UWP How to cancel a file search

Arsen Kovalchuk 0

I have a code to search for files in a user's selected folder, the file search takes some time and I need to be able to cancel it if the user changes the folder

QueryOptions options = new QueryOptions(CommonFileQuery.OrderByName, filesExtensions) { FolderDepth = FolderDepth.Deep };
   StorageFileQueryResult queryresult = folder.CreateFileQueryWithOptions(options);
   var files = await queryresult.GetFilesAsync();

I tried to use the CancellationToken token for this, but it doesn't work properly.

 var files = await queryResult.GetFilesAsync().AsTask(cancellationTokenSource.Token);

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,396 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-09-11T03:29:22.7566667+00:00

Hi @Arsen Kovalchuk ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

In UWP, an asynchronous API cannot be canceled directly through a CancellationToken. You can set a timeout for the asynchronous API.

Maybe we can approach this problem from another direction. What is your specific scenario? How do you respond to the event of the user switching folders?

Thank you.
Arsen Kovalchuk 0 Reputation points

2024-09-11T13:38:58.7833333+00:00

Hi, @Junjie Zhu - MSFT

In the working folder, I need to find all the files with the selected extensions and show them to the user.

When the user switches between folders, my code waits for the search to complete and then starts a new one, which causes an additional delay in displaying the files. In general, I am looking for a solution to display all files with the selected extension in the most efficient way.
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 17,396 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-09-13T09:33:56.8033333+00:00
Hi @Arsen Kovalchuk ,

You can use a low-level file API to increase the search speed. for example Directory.GetFiles.

//find all dll files string[] fileNames = Directory.GetFiles(startPath, "*.dll", SearchOption.AllDirectories); foreach (string fileName in fileNames) { Debug.WriteLine(fileName); }

Thank you.

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