How do I properly use String literals for loading content?

Question

I've been using verbatim string literals for some time now, and never quite thought about using a regular string literal until I started to come across them in Microsoft provided XNA samples. With that said, I'm trying to implement a new AudioManager class from the Net Rumble sample.

I have two (2) issues here:

Question 1: In my code for my GameplayScreen screen I have a folder location written as the following, and it works fine:

menuButton = content.Load<SoundEffect>(@"sfx/menuButton");
menuClose = content.Load<SoundEffect>(@"sfx/menuClose");

If you notice, you'll see that I'm using a verbatim string, with a forward slash "/".

In the AudioManager class, they use a regular string literal, but with two backslashes "\". I understand that one is used as an escape, but why are they BACK instead of FORWARD? (See below)

soundList[soundName] = game.Content.Load<SoundEffect>("audio\\wav\\"+ soundName);

Question 2: I seem to be doing everything correctly in my AudioManager class, but I'm not sure of what this line means:

audioFileList = audioFolder.GetFiles("*.xnb");

I suppose that the *xnb means look for everything BUT files that end in *xnb? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with my file locations, as the sound effects are not playing. My code is not much different from what I've linked to above.

private AudioManager(Game game, DirectoryInfo audioDirectory) : base(game)
{
    try
    {
        audioFolder = audioDirectory;
        audioFileList = audioFolder.GetFiles("*.mp3");
        soundList = new Dictionary<string, SoundEffect>();

        for (int i = 0; i < audioFileList.Length; i++)
        {
            string soundName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(audioFileList[i].Name);
            soundList[soundName] = game.Content.Load<SoundEffect>(@"sfx\" + soundName);
            soundList[soundName].Name = soundName;
        }

        // Plays this track while the GameplayScreen is active
        soundtrack = game.Content.Load<Song>("boomer");
    }
    catch (NoAudioHardwareException)
    {
        // silently fall back to silence
    }
}

Answer 1

1. Different file systems use different delimiters between folders in paths. Unix/Linux based OSes use forward slashes. Windows generally uses backslashes however they also accept forward slashes. I personally use forward slashes but that's just out of habit since I spend some of my time on OS X.

2. GetFiles("*.xnb") will be looking only for XNB files in that directory (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8he88b63.aspx). Have you stepped through in the debugger to see what files it's finding, if any? When you create the AudioManager, how are you getting/creating that DirectoryInfo object? Is it pointing at the correct directory?

Answer 2

For question #1, the answer is that it doesn't really matter ... the path will work whether you use forward or backwards slashes. More specifically, the double backslash is because in a regular string the backslash is an escape character ... so if you want an actual backslash you have to use two of them (to escape the escape character). But if you use the verbatim string, you could do:

soundList[soundName] = game.Content.Load<SoundEffect>(@"audio\wav\"+ soundName);

the * character is a wild card ... so it means to list only files with the xnb extension