Quick Reference - .Net File Open Dialog

02 September 2016

Making a file open dialog can be a bit laborious and I always forget which fields to fill in, so here’s my current copy-pasta for the task.

In C#

string fileExt = ".xlsx";
string filter = string.Format("Excel files (*{0})|*{0}", fileExt);
var loadDialog = new OpenFileDialog()
{
	Filter = filter,
	Title = "Open a service plan",
	Multiselect  = false,
	DefaultExt = fileExt,
	ValidateNames = true,
	InitialDirectory = Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments
};

var result = loadDialog.ShowDialog();

if (result == DialogResult.OK)
{
	MessageBox.Show(loadDialog.FileName);
}

In VB

Dim loadDialog As New OpenFileDialog
Dim fileExt As String = ".xlsx"
With loadDialog
	.Filter = String.Format("Excel workbook (*{0})|*{0}", fileExt)
	.Title = "Select a workbook with source data"
	.Multiselect = False
	.DefaultExt = fileExt
	.ValidateNames = True
	.InitialDirectory = Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments
End With

Dim result = loadDialog.ShowDialog()

If result = DialogResult.OK Then
	MessageBox.Show(loadDialog.FileName)
End If