How do you get a list of the names of all files present in a directory in Node.js?

Question

I'm trying to get a list of the names of all the files present in a directory using Node.js. I want output that is an array of filenames. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can use the fs.readdir or fs.readdirSync methods. fs is included in Node.js core, so there's no need to install anything.

fs.readdir

const testFolder = './tests/'; const fs = require('fs');  fs.readdir(testFolder, (err, files) => {   files.forEach(file => {     console.log(file);   }); }); 

fs.readdirSync

const testFolder = './tests/'; const fs = require('fs');  fs.readdirSync(testFolder).forEach(file => {   console.log(file); }); 

The difference between the two methods, is that the first one is asynchronous, so you have to provide a callback function that will be executed when the read process ends.

The second is synchronous, it will return the file name array, but it will stop any further execution of your code until the read process ends.

Answer 2

IMO the most convenient way to do such tasks is to use a glob tool. Here's a glob package for node.js. Install with

npm install glob 

Then use wild card to match filenames (example taken from package's website)

var glob = require("glob")  // options is optional glob("**/*.js", options, function (er, files) {   // files is an array of filenames.   // If the `nonull` option is set, and nothing   // was found, then files is ["**/*.js"]   // er is an error object or null. }) 

If you are planning on using globby here is an example to look for any xml files that are under current folder

var globby = require('globby');  const paths = await globby("**/*.xml");