Develop Reference

How to get a file full path in c# with Path.GetFullPath

I am trying to get the full path a file by its name only.
I have tried to use :
string fullPath = Path.GetFullPath("excelTest");
but it returns me an incorrect path (something with my project path).
I have read somewhere here a comment which says to do the following:
var dir = Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86;
var path = Path.Combine(dir.ToString(), "excelTest.csv");
but I do not know where the file is saved , therefore I do not know its environment.
can someone help me how to get the full path of a file only by its name?

The first snippet (with Path.GetFullPath) does exactly what you want. It returns something with your project path because the program EXE file is located in the project\Bin\Debug path, which is therefore the "current directory".
If you want to search for a file on a drive, you can use Directory.GetFiles, which will recursively search for a file in a directory given a name pattern.
This returns all xml-files recursively :
var allFiles = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.xml", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143316%28v=vs.100%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143448.aspx#Y252
https://stackoverflow.com/a/9830162/2196124

I guess you're trying to find file (like in windows search), right ?
I'd look into this question - you will find all files that has that string in their filename, and from there you can return full filepath.
var fileList = new DirectoryInfo(#"c:\").GetFiles("*excelTest*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
And then just use foreach to do you manipulations, e.g.
foreach(string file in fileList)
{
// MessageBox.Show(file);
}

What you're looking for is Directory.GetFiles(), you can read up on it here. The gist of it is, you'll pass in the file path and the file name, and you'll get a string array back. In this instance, you can assume top level with C:\. It should be noted, that if nothing is found, the string array will be empty.

You have passed a relative file name to Path.GetFullPath. Microsoft documentation states:
If path is a relative path, GetFullPath returns a fully qualified path that can be based on the current drive and current directory. The current drive and current directory can change at any time as an application executes. As a result, the path returned by this overload cannot be determined in advance.
You cannot get the same full path name from a relative path unless your current directory is the same each time you invoke the function.

Getting the parentDirectory of a file in a unc path c# 2010

I need to identify first is this a UNCPath if so get the file directory
Is there a method to identify if a path is a UNC Path?
How do I get the file's parent.Parent.directory?
\\MyServer\\MySharedDrive\\MyDirectory\\MySubDirectory\\Myfile.csv
Wanted result and should work however deep
\\MyServer\\MySharedDrive\\MyDirectory
so that I can save another file to the above directory.
I guess I cannot do
Path.Combine("\\MyServer\\MySharedDrive\\MyDirectory",myNewFile.csv)
Any Suggestions?
Many thanks

To get parent directory and then creating a new path you can do:
string path = "\\MyServer\\MySharedDrive\\MyDirectory\\MySubDirectory\\Myfile.csv";
DirectoryInfo directory = new DirectoryInfo(Path.GetDirectoryName(path));
string finalPath = Path.Combine(directory.Parent.FullName, "myNewFile.csv"
To check if the path is UNC check this post.

From MSDN
Most members of the Path class do not interact with the file system
and do not verify the existence of the file specified by a path string
Again from MSDN on Path class
In members that accept a path, the path can refer to a file or just a
directory. The specified path can also refer to a relative path or a
Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path for a server and share name
Said that, you could write
string myUNCPath = #"\\MyServer\MySharedDrive\MyDirectory\MySubDirectory\Myfile.csv";
string myParent = Path.GetDirectoryName(Path.GetDirectoryName(myUNCPath));
string finalFile = Path.Combine(#"\\MyServer\MySharedDrive\MyDirectory","myNewFile.csv");
As a safety check you should execute two separate calls to Path.GetDirectoryName because if you have only one level deep of subdirectory then the result of Path.GetDirectoryName will be null
For example, if the initial UNC path is
string myUNCPath = #"\\MyServer\MySharedDrive\MyDirectory\Myfile.csv";
string myParent = Path.GetDirectoryName(myUNCPath);
if(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(myParent))
{
myParent = Path.GetDirectoryName(myParent);
if(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(myParent))
{
string finalFile = Path.Combine(myParent, "myNewFile.csv");
.....
}
}
For the part relative to your first question, the discovery of an UNC path is relatively easy.
See this article on Windows Dev Center about Paths and Files
Console.WriteLine(IsUNCPath(myUNCPath));
......
bool IsUNCPath(string pathToCheck)
{
return pathToCheck.StartsWith(#"\\");
}

How to copy an image to application folder?

I already know how to browse for an image using open file dialog. So let's say we already got the path :
string imagePath = "Desktop/Images/SampleImage.jpg";
I want to copy that file, into my application folder :
string appFolderPath = "SampleApp/Images/";
How to copy the given image to the appFolderPath programmatically?
Thank you.

You could do something like this:
var path = Path.Combine(
System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,
"Images",
fileName);
File.Copy(imagePath, path);
where fileName is the actual name of the file only (including the extension).
UPDATE: the Path.Combine method will cleanly combine strings into a well-formed path. For example, if one of the strings does have a backslash and the other doesn't it won't matter; they are combined appropriately.
The System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, per MSDN, does the following:
Gets the base directory that the assembly resolver uses to probe for assemblies.
That's going to be the executable path you're running in; so the path in the end (and let's assume fileName is test.txt) would be:
{path_to_exe}\Images\test.txt

string path="Source imagepath";
File.Copy(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory+"\\Images", path);
\ System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is to provide path of the application folder

Get path of directoryinfo object

Writing some code in C#, I was wondering if there was a way to get the correct path of a directoryinfo object?
Currently I have, for example, a directory such as:
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(pathToDirectory);
The issue is that if I want to get the path of that specific dirInfo object, it always returns the debug path (bin folder). If the original dirInfo object is referencing a directory in the D:\testDirectory path, then I want a way to get that path again somewhere else in the code instead of getting \bin\debug\testDirectory
Is there any way to do this?
Currently I am trying to get the path of dirInfo using Path:
Console.WriteLine("Path: " + Path.GetFullPath(dirInfo.ToString()));

Try this.
string pathToDirctory = "D:\\testDirectory";
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(pathToDirctory);
string path = dirInfo.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(path);

A DirectoryInfo represents a particular directory. When you create it, what directory it represents is dependent on the path you give it. If you give it an absolute path like c:\foo\bar\baz\bat, that's the directory you get. If, on the other hand, you give it a relative path, like foo\bar\baz\bat, the path is relative to the process' current working directory. By default, that is inherited from the process that spawned the current process. Visual Studio starts a debug session and sets the CWD of the process being debugged to its bin directory. So if you create a DirectoryInfo and give it a path like testDirectory, you will get a DirectoryInfo about [project-root]\bin\Debug\testDirectory.
If you want an absolute path, you'll have to specify that absolute path. There aren't any shortcuts.

Server.Mappath error

iam trying to fill dropdown box feteching folder name from server but this code showing error.its working in local .but not working in server.can any one help on this
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath(#"~\\*.***.***.**\Flextronics\Common\Surendra"));
// DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo("D:\\New Folder");
ddlModel.DataSource = dirInfo.GetDirectories();
ddlModel.DataBind();

Server.MapPath(#"~\\*.***.***.**\Flex... return virtual path and it works for you on local because you have physical path "D:\...."
So you will have to use Request.MapPath("~/....."); because it Maps the specified virtual path to a physical path.

the ~ symbol looks to the parent folder of your code file on your local machine
To access a UNC on a network drive, you need something similar to:
Server.MapPath("\\\\servername\\folder\\desiredfile.ext");
The "\\\\" escapes the characters and you need to do that to navigate correctly.

Directory does not like Server.MapPath. Hard code it in:
...new DirectoryInfo("stringUNCtoLoadFilesFrom");