collection
Const Slash = "\", Dot = "."
Dim Directories As Collection
Dim tmp As String
Dim PathLength As Long

 'Init variables
 Set FileList = New Collection
 Set Directories = New Collection
 ' Make it case insensative
 Pattern = LCase$(Pattern)
 'Insure Path has trailing slash
 If Right$(Path, 1) <> Slash Then Path = Path & Slash
 PathLength = Len(Path)

 'Check for files and directories in this Path
 'Trapped in case Path is bogus
 On Error Resume Next
 tmp = Path & Dir$(Path & "*.*", vbDirectory)
 On Error GoTo 0
 'Loop for entire directory contents
 Do While Len(tmp) > PathLength
   If IsDirectory(tmp) Then
     'Save for later, refuse . and ..
     If Right$(tmp, 1) <> Dot Then Directories.Add tmp
   Else
     'Add file to listing (case insensative)
     If LCase$(tmp) Like Pattern Then FileList.Add tmp
   End If
   'Get next directory item
   tmp = Path & Dir$()
 Loop
 'Catch sub directories
 If Recursive Then
   Dim tmpD, tmpF As Variant
   'Test each directory in this Path
   For Each tmpD In Directories
     'Recurse directory to add to files list
     For Each tmpF In FileList(tmpD, Pattern, True)
       FileList.Add tmpF
     Next
   Next
 End If
End Function

Public Function IsDirectory(ByVal Path As String) As Boolean
 'Trapped in case Path is bogus
 On Error Resume Next
 IsDirectory = GetAttr(Path) And vbDirectory
End Function

Dir() itself can't be used recursively. If you want to stick to dir,
then you need to enumerate a folder, build up a list of sub folders,
then once you have finished, recurse and enumerate each of those.

This should be fast speed wise, but can be slowed down significantly by
bad implementation of the array handling for folders (don't resize for
every element)

Or, use the FindFirst/Nextfile API functions which can safely be used
recursively.