How can I list the files in a folder in physical order in Visual Basic?

Question

In VB.NET (Visual Basic) I would like to list the files in a Windows folder in the physical order that they were stored on the disc. I have some mp3 players that do not sort the songs in alphabetic order, but just play them in the order that they were stored in the disc. Example:

I copy the files to a folder in this order and the mp3 player plays them in the same order:

04 Song 4
07 Song 7
01 Song 1
06 Song 6
02 Song 2

I am not talking about a Visual Basic program playing the songs. My Juke Box program works fine. I am talking about a little radio/mp3 player, and the infotainment system in one of my cars. I would like to use Visual Basic to show me the order they will be played in, to tell me if I need to re-store all of them or if the folder will play correctly. If I use a DOS command prompt and a DIR command, it shows them in their physical order. I want to be able to do that with Visual Basic.

I do not want to run a DOS command. It would be nice to get the file names and directory info into the program.

Googling has provided me with no help.

I have looked at the parameters on the FileIO.FileSystem.GetFiles(...) command and see nothing of any help.

Answer 1

Ok, for a simple example, you can pull files from a folder like this:

Private Sub ListBoxPicture_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

    Dim sPicturesDir = "c:\test\balls"
    Dim f As New DirectoryInfo(sPicturesDir)
    Dim fFiles = f.GetFiles("*.png")

    For Each fL As FileInfo In fFiles
        ListBox1.Items.Add(fL.Name)
    Next

End Sub

Now, in above I used *.png, but you could of course use *.mp3

So, I created a form with a listbox, and the result is now this:

And the order is the same as the files in the folder

Say this:

And if you wish, you can show the full file name with this code:

        ListBox1.Items.Add(fL.FullName)

And the result is now this:

And since we using "FileInfo", then the size of the file is also available.

Say this:

        ListBox1.Items.Add(fL.Name & " (" & fL.Length & ")")

And we now have this:

So, there is no sorting or changing order of the files in that folder, and as above shows, files are returned in the order they have in that folder.