Can Java access the search file system feature in the operating system?

In the recent versions of windows, you can hit the start menu and start typing to search for files across the filesystem. Is there a way to do that programmatically in Java?

My specific purpose is to allow the user to choose a file o开发者_JAVA百科r directory. The user could start typing a file name directly inside the application and it could start showing suggestions. Much easier than navigating directories in a typical file chooser.

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This post details a way to do this in Windows, by accessing the native functionality:

Query Windows Search from Java

And this one details how you can do something similar (using mdfind) under Mac OS:

http://lists.apple.com/archives/Java-dev/2006/Oct/msg00224.html

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What you're asking for in the second part of your question could be done with a simple:

File dir = new File( "/path/to/dir" );
String[] contents = dir.listFiles();

The first part is a bit harder, but it could be accomplished inside Java using the same technique called recursively. (for(String fl: contents){ /* do the above */ })

You don't want to worry about supporting wrappers around command line calls here. That is anti-platform independent.

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you could write JNI code to wrap+expose any windows native functionality.

If it's just for autocomplete style behavior in a file dialog, you don't need to wrap the native functionality, you can just use standard stuff in java.io.

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Sounds unlikely ti be a part of Java, since Java is supposed to be platform-independent. Such searches should require some sort of index over all files, to be efficient, also.