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Cannot read files in my project after publish WPF desktop app

I have a WPF desktop application. When I am in debug mode, I am able to access file.sql and read the contents.When I publish the file using visual studio and try to run the click once application,I am unable to read the file.sql file and the app cannot find the path. The .cs file where I am calling to read file.sql is located in the same folder.
string path = System.IO.Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,#"..\..\ControlFolder","file.sql");
string readQuery = File.ReadAllText(path);
How can I ensure that I am able to read file.sql after publishing my app?

When you publish, you need to ensure that you are also publishing your "file.sql" to the binary output path. The best practice is to avoid using relative paths to your source code, and instead you should always make sure that you point to files that you (the developer) will ensure exists in the published area.
Here's what I would do:
In Visual Studio, go to the properties of "file.sql" and make sure it is set to "Content" and "Copy if newer". This will make sure that your "file.sql" will always exist in the binary output path. If in Visual Studio, you have placed "file.sql" inside of a folder called "ControlFolder", then that means your binary output contents will contain a ".\ControlFolder\file.sql" file.
Fix your code to never point to the relative path of your source code. Instead, rely on the binary output path. So instead of the code that you shared, replace it with this:
string path = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location), #"ControlFolder\file.sql");
string readQuery = File.ReadAllText(path);

How do I link a specific file in c#?

I have a program that can edit a certain text file. Currently, I am only running it in Visual Studios. When I am referring to the text file, the file path looks something like this:
#"C:\myProjectFolder\someTextFile.txt"
For now, I can use this path and it works flawlessly, but after I deploy it, the program would only work on my computer because this path is specific to my computer.
In HTML for example, if I was linking a CSS file, it would be possible to do \stylesheets\style.css instead of C:\myWebsite\stylesheets\style.css
How can I achieve something similar in C#

Use System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath and Application.executablePathfor getting current application path.
if file is in current directory of .Exe file full path is not required and just name of file is enough. you also can point to current path in some situations by ".\\"

XNA calling an imported exe file in project

I wish to call another exe while running my own project.
string appRoot =Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
For this I get this path : C:\Users\Jeff TungMbp\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\menuSystemTutorial\menuSystemTutorial\ menuSystemTutorial\bin\x86\Debug\xxxxx.exe
This is not the bath I wish to access.
I wish to access this path : C:\Users\Jeff TungMbp\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\menuSystemTutorial\menuSystemTutorial\ menuSystemTutorial\xxxxxx.exe
I don't want to do hard code like System.Process(#"C:\xxxxxxx") .
The reason I wish to access the path is because I've imported the .exe file into my project, the path I wish to access is the .exe exact location.
Any way to solve this problem? Or is there any other ways to make an .exe file attach with my project after publish it as setup file?
Thanks.

Well, I don't believe there is a way you can point directly to your menuSystemTutorial\xxxxxx.exe path without custom situations.
Since GetExecutingAssembly() method gets the assembly that contains the code that is currently executing, and Visual Studio creates your program exe under bin\x86\Debug folder, seems to me there is no way to do it.
But if can get the path you want from the original one, you can use string.Replace() method like;
string appRoot = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location).Replace(#"bin\x86\Debug\", "");

avoid hard coding path in ReadAllText

My exact file path is as follows. This .txt file is not supposed to be deployed to bin/debug
string str = File.ReadAllText(#"C:\development\slnfolder\projfolder\myfile.txt");
How can I write the code so that I do not have to hard code full path to get to the file
I am trying to avoid hard coding path in the above line of code as follows:
string file = #"myfile.txt";
string str = Path.GetFullPath(file);
but the str ends up being as follows and is not able to find the file.
C:\development\slnfolder\projfolder\bin\debug\myfile.txt

You can include myfile.txt in your Visual Studio solution and go to its properties and set the Build action to Copy always (or Copy if newer if you want to avoid copying the file if it didn't change since the previous build...).
This way you're going to have the whole file in the target directory (i.e. bin\debug).

That's where it should map, because that's where your executable is running from. I'd highly suggest you ensure that the text file is moved to the bin/debug folder (there's a VS option to copy it down in properties) rather than trying to read two levels up. It will be much easier once you end up deploying your app instead of running it from visual studio.

If you're using Visual studio, than add the txt file to your project
right click on properties
set build action to none
and set copy to output directory to copy if newer
this will ensure that the txt file is always in the same folder as your executable

To avoid hard-coding something, you should:
"Soft-code" it (i.e. make it part of your product's configuration). You can use Configuration Settings APIs for that.
Take it as a parameter on the command line (read the directory location from one of the args passed to the Main method), or
Make a convention as to where it should be located, for example, in the data directory, which is a subdirectory of your current running directory (read from #"..\data\myfile.txt").
You can always define a combination of these methods, for example, use the "by convention" location when the configuration / command line option has not been specified.

C# console app: reference file without ..\..\filename

I need to read data from a file in a c# console application.
What works: new StreamReader(#"..\\..\myData.csv");
Problem:
the ..\\..\ work because my exe file is in the bin/Debug directory
When I deploy my project the path doesn't work any longer
Question:
How can I reference myData.csv regardless of the location of the exe file?
I had hoped to find a method that returns the 'root' of my console application
So far I tried the following:
Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName
Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location
Path.GetFullPath("bp.csv")
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
All of these expressions lead me to the directory of the exe file not the root.
I just started to read about isolated storage but it would be nice to have something simpler. Any suggestions / recommendations?

The simplest option is probably to add your CSV file to the solution and right-click it in VS and set the build action to "Copy if newer", which will output it together with the .exe (to the Debug or Release folder) when you build.
In the code, you can get the current location of the executing assembly like this:
string folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
And then you can combine the path with the CSV file name:
string filePath = Path.Combine(folder, "myData.csv");

Where your myData.csv will be stored ? You should have an absolute location of this file.
there are couple of options
You can place this file at the same directory where your exe is placed so you will only need to do
new StreamReader("myData.csv");
you can define file location in the App.Conig file and read that location.
you can set a path variable an read the PATH variable.

You should change your code to
new StreamReader("myData.csv");
This will ensure that the data is always read from the same folder the .exe is run from.
After that, you can create a post build step to copy the file to the deployment folder (or a subfolder) so that even in your debug environment the file will be in the correct place. The property "Copy to Output Folder" on the data file will do this as well if you just need the file to be in the output path for a project.
If you need more control, n the post build steps you can use macros like $(ProjectPath) to reference where the project files are located and $(TargetDir) to reference where the output directory will be.