Develop Reference

How to Get current date and create directory Everyday in C#?

get current date and make directory and second when directory is created, in that directory I have to store excel file and also save file as current date.
String Todaysdate = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
if (!Directory.Exists("C:\\Users\\Krupal\\Desktop\\" + Todaysdate))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory("C:\\Users\\Krupal\\Desktop\\" + Todaysdate);
}
This code have made directory with current date.
But when I want to store file in that directory, it generates the error:
Could not find a part of the path
'D:\WORK\RNSB\RNSB\bin\Debug\22-01-2020\22-01-2020.XLS
Belove path is store excel file that i have to store.
using (System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter(Todaysdate+"\\"+DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") +".XLS"))

Actually you are making the directory in a path then you are saving the .xls in another path.
You are making the directory using this path:
"C:\\Users\\Krupal\\Desktop\\" + Todaysdate
Then, here the path where you are trying to save the .xls:
Todaysdate+"\\"+DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") +".XLS"
The error shows the problem clearly, it could not fin this path:
D:\WORK\RNSB\RNSB\bin\Debug\22-01-2020\22-01-2020.XLS
While creating the .xls you are omitting the root path, so the process looks for the path 22-01-2020\22-01-2020.XLS in his working directory D:\WORK\RNSB\RNSB\bin\Debug.
You just need to align those paths: I sugget you to use relative paths, so here how you should fix your code:
String Todaysdate = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
if (!Directory.Exists(Todaysdate))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(Todaysdate);
}
//then
using (System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter(Todaysdate+"\\"+DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") +".XLS"))

I presume you are running your WinForms application in Debug mode. This means that your current path is [your application path]\bin\Debug. If you look in file explorer, you will find that an executable has been created there. When using StreamWriter without an absolute file name, the file it tries to create is relative to the current execution path (in your case 'D:\WORK\RNSB\RNSB\bin\Debug'). StreamWriter will create a new file, if one does not exist, but it will not create a new folder, and you are passing it Todaysdate + "\\" which is effectively a new folder. Hence you are getting the error message.
To fix your problem, you need to provide the absolute path to your newly created directory thus:
using (System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter("C:\\Users\\Krupal\\Desktop\\" + Todaysdate+"\\"+DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") +".XLS"))

Winforms always expect directories inside Debug Folder, since it's EXE file is inside Debug and try to find it inside Debug folder.
In error it clearly shows that it is looking inside "Debug" folder.
Can you check whether File Exists in the mentioned folder created by you in C Drive.
// To Write File
System.IO.File.WriteAllLines(#"C:\Users\Public\TestFolder\WriteLines.txt", lines);
You can follow this MSDN Post, hope it helps, if Yes, please Upvote it
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/file-system/how-to-write-to-a-text-file

"Could not find a part of the path" error message

I am programming in c# and want to copy a folder with subfolders from a flash disk to startup.
Here is my code:
private void copyBat()
{
try
{
string source_dir = "E:\\Debug\\VipBat";
string destination_dir = "C:\\Users\\pc\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup";
if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(destination_dir))
{
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(destination_dir);
}
// Create subdirectory structure in destination
foreach (string dir in Directory.GetDirectories(source_dir, "*", System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(destination_dir + dir.Substring(source_dir.Length));
}
foreach (string file_name in Directory.GetFiles(source_dir, "*.*", System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
File.Copy(file_name, destination_dir + file_name.Substring(source_dir.Length), true);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.Message, "HATA", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Warning);
}
}
I got an error:
Could not find a part of the path E:\Debug\VipBat

The path you are trying to access is not present.
string source_dir = "E:\\Debug\\VipBat\\{0}";
I'm sure that this is not the correct path. Debug folder directly in E: drive looks wrong to me. I guess there must be the project name folder directory present.
Second thing; what is {0} in your string. I am sure that it is an argument placeholder because folder name cannot contains {0} such name. So you need to use String.Format() to replace the actual value.
string source_dir = String.Format("E:\\Debug\\VipBat\\{0}",variableName);
But first check the path existence that you are trying to access.

