Copying all files in SSIS without Foreach - ssis

Question

Is it possible to copy all the files from one folder to another without using foreach?
I have source as c:\test1*.txt
and destination as c:\test2
When I execute this using File System Task, I get the following error
An error occurred with the following error message: "Illegal characters in path.".

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible to copy all files from one folder to another. Below, my source is C:\test1 and my destination is C:\test2. The task below will copy all files from C:\test1 to C:\test2.
The error you are getting is due to the asterisk in your source. Are you trying to use a wildcard? The File System Task doesn't allow wildcards. Check out the documentation on the File System Task, below is an excerpt:
The File System task operates on a single file or directory.
Therefore, this task does not support the use of wildcard characters
to perform the same operation on multiple files. To have the File
System task repeat an operation on multiple files or directories, put
the File System task in a Foreach Loop container, as described in the
following steps:
Configure the Foreach Loop container On the Collection page of the
Foreach Loop Editor, set the enumerator to Foreach File Enumerator and
enter the wildcard expression as the enumerator configuration for
Files. On the Variable Mappings page of the Foreach Loop Editor, map a
variable that you want to use to pass the file names one at a time to
the File System task.
Add and configure a File System task Add a
File System task to the Foreach Loop container. On the General page of
the File System Task Editor, set the SourceVariable or
DestinationVariable property to the variable that you defined in the
Foreach Loop container.
The other option is to write a copy routine in a Script Task:
string fileName = string.Empty;
string destFile = string.Empty;
string sourcePath = #"C:\test1";
string targetPath = #"C:\test2";
// Create a new target folder, if necessary.
if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(targetPath))
{
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(targetPath);
}
if (System.IO.Directory.Exists(sourcePath))
{
string wildcard = "*.txt";
string[] files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(sourcePath, wildcard);
// Copy the files and overwrite destination files if they already exist.
foreach (string s in files)
{
fileName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(s);
destFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(targetPath, fileName);
System.IO.File.Copy(s, destFile, true);
}
}
else
{
throw new Exception("Source path does not exist!");
}

Answer 2

Or an execute process task with this in it:
COPY c:\test1*.txt c:\test2
This code is 25x more efficient at reducing keyboard wear than a script task. :p