KnowledgeBase 00051: The DIR() Function

Last updated: 17 Feb 2017 Applies to: All versions

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This article was originally published as a Tip of the Week.

The DIR() function allows an application to process an operating system directory.

Using the DIR() Function

The syntax of this function is

   LIST = DIR(PATHNAME) 

where PATHNAME is the operating system pathname of the directory to be processed.

The returned value from this function, stored in LIST in the above example, is a dynamic array in which there is a field for each item in the directory. The values in each field are

1	The file or directory name of the item described by this field.
2	The item type; D for a directory, F for a file.
3	Permissions or attributes.    Unix/Linux: File permissions as a decimal value.    Windows: File attribute flags:       A  Archive       C  Compressed       H  Hidden       R  Read-only       S  System       T  Temporary
4	Date/time modified as an epoch value (release 2.12-7 onwards).

A Simple Directory Listing Program

   s = dir(".") 
   n = dcount(s, @fm) 
   for i = 1 to n 
      display s<i,2> : '  ' : oconv(s<i,4>, 'EDMYTSL[,A3]') : '  ' : s<i,1> 
   next i 

Use of this program might produce output as below.

D  11 Nov 2011 13:57:21  $COMO 
D  24 Oct 2011 14:02:00  $HOLD 
D  21 Jun 2010 20:40:15  $HOLD.DIC 
D  24 Oct 2011 14:02:00  $SVLISTS 
F  18 Oct 2011 14:42:29  AUDIT.LOG 
F  23 Nov 2011 10:58:23  errlog 

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