How to find the size of a Directory

Working with files and
directories is one of my favorites! With the help of the namespace, System.IO we can parse through the entire hard disk of our
computer. The System.IO namespace has rich inbuilt
methods/functions for every common task that we need to do. With the help of
these functions, we can easily write code for:



Does this file exist?

What is the size of this file?

Delete this file

Get all files in this directory ... and so on.



But the said namespace or other namespace does not provide us with a function
which gives the directory size. One way to find the directory size of any
folder/directory is as follows:



1) Start from the directory/folder that we need to find the size

2) Find all files in the current directory

3) Loop through each file and find the size of
each file

4) Chances are, we may end up with sub-folders.

5) We also need to find the number of files in this sub-folder

6) Since this is a repeating process, we should have a recursive mechanism were
we will parse through the end (until no more sub-directories exists)



The following example consists of three functions. A) Public DirectorySize(ByVal strStartDirectory as String)

B) Private FindDirectorySize(ByVal
strCurrentDir As String)

C) Private Sub RecursiveParseDirectory(ByVal strDirectory As String)



Include all the three functions in aspx or codebehind page and invoke the function, DirectorySize. Pass the folder/directory name as an
argument to this method and it will return you the size of the directory. You
will also need to declare a global variable called: intDirectorySize
which is of type, Integer.

Dim intDirectorySize As Integer Public Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) ' For this example, I have used "." which represents the current directory lblMsg.Text = "Directory size is " & DirectorySize(".") End Sub Public Function DirectorySize(ByVal strStartDir As String) Dim strStartDirectory As String = Server.MapPath(strStartDir) FindDirectorySize(strStartDirectory) RecursiveParseDirectory(strStartDirectory) Return intDirectorySize End Function Private Sub RecursiveParseDirectory(ByVal strDirectory As String) Dim strTemp As String Dim arrSubDirectories() As String = Directory.GetDirectories(strDirectory) For Each strTemp In arrSubDirectories FindDirectorySize(strTemp) RecursiveParseDirectory(strTemp) Next End Sub Private Sub FindDirectorySize(ByVal strCurrentDir As String) Dim DI As DirectoryInfo = New DirectoryInfo(strCurrentDir) Dim arrFiles As Array = DI.GetFiles() Dim FI As FileInfo Dim intDirsize As Integer = 0 For Each FI In arrFiles intDirsize += FI.Length Next intDirectorySize += intDirsize End Sub