Number of files

June 1, 2005 4:15 AM

i'm getting a discrepancy between two methods of checking the number of files in a folder.

when i do the simple right click > properties, i'm getting 827 files. when doing a search within that folder for *.*, i'm getting 734.
i've got it set up so that hidden files are displayed.
something obvious i'm not seeing here?

posted by hayeled to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

How many subfolders are there?
posted by cillit bang at 4:36 AM on June 1, 2005

do all your files actually have a '.' in them?
posted by Cuppatea at 4:43 AM on June 1, 2005

Are you sure the counts aren't the wrong way around? A search for *.* will also list all subdirectories and count them as files (and yes, it will also find all files without extensions). So your right-click -> properties files + folders should equal your search *.* files. (972+74 = 1046 in my tests here).

The search also does find and list hidden files, so that shouldn't be the problem.
posted by splice at 5:28 AM on June 1, 2005

Response by poster: there are 56 subfolders, but i took that number off to arrive at the 734 files (790 objects total found in the search).
properties gives 827 files, 56 folders.
one thing i've since considered - some files (mp3s) have pictures of album covers in the track tags - would these be counted in some strange way? i'd just assumed they became part of the file. an mp3 with an album cover pic in it is still only one file isn't it?
posted by hayeled at 5:48 AM on June 1, 2005

What output do you get from DOS when you give the following command from that directory?

dir /s
posted by whatisish at 6:02 AM on June 1, 2005

Response by poster: whatisish: 734 File(s), 170 Dir(s)

after screens and screens of text. i think that's what you were asking? i'm not all that dos-familiar.
posted by hayeled at 6:12 AM on June 1, 2005

Sounds to me like the Search Subfolders option is turned off when you do the search.
posted by flabdablet at 9:34 AM on June 1, 2005

for the count of actual files, excluding directories, you can change whatisish'd DOS command to this:
dir /s /w /a-d

and for count of only directories use
dir /s /w /ad

(presuming you're using some variant of Windows)
posted by anadem at 9:57 AM on June 1, 2005

When you use the DOS command, each directory contains a < .> (parent) and < ..> (child) entry, each of which gets counted. With lots of subdirectories, these can pile up fast.
posted by KRS at 11:23 AM on June 1, 2005

Response by poster: well, this question's off the front page now, so it's probable no one is going to see this, but i did the dir/s/w/a-d and got a count of 827. had a look back through the list, and some of the subdirectories are listing files that aren't actually visible from windows explorer/my computer.
these are files that i had deleted (also removed from recycle bin). why are they still showing up? more importantly, how do i get rid of them?
posted by hayeled at 7:30 PM on June 1, 2005