FindNextFileW function (fileapi.h)

Article
02/09/2023

Continues a file search from a previous call to the FindFirstFile, FindFirstFileEx, or FindFirstFileTransacted functions.

Syntax

BOOL FindNextFileW(
  [in]  HANDLE             hFindFile,
  [out] LPWIN32_FIND_DATAW lpFindFileData
);

Parameters

[in] hFindFile

The search handle returned by a previous call to the FindFirstFile or FindFirstFileEx function.

[out] lpFindFileData

A pointer to the WIN32_FIND_DATA structure that receives information about the found file or subdirectory.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero and the lpFindFileData parameter contains information about the next file or directory found.

If the function fails, the return value is zero and the contents of lpFindFileData are indeterminate. To get extended error information, call the GetLastError function.

If the function fails because no more matching files can be found, the GetLastError function returns ERROR_NO_MORE_FILES.

Remarks

This function uses the same search filters that were used to create the search handle passed in the hFindFile parameter. For additional information, see FindFirstFile and FindFirstFileEx.

The order in which the search returns the files, such as alphabetical order, is not guaranteed, and is dependent on the file system. If the data must be sorted, the application must do the ordering after obtaining all the results.

Note In rare cases or on a heavily loaded system, file attribute information on NTFS file systems may not be current at the time this function is called. To be assured of getting the current NTFS file system file attributes, call the GetFileInformationByHandle function.

The order in which this function returns the file names is dependent on the file system type. With the NTFS file system and CDFS file systems, the names are usually returned in alphabetical order. With FAT file systems, the names are usually returned in the order the files were written to the disk, which may or may not be in alphabetical order. However, as stated previously, these behaviors are not guaranteed.

If the path points to a symbolic link, the WIN32_FIND_DATA buffer contains information about the symbolic link, not the target.

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Technology	Supported
Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol	Yes
SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO)	Yes
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO)	Yes
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS)	Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS)	Yes

Transacted Operations

If there is a transaction bound to the file enumeration handle, then the files that are returned are subject to transaction isolation rules.

Examples

For an example, see Listing the Files in a Directory.

Note

The fileapi.h header defines FindNextFile as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	fileapi.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Kernel32.lib
DLL	Kernel32.dll

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