There's something wrong. You have written:
string source_dir = #"E:\\Debug\\VipBat\\{0}";
and the error was
Could not find a part of the path E\Debug\VCCSBat
This is not the same directory.
In your code there's a problem, you have to use:
string source_dir = #"E:\Debug\VipBat"; // remove {0} and the \\ if using #
or
string source_dir = "E:\\Debug\\VipBat"; // remove {0} and the # if using \\

Is the drive E a mapped drive? Then, it can be created by another account other than the user account. This may be the cause of the error.

I had the same error, although in my case the problem was with the formatting of the DESTINATION path. The comments above are correct with respect to debugging the path string formatting, but there seems to be a bug in the File.Copy exception reporting where it still throws back the SOURCE path instead of the DESTINATION path. So don't forget to look here as well.
-TC

Probably unrelated, but consider using Path.Combine instead of destination_dir + dir.Substring(...). From the look of it, your .Substring() will leave a backlash at the beginning, but the helper classes like Path are there for a reason.

There can be one of the two cause for this error:
Path is not correct - but it is less likely as CreateDirectory should create any path unless path itself is not valid, read invalid characters
Account through which your application is running don't have rights to create directory at path location, like if you are trying to create directory on shared drive with not enough privileges etc

File.Copy(file_name, destination_dir + file_name.Substring(source_dir.Length), true);
This line has the error because what the code expected is the directory name + file name, not the file name.
This is the correct one
File.Copy(source_dir + file_name, destination_dir + file_name.Substring(source_dir.Length), true);

We just had this error message occur because the full path was greater than 260 characters -- the Windows limit for a path and file name. The error message is misleading in this case, but shortening the path solved it for us, if that's an option.

I resolved a similar issue by simply restarting Visual Studio with admin rights.
The problem was because it couldn't open one project related to Sharepoint without elevated access.

This could also be the issue: Space in the folder name
Example:
Let this be your path:
string source_dir = #"E:\Debug\VipBat";
If you try accessing this location without trying to check if directory exists, and just in case the directory had a space at the end, like :
"VipBat    ", instead of just "VipBat" the space at the end will not be visible when you see in the file explorer.
So make sure you got the correct folder name and dont add spaces to folder names. And a best practice is to check if folder exists before you keep the file there.

Directory.Move(): Access to Path is Denied

I'm writing this Windows Form Application in Visual Studio 2010 using C#.
There is a Execute button on the form, the user will hit the button, the program will generate some files and are stored in the Output folder (which is created by the program using Directory.CreateDirectory())
I want to create an Archive folder to save the output files from previous runs.
In the beginning of each run, I try to move the existing Output folder to the Archive folder, then create a new Output folder. Below is the function I ran to move directory.
static void moveToArchive()
{
if (!Directory.Exists("Archive")) Directory.CreateDirectory("Archive");
string timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
try
{
Directory.Move("Output", "Archive\\" + timestamp);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder: " + e.Message);
}
}
The problem I ran into confuses me a lot...
There are some times that I can successfully move the Output folder to archive, but sometimes it fails.
The error message I got from catching the exception is Access to path 'Output' is denied.
I have checked that all the files in the Output folder are not in use. I don't understand how access is denied sometimes and not all the times.
Can someone explain to me and show me how to resolve the problem?
--Edit--
After HansPassant comment, I modified the function a little to get the current directory and use the full path. However, I'm still having the same issue.
The function now looks like this:
static void moveToArchive()
{
string currentDir = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Console.WriteLine("Current Directory = " + currentDir);
if (!Directory.Exists(currentDir + "\\Archive")) Directory.CreateDirectory(currentDir + "\\Archive");
string timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
try
{
Directory.Move(currentDir + "\\Output", currentDir + "\\Archive\\" + timestamp);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder: " + e.Message);
}
}
I printed out the current directory and it is just as what I was expecting, and I'm still having trouble using full path. Access to path 'C:\Users\Me\Desktop\FormApp\Output' is denied.
--Edit--
Thank you everyone for answering and commenting.
I think some of you miss this part so I'm going stress it a bit more.
The Directory.Move() sometimes work and sometimes fails.
When the function succeed, there was no problem. Output folder is moved to Archive
When the function fails, the exception message I got was Access to path denied.

