PromptPlus

# PromptPlus ## **MultiFile — Operations** [](https://www.nuget.org/packages/PromptPlus) [](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) [](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/)

← Back to Home • Next: MultiFile — Styles →

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How the MultiFile control behaves while it is running: keyboard, tree navigation, checking, cascade and recursive marking, the count range, validation, history, and the values it returns.

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Anatomy of the control

Check files or folders: Program.cs  1.2 KB ← prompt + live answer (path + size, follows the cursor)
Space to check, Enter to confirm         ← description (optional)
C:\Projects                              ← root folder
+- ▼ [x] src                             ← expanded, checked folder
│    › [x] Program.cs      1.2 KB        ← focused, checked file + size
│      [ ] Startup.cs      3.4 KB        ← unchecked file
+- ▶ [ ] docs                            ← collapsed folder
+- [x] README.md           0.8 KB
Checked: 3                               ← tagged info (count)
Page 1/2                                 ← pagination
Space: check  Enter: confirm  Esc: cancel ← tooltip

The live answer shows the size next to the path for a focused file (omitted for folders, and omitted entirely when HideSize is set), reachable via Home/End/←/→ scrolling if the path is too long to fit. The final answer after Enter shows the checked-items summary (paths only, no size).

Every region can be recolored — see Styles.

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Tree navigation

MultiFile is a lazy tree browser: a folder’s children are read only when you expand it, and released when you collapse it. Checked entries are tracked by their full path, so a selection survives collapsing and re-expanding its branch.

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move focus up / down
+	Expand the focused folder (plain → does not expand)
-	Collapse the focused folder (plain ← does not collapse)
Tab	On a folder: expand it (if needed) and move to its first child. On a file: move to the next item
Shift+Tab	On a folder’s first child: collapse the parent and move to it. Otherwise: move to the previous item
Space	Check / uncheck (recursive on folders by default — see below)
Ctrl+Space	Recursive folder mark, when RecursiveMarkWithCtrlSpace is on
F2	Toggle all (check / uncheck everything currently loaded)
F3	Filter the list to show only checked items; press again to restore the full list
Page Up / Page Down	Jump one page
Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End	First / last visible item (plain Home/End instead scroll the long-path answer text — see the anatomy note above)
Enter	Confirm the checked entries (subject to the range)
Esc	Abort → IsAborted == true
Shift+F3	Toggle the summary between full path and short name
F1	Cycle tooltip content
Ctrl+F1	Show / hide the tooltip

⚠️ There is no F4 wildcard-select feature — HotKeySelectWildcard/F4 was dead config that has since been removed. Use Space/Ctrl+Space (above) for recursive folder marking instead.

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Checking, cascade & recursive marking

How Space behaves on a folder depends on two settings:

CascadeCheck	RecursiveMarkWithCtrlSpace	Space on a folder	Ctrl+Space on a folder
true (default)	false (default)	Recursively checks the folder and everything under it	—
true	true	Toggles only the folder itself	Recursively checks the folder and everything under it
false	—	Toggles only the folder itself	—

• CascadeCheck governs whether folder state propagates to descendants.
• RecursiveMarkWithCtrlSpace moves the recursive action to Ctrl+Space and keeps plain Space for single-item toggling.
• F4 performs a wildcard/recursive select under the focused folder, and F2 toggles all currently loaded entries at once.

On files, Space always toggles just that file.

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What can be checked

• SearchPattern filters files by wildcard; directories always show.
• OnlyFolders hides files entirely.
• SelectFilesOnly lets folders be expanded and browsed but not checked — only files enter the result.
• ShowHidden / ShowSystem add Hidden/System entries; both off by default.

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The count range

Range(min, max?) enforces how many items must be checked:

• Enter is blocked until at least min items are checked.
• If max is set, checking beyond it is prevented (or reported).
• Omit max (pass null) for a minimum-only rule.

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Validation with a predicate

PredicateChecked / PredicateCheckedAsync decides whether an item may be checked:

• For an individual toggle, a rejection shows the optional message as an error line and the item stays unchecked.
• During a mass selection (recursive folder, F4 wildcard, F2 check-all), rejected items are silently skipped — no error is shown.
• The async predicate is awaited synchronously (blocking) on the UI thread for a single toggle, but runs on a background thread during recursive selection — keep it thread-safe and UI-free.

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Full-path display

The summary shows either each entry’s short name or its full path. ShowFullPath sets the initial choice; the user can flip it with Shift+F3. This affects only the display — each FileItem.FullPath always carries the complete path.

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Initial values & history

• Default(fullPaths) pre-checks the given paths and expands the tree to the first one under the Root.
• With EnableHistory, the confirmed paths are stored on disk; on the next run they become the defaults and the tree expands to the first.
• History options (MinPrefixLength, MaxItems, ExpirationTime, FilterType, PageSize) match the Input history options.

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The FileItem results

Run() returns ResultPrompt<FileItem[]>. Each FileItem is a sealed class (not System.IO.FileInfo — there is no FullName):

Member	Type	Meaning
FullPath	string	Full path on disk (ToString() returns this)
Name	string	Display name of the entry
IsDirectory	bool	true for folders
Length	long	Size in bytes; 0 for directories
LastWriteTime	DateTime	Last write timestamp

var result = PromptPlus.Controls.MultiFile("Check").Root(root).Run();
if (!result.IsAborted)
{
    foreach (var f in result.Content)
        PromptPlus.Console.WriteLine($"{f.FullPath} (dir: {f.IsDirectory}, size: {f.Length})");
}

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Options that change behavior

Set per instance via Options(...), or globally on PromptPlus.Config:

Option	Effect on MultiFile
EnabledAbortKey(false)	Removes Esc — the user must confirm
HideAfterFinish(true)	Erases the tree after confirm — the whole control is erased, not just the interactive part
ShowTooltip(false)	Hides the keyboard hint line
Prompt(...) / Description(...)	Overrides the prompt / description text

PageSize can be set per control (PageSize) or globally (PromptPlus.Config.PageSize).

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Edge cases & gotchas

• Aborted results carry an empty .Content array — iterating is still safe, but branch on IsAborted when it matters.
• FileItem is not FileInfo — use FullPath, not FullName.
• Length is 0 for directories — check IsDirectory before treating it as a file size.
• Recursive marking may touch many entries — a predicate keeps unwanted files out silently.
• Large roots are fine — lazy loading means only expanded folders are read.

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See also

• Methods — the API these behaviors come from
• Keyboard Bindings — full physical-key reference
• File → Operations — the single-selection sibling
• Global Behaviors — the config layer behind Options

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