List Files

List Files

Type: list-files  ·  Package: Filesystem Activities v1.0.6  ·  Output: List

Returns a list of paths of the files (or folders) inside a directory. It is the basis of processes that work on many files: go through every Excel workbook in a folder, process each downloaded PDF, archive what arrived today. It supports patterns (*.xlsx), searching sub-folders and filtering by kind.

How it works

Lists the content of the path folder. It filters by pattern, optionally goes into sub-folders (recursive) and decides whether to include files, folders or both (include). It returns the paths as a list of texts, which you usually loop over with For Each.

• Order: paths come sorted alphabetically. With include = all, all folders come first and then all files.
• Full paths: each item is the given folder plus the name (and sub-folders, when recursive = true), ready to pass to another activity.
• Snapshot: the list reflects the folder when the activity runs; files arriving later are not included.
• No side effects: it only reads the folder.

Required parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
path	string	—	Folder to list. E.g. C:\downloads.

Optional parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
pattern	string	"*"	Filter by name with wildcards: * (any sequence) and ? (one character). E.g. *.xlsx, invoice_*.pdf. A single pattern; ** and lists such as *.pdf;*.xml are not supported.
recursive	bool	false	Include the content of every sub-folder.
include	string	"files"	What to include: files, directories or all (both).

Output

Returns a List of string with the matching paths. If nothing matches, it returns an empty list (it does not fail): check it with count(files) == 0.

Common errors

Message	Cause and fix
Directory not found.	path does not exist or is not a folder. Create it first with Create Directory or check the path.
Access to the path '…' is denied.	No permission on the folder or (with recursive = true) on one of its sub-folders: in that case the whole search fails.
'path' is required.	The path expression evaluated to null.

Example

Process every Excel workbook in a folder and its sub-folders:

List Files   path = "C:/data"   pattern = "*.xlsx"   recursive = true   → output: files
Log   message = "Found " + count(files) + " files"

For Each   items = files   itemVariable = path
 └─ activities:
      Read Excel Sheet   path = path   → output: table
      ... process ...

Patterns

pattern uses wildcards: * (any sequence) and ? (one character). Examples: *.pdf (every PDF), report_*.xlsx (those starting with report_), 2026-??-*.csv. For more complex filters, list everything and filter afterwards with expressions (regex).

Related activities

• For Each — loop over the listed files.
• Move File / Copy File — act on each file.
• File Exists — check a specific file.