PRB: FileListBox Control May Not List File Names Properly

Under some conditions, file names may not appear or may be listed improperly in the FileListBox control.

To work around this problem, you can use the Dir() function to obtain a list of files in a directory and programmatically populate a Listbox with the file names. When a user double-clicks a file name in the Listbox, you may retrieve the name in the Listbox's dblClick event.

Steps to Resolve

1. Open a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
2. Add a DriveListBox, DirListBox, and a ListBox to the form.
3. Add the following code to the form's code window:

         Option Explicit
   
         Private Sub Drive1_Change()
           ' Inform the DirListBox of the Drive change.
           Dir1.Path = Drive1.List(Drive1.ListIndex)
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub Dir1_Change()
          ' Obtain the file names from the new directory and populate
          ' the ListBox.
          Dim strCurrentPath As String
          Dim strFileName As String
   
          If Right(Dir1.Path, 1) = "\" Then
              strCurrentPath = Dir1.Path
          Else
              strCurrentPath = Dir1.Path & "\"
          End If
   
          ' Clear the Listbox.
          List1.Clear
   
          ' Populate the Listbox with the file names.
          strFileName = Dir(strCurrentPath)
   
          Do While strFileName <> ""
              List1.AddItem strFileName
              strFileName = Dir
          Loop
   
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub List1_DblClick()
          ' Retrieve the text from the currently selected item.
          MsgBox List1.List(List1.ListIndex)
         End Sub
   
   						

4. Run the project. As you change drives and directories, the Listbox will populate with the names of any files in the directory. Double-clicking a file name in the Listbox will cause a message box to display the chosen file name.

Problems with the FileListBox has been know to occur with shares on Netware Servers and on NT Servers where the 8.3 filenames have been disabled.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Visual Basic Help, search on: "Dir function"