The FileSystemObject contains several collections. Each of these collections contains information on a particular aspect of the web server's file system. These collections include:

• Drives - The various drives on the computer's file system. Include floppy drives, CD-ROMs, tape drives, etc., as well as hard drives.
  
• SubFolders - The immediate subfolders of a given folder.
  
• Files - The list of files in a particular folder.
  

There are, not surprisingly, three objects, one associated with each collection. These objects are the Drive object, the Folder object, and the File object. It helps to imagine your file system as a hierarchy, like so:

Note that the FileSystemObject contains all of the drive, folder, and files information indirectly. Directly, it contains just the Drives collection- that is Drive 1 through Drive N. Each Drive object in the Drives collection contains a series of Folder objects, while each Folder object contains a Files collection.

The FileSystemObject also contains three functions to retrieve specific Drive, Folder, and File objects: GetDrive, GetFolder, and GetFile, respectively. Each of these three functions returns the appropriate object type. So, if you want to obtain specific information about a particular file (for example, it's last modified date, or its file size), you can use the GetFile method to retrieve the File object that represents that particular file.

Dim objFSO Set objFSO = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 'Get the file information Dim objFile Set objFile = objFSO.GetFile("C:\Windows\System.ini") 'Output some of the File object properties Response.Write "Name: " & objFile.Name & "<br>" Response.Write "Size: " & objFile.Size & "<br>" Response.Write "Last Modified: " & objFile.DateLastModified & "<br>" 'Clean up Set objFile = Nothing Set objFSO = Nothing

Note: in your applications, you should alway use the FileExists method to determine whether or not a particular file exists before using the GetFile method. See the second FSO FAQ for more information on FileExists.

A complete listing of the File object properties can be found at: Microsoft's Scripting Site.

To get a specific folder, use the GetFolder object. You can then iterate through each of the files in that folder by using the Files collection. For example, the following code will list the files in the directory C:\InetPub\wwwroot.

Dim objFSO Set objFSO = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 'Get the folder object associated with the directory Dim objFolder Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder("C:\InetPub\wwwroot") Response.Write "The files found in " & objFolder.Name & ":<br>" 'Loop through the Files collection Dim objFile For Each objFile in objFolder.Files Response.Write objFile.Name & "<br>" Next 'Clean up! Set objFolder = Nothing Set objFile = Nothing Set objFSO = Nothing

Again, your application code should first use the FolderExists method to make sure the folder you are trying to obtain with the GetFolder method exists. ( View a list of the Folder object properties.)

You can use these collections to iterate through the entire file system of your web server! Two good article on 4Guys that discuss using these collections are: A Text-Based Search Engine, and Using the FileSystemObject for Website Maintainence.

Happy Programming!

FAQ Table of Contents

Copying, Moving, and Deleting Files

Using FSO to Access a File on a Remote Computer