How to Specify Filters in OpenFileDialog: Windows Forms

To open an existing file on the system, open file dialog box is used. Create an object of OpenFileDialog class and call the ShowMethod() to open this type of dialog box. I have explained about this dialog box in my previous article i.e. Use OpenFileDialog to open an existing file.

In many Software, we can select only the specified type of file such as excel, word or text files. In Windows forms we can also use this feature by using filters for this dialog box.

Add a windows form project and write the following code in C# language:

OpenFileDialog ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
ofd.Filter = "jpg files: |*.jpg";
ofd.Title = "Images";
ofd.ShowDialog();

Now in the above code, I have specified the type of file, user have to select. Using above code the user have to select only jpg files. Run this code and it will show an open file dialog look like the following:

We can change these filter as per our requirements, even we can specify some more filters in a single file dialog. Check out the below line of code:

ofd.Filter = "jpg files: |*.jpg; *.jpeg;*.png";

The above line, when used, can select these three type of files as specified.

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