IsDirectoryEmpty

Delphi function to Determine if a Directory is Empty (no files, no sub-folders)

Delphi does not provide any "ready made" RTL function to test if a given directory (folder) is empty, i.e. contains no files or sub-folders.

Is Directory Empty

Here's a custom Delphi function which returns true if a given directory (folder) is empty.

//returns true if a given directory is empty, false otherwise
function IsDirectoryEmpty(const directory : string) : boolean;
var
  searchRec :TSearchRec;
begin
  try
   result := (FindFirst(directory+'\*.*', faAnyFile, searchRec) = 0) AND
             (FindNext(searchRec) = 0) AND
             (FindNext(searchRec) <> 0) ;
  finally
    FindClose(searchRec) ;
  end;
end;

Usage:

var
  directory : string;
  isEmpty : boolean;
begin
  //directory := 'c:\Program Files';
  directory := 'c:\New Folder';

  isEmpty := IsDirectoryEmpty(directory) ;

  ShowMessage(BoolToStr(isEmpty,true)) ;
end;

Note: the IsDirectoryEmpty does not check if a directory exists. Use the DirecotryExists to determine whether a given directory exists.

The IsDirectoryEmpty uses FindFirst, FindNext and FindClose to look "inside" the directory provided. Those three functions are explined in details in the "Searching For Files" article.

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