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[VB.NET] Get File type by extension


Question

Hello gang,

Writing a little app to help users to create projects of files related to other files (rather simple, I know) and while I can get the associated icon via the "ExtractAssociatedIcon" function I cannot find a way to get the File's document type by it's association. For example if you look at the status bar of the Windows Explorer you can see "Adobe Photoshop Image" when I select a PSD file.

Any ideas?

post-45653-0-70870700-1305577789.jpg

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7 answers to this question

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  • 0
  On 17/05/2011 at 11:30, mute~ said:

Is this of any help?

Private Function lol(ByVal extension As String) As String
        Dim readValue As String
        readValue = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue _
        ("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & extension, "", "ExtensionNotFound")
        Return readValue
End Function

Thanks, that kind of works, I was hoping for a native function as this returns a badly formatted string. eg: ".doc" returns "Word.Document.8"

But thanks, it is something. Have a great day.

  • 0
  On 17/05/2011 at 12:32, jameswjrose said:

Thanks, that kind of works, I was hoping for a native function as this returns a badly formatted string. eg: ".doc" returns "Word.Document.8"

But thanks, it is something. Have a great day.

Yeah sorry, best I could think of while trying to navigate ;)

Will have a think about it when I get back on Monday if no-one has solved it before then.

  • 0
  On 18/05/2011 at 11:34, mute~ said:

Yeah sorry, best I could think of while trying to navigate ;)

Will have a think about it when I get back on Monday if no-one has solved it before then.

Please, do not apologize. Thank you very much for an answer! Have a great week.

  • 0
  On 17/05/2011 at 12:32, jameswjrose said:

Thanks, that kind of works, I was hoping for a native function as this returns a badly formatted string. eg: ".doc" returns "Word.Document.8"

But thanks, it is something. Have a great day.

Then use that string to get it, eg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8 and it has "Microsoft Office Word 97 - 2003 Document" as the default value.

  • Like 1
  • 0

Hi,

Managed to find some free time, hope this is more helpful:

    Public Shared Function GetFileExtType(ByVal fileExtension As String) As String
        Dim FileExtensionName As String = ""

        For Each subKey As String In Registry.ClassesRoot.GetSubKeyNames()
            If String.IsNullOrEmpty(subKey) Then
                Continue For
            End If

            If subKey.CompareTo(fileExtension) = 0 Then
                Dim defaultValue As String = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subKey).GetValue("").ToString()

                If defaultValue.Length = 0 Then
                    Exit For
                End If

                If FileExtensionName.Length = 0 Then
                    FileExtensionName = defaultValue
                    fileExtension = FileExtensionName
                Else
                    If defaultValue.Length > 0 Then
                        FileExtensionName = defaultValue
                    End If
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Next
        Return FileExtensionName
    End Function

  • 0
  On 19/05/2011 at 19:01, mute~ said:

Hi,

Managed to find some free time, hope this is more helpful:

    Public Shared Function GetFileExtType(ByVal fileExtension As String) As String
        Dim FileExtensionName As String = ""

        For Each subKey As String In Registry.ClassesRoot.GetSubKeyNames()
            If String.IsNullOrEmpty(subKey) Then
                Continue For
            End If

            If subKey.CompareTo(fileExtension) = 0 Then
                Dim defaultValue As String = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subKey).GetValue("").ToString()

                If defaultValue.Length = 0 Then
                    Exit For
                End If

                If FileExtensionName.Length = 0 Then
                    FileExtensionName = defaultValue
                    fileExtension = FileExtensionName
                Else
                    If defaultValue.Length > 0 Then
                        FileExtensionName = defaultValue
                    End If
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Next
        Return FileExtensionName
    End Function

Thanks, you're too kind. It works perfectly.

If you care, here is the app it is going into: Blissgig.com: b.Link

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