C# List all "leaf" subdirectories with EnumerateDirectories

Question

Good morning all, I have a folder which contains thousands of subdirectories at different depths. I need to list all of the directories which don't contain subdirectories (the proverbial "end of the line"). It's fine if they contain files. Is there a way to do this with EnumerateDirectories?

For example, if a fully recursive EnumerateDirectories returned:

/files/
/files/q
/files/q/1
/files/q/2
/files/q/2/examples
/files/7
/files/7/eb
/files/7/eb/s
/files/7/eb/s/t

I'm only interested in:

/files/q/1
/files/q/2/examples
/files/7/eb/s/t

Answer 1

This should work:

var folderWithoutSubfolder = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
     .Where(f => !Directory.EnumerateDirectories(f, "*.*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly).Any());

Answer 2

If you want to avoid calling EnumerateDirectories() twice for each directory, you can implement it like so:

public IEnumerable<string> EnumerateLeafFolders(string root)
{
    bool anySubfolders = false;

    foreach (var subfolder in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root))
    {
        anySubfolders = true;

        foreach (var leafFolder in EnumerateLeafFolders(subfolder))
            yield return leafFolder;
    }

    if (!anySubfolders)
        yield return root;
}

---

I did some timing tests, and for me this approach is more than twice as fast as using the Linq approach.

I ran this test using a release build, run outside of any debugger. I ran it on an SSD containing a large number of folders - the total number of LEAF folders was 25035.

My results for the SECOND run of the program (the first run was to preheat the disk cache):

Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.2707813
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6457477
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.0668787
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.5960438
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.1501002
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6589386
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.1325582
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6563730
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:07.9994754
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.5616040
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.0803573
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.5892681
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.1216921
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6571429
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.1437973
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6606362
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.0058955
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.6477621
Calling Using linq.  1 times took 00:00:08.1084669
Calling Using yield. 1 times took 00:00:03.5875057

As you can see, using the yield approach is significantly faster. (Probably because it doesn't enumerate each folder twice.)

My test code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

namespace Demo
{
    class Program
    {
        private void run()
        {
            string root = "F:\\TFROOT";

            Action test1 = () => leafFolders1(root).Count();
            Action test2 = () => leafFolders2(root).Count();

            for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
            {
                test1.TimeThis("Using linq.");
                test2.TimeThis("Using yield.");
            }
        }

        static void Main()
        {
            new Program().run();
        }

        static IEnumerable<string> leafFolders1(string root)
        {
            var folderWithoutSubfolder = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
                 .Where(f => !Directory.EnumerateDirectories(f, "*.*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly).Any());

            return folderWithoutSubfolder;
        }

        static IEnumerable<string> leafFolders2(string root)
        {
            bool anySubfolders = false;

            foreach (var subfolder in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root))
            {
                anySubfolders = true;

                foreach (var leafFolder in leafFolders2(subfolder))
                    yield return leafFolder;
            }

            if (!anySubfolders)
                yield return root;
        }
    }

    static class DemoUtil
    {
        public static void Print(this object self)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(self);
        }

        public static void Print(this string self)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(self);
        }

        public static void Print<T>(this IEnumerable<T> self)
        {
            foreach (var item in self)
                Console.WriteLine(item);
        }

        public static void TimeThis(this Action action, string title, int count = 1)
        {
            var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();

            for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i)
                action();

            Console.WriteLine("Calling {0} {1} times took {2}",  title, count, sw.Elapsed);
        }
    }
}