Thank you all for the replies and help. I have figured out what the issue was.
It is because there was a file that's not completely closed.
I was checking the files that were generated, and missed the files the program was reading from.
All files that were generated were closed completely. It was one file I used StreamReader to open but didn't close. I modified the code and am now not having problem, so I figure that's were the issue was.
Thanks for all the comments and answers, that definitely help me with thinking and figuring out the problem.

See http://windowsxp.mvps.org/processlock.htm
Sometimes, you try to move or delete a file or folder and receive access violation or file in use - errors. To successfully delete a file, you will need to identify the process which has locked the file. You need to exit the process first and then delete the particular file. To know which process has locked a file, you may use one of the methods discussed in this article.
Using Process Explorer - download from http://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip
Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Download Process Explorer from Microsoft site and run the program.
Click the Find menu, and choose Find Handle or DLL...
Type the file name (name of the file which is locked by some process.)
After typing the search phrase, click the Search button
You should see the list of applications which are accessing the file.

I bumped on the same problem recently. Using PE I'd figured that only process using that particular directory was explorer.exe. I'd opened few windows with explorer, one pointing to parent directory of one that I was about to move.
It appeared, that after I visited that sub-folder and then returned (even to root level!) the handle was still being kept by explorer, so C# was not able to modify it in any way (changing flags, attributes etc.).
I had to kill that explorer window in order to made C# operate properly.

File.SetAttributes(Application.dataPath + "/script", FileAttributes.Normal);
Directory.Move(Application.dataPath + "/script", Application.dataPath + "/../script");
This fixed my problem.

Try this:
If this does not solve, maybe check/change the antivirus, or the some other program is locking some file in or the folder.
static object moveLocker = new object();
static void moveToArchive()
{
lock (moveLocker)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000); // Give sometime to ensure all file are closed.
//Environment.CurrentDirectory = System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
string applicationPath = System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
string archiveBaseDirectoryPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(applicationPath, "Archive");
if (!Directory.Exists(archiveBaseDirectoryPath)) Directory.CreateDirectory(archiveBaseDirectoryPath);
String timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
String outputDirectory = System.IO.Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "Output");
String destinationTS = System.IO.Path.Combine(archiveBaseDirectoryPath, timestamp);
try
{
Directory.Move(outputDirectory, destinationTS);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder " + outputDirectory + " to: " + destinationTS + "\n" + ex.Message);
}
}
}

I had the same problem, it failed sometimes but not all the time. I thought I'd wrap it in a Try Catch block and present the user with an Access Denied message and once I wrapped it in the Try Catch block it stopped failing. I can't explain why.
If existingFile.FileName <> newFileName Then
Dim dir As New IO.DirectoryInfo(existingFile.FilePath)
Dim path As String = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(dir.FullName)
newFileName = path & "\" & newFileName
File.SetAttributes(existingFile.FilePath, FileAttributes.Normal)
Try
IO.File.Move(existingFile.FilePath, newFileName)
Catch ex As Exception
End Try
End If

I had a similar problem. Renamed many directories in a loop when following the certain template. From time to time the program crashed on different directories. It helped to add a sleep thread before Directory.Move. I need to create some delay.
But it slows down the copying process.
foreach (var currentFullDirPath in Directory.GetDirectories(startTargetFullDirectory, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
var shortCurrentFolderName = new DirectoryInfo(currentFullDirPath).Name.ToLower();
if (shortCurrentFolderName.Contains(shortSourceDirectoryName))
{
// Add Thread.Sleep(1000);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
var newFullDirName = ...;
Directory.Move(currentFullDirPath, newFullDirName);
}
}

System.UnauthorizedAccessException while creating a file

I was trying to write a code so that I could log the error messages. I am trying to name the file with the date and would like to create a new log file for each day. After going through a little look around, I came with the following code...
class ErrorLog
{
public void WriteErrorToFile(string error)
{
//http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa326721.aspx refer for more info
string fileName = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yy", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
//# symbol helps to ignore that escape sequence thing
string filePath = #"c:\users\MyName\mydocuments\visual studio 2012\projects\training\" +
#"discussionboard\ErrorLog\" + fileName + ".txt";
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
// File.SetAttributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal);
File.WriteAllText(filePath, error);
}
else
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(filePath);
// File.SetAttributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal)
//Throws unauthorized access exception
RemoveReadOnlyAccess(filePath);
File.WriteAllText(filePath, error);
}
}
public static void RemoveReadOnlyAccess(string pathToFile)
{
FileInfo myFileInfo = new FileInfo(pathToFile);
myFileInfo.IsReadOnly = false;
myFileInfo.Refresh();
}
/*Exception thrown:
* UnAuthorizedAccessException was unhandled.
* Access to the path 'c:\users\anish\mydocuments\visual studio 2012\
* projects\training\discussionboard\ErrorLog\04\12\2013.txt' is denied.
*/
}
I found a forum that has discussed about a similar problem but using
File.SetAttrributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal) did not help neither did the RemoveReadOnlyAccess (included in the code above). When I check the properties of the folder, it has read only marked but even when I tick that off it comes back again. I checked the permissions on the folder and except for the special permission, which I was not able to change, everything is allowed.
Any suggestion on how I should proceed would be appreciated.
Why is access to the path denied? the link discusses about a similar problem, but I wasn't able to get my thing working with suggestions listed there.
Thanks for taking time to look at this.

Your path is strange : "My documents" directory must be "C:\Users\MyName\Documents\"
You can use Environment in order to correct it easily :
String myDocumentPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
Note that it will acces to "My documents" folder of the user that running your exe.
Second error, CreateDirectory must have a path in argument, not a file. using like you do will create a sub-directory with the file name. So you can't create a file with this name !
Try this :
String fileName = DateTime.Now.ToString("d", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
String filePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)
+ #"\visual studio 2012\projects\training\discussionboard\ErrorLog\";
String fileFullName = filePath + fileName + ".txt";
if (File.Exists(fileFullName ))
{
File.WriteAllText(fileFullName , error);
}
else
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(filePath);
[...]
}
}

Some possible reasons:
your app is not running under account which is allowed to access that path/file
the file is being locked for writing (or maybe reading too) by some other process
The first situation could be solved by checking under which account the process is running and verifying that the account has the appropriate rights.
The other situation can be solved by checking if any other process is locking the file (e.g. use tools like 'WhosLocking' or 'ProcessExplorer'

I had to run my app as an administrator in order to write to protected folders in c:. For example if debugging your app in visual studio make sure to right click on "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" and choose "Run As Administrator". Then open your solution from there. My app was trying to write to the root of c:\

Check your antivirus, it might be blocking the file creation.

Delete folder with C# code?

I am trying to delete a folder but i can manage to get it right?
The folder i am trying to delete is called ExtractedFiles and it is inside a folder called FormValue.
I can delete a spreadsheet in the same FormValue folder but cant delete the folder.
I think the problem might be that i don't have the right file extension for the folder
This works:
if (File.Exists(tempFolderPathAlt + saveas + ".xls"))
{
File.Delete(tempFolderPathAlt + saveas + ".xls");
}
This does not work:
if (File.Exists(tempFolderPathAlt + "ExtractedFiles"))
{
File.Delete(tempFolderPathAlt + "ExtractedFiles");
}
Could someone please tell me the file extension of a folder or how to delete one?

If you want to delete a folder, you should use Directory.Delete instead of File.Delete:
String path = Path.Combine(tempFolderPathAlt, "ExtractedFiles");
bool directoryExists = Directory.Exists(path);
if(directoryExists)
Directory.Delete(path, true); // deletes sub-directories

Try using the Directory.Delete method.

you want
Directory.Delete
Since your deleting a folder and not a file

For deleting dirrectories, you need to use the method
Directory.Delete(string path,
bool recursive);
Refer official docs here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fxeahc5f.aspx

Check this out if you are getting IOException deleting directories :
Cannot delete directory with Directory.Delete(path, true)