Copy file using relative path - c#

File.Copy(#"my program\\subfolder\\what i want to copy.txt", "C:\\Targetlocation");
How can i copy a text file from one folder to another using relative path.

To execute the File.Copy the source and destination will be a valid file path. in your case the destination is a folder not File. in this case you may get some exception like
Could not find a part of the path 'F:\New folder'
While executing the application, the current directory will be the bin folder. you need to specify the relative path from there. Let my program/subfolder be the folders in your solution, so the code for this will be like this:
string sourcePath = "../../my program/subfolder/what i want to copy.txt";
string destinationPath = #"C:\Targetlocation\copyFile.txt"
File.Copy(sourcePath, destinationPath );
Where ../ will help you to move one step back from the current directory. One more thing you have to care is the third optional parameter in the File.Copy method. By passing true for this parameter will help you to overwrite the contents of the existing file.Also make sure that the folder C:\Targetlocation is existing, as this will not create the folder for you.

File.Copy(#"subfolder\\what i want to copy.txt", "C:\\Targetlocation\\TargetFilePath.txt");
The sourceFileName and destFileName parameters can specify relative or
absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as
relative to the current working directory. This method does not
support wildcard characters in the parameters.
File.Copy on MSDN
Make sure your target directory exists. You can use Directory.CreateDirectory
Directory.CreateDirectory("C:\\Targetlocation");
With Directory.CreateDirectory(), you don't have to check if the directory exists. From documentation:
Any and all directories specified in path are created, unless they
already exist or unless some part of path is invalid. The path
parameter specifies a directory path, not a file path. If the
directory already exists, this method does nothing.

// Remove path from the file name.
string fName = f.Substring(sourceDir.Length + 1);
try
{
// Will not overwrite if the destination file already exists.
File.Copy(Path.Combine(sourceDir, fName), Path.Combine(backupDir, fName));
}

You can provide the relative path from your current working directory which can be checked via Environment.CurrentDirectoy.
For example if your current working directory is D:\App, your source file location is D:\App\Res\Source.txt and your target location is D:\App\Res\Test\target.txt then your code snippet will be -
File.Copy(Res\\Source.txt, Res\\Test\\target.txt);

Related

Dealing with paths in MVC libraries

I have an MVC project and a class library just for saving and deleting images.
I have the path to those images stored in a variable as a relative path
Content\images\ that I reference inside the Save() and Delete() methods.
The save method works as I would think but the delete throws an error as it's relating the current path from the window directory.
// Works fine
File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(Settings.ImagesPath, filename), binaryData);
// Error saying it cannot find the path in the C:\windows\system32\folder
File.Delete(Path.Combine(Settings.ImagesPath, filename));
I'd like to be able to switch between relative and absolute paths in my Settings.ImagesPath string but every SO article I've tried works for one scenario or the other. What's the best way to convert absolute or relative paths to some common way to deal with them?
You should use Server.MapPath method to generate the path to the location and use that in your Path.Combine method.
var fullPath = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(Settings.ImagesPath), filename);
System.IO.File.Delete(fullPath);
Server.MapPath method returns the physical file path that corresponds to the specified virtual path. In this case, Server.MapPath(Settings.ImagesPath) will return the physical file path to your Content\images\ which is inside your app root.
You should do the same when you save the file as well.
You can also check the existence of the file before attempting to delete it
var fullPath = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(Settings.ImagesPath), filename);
if (System.IO.File.Exists(fullPath))
{
System.IO.File.Delete(fullPath);
}
Server.MapPath expects a relative path. So if you have an absolute value in the Settings.ImagePath, You can use the Path.IsPathRooted method to determine if it is a virtual path or not
var p = Path.Combine(Path.IsPathRooted(Settings.ImagesPath)
? path : Server.MapPath(Settings.ImagesPath), name);
if (System.IO.File.Exists(p))
{
System.IO.File.Delete(p);
}
When you use the virutal path, make sure it start with ~.
Settings.ImagesPath = #"~\Contents\Pictures";

How to check if a file exists or not in the directory the executable is?

How can I check if a file exists or not in the directory the executable is?
I know how I could code it like this.
string path = Application.StartupPath + "config.cfg"
if(!FileExists(path))
{
//create the file
}
But the problem I am facing is that, the file is created every single time, even when the file exists, overwriting the data of the cfg file with the default ones.
You are not creating the possible file path properly. Use Path.Combine like:
string path = Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "config.cfg");
You are getting a path without terminating \ from Application.StartupPath, later you are concatenating the file name to it, This will create an invalid path, and since that doesn't exist, you check fails.
Just to show, the actual reason for getting the error, you can fix your code like:
string path = Application.StartupPath +"\\"+ "config.cfg";
But, do not use the above code, instead use Path.Combine to join multiple path elements.

How to get files from a directory with relative path "Directory.GetFiles(sPath) "

I have relative path of a directory like "..\work\FilesDirectory". How to get all files from this directory.
I am currently using the following line of code but it requiresw absolute path.
string []AllFiles = Directory.GetFiles(sPath);
You should you Path.Combine to construct absolute path or you can change Current Directory so relative path points to location you need.
// Building c:\my\home\work\FilesDirectory
var absolutePath = Path.Combine(#"c:\my\home\toys\", #"..\work\FilesDirectory" );
Note: you need to know what location the path is relative to. I.e. if it relative to executable use Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location as base path.
If relative path represents your Project Debug folder then you can use:
string relativePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory & "work\FilesDirectory"
Or you can also use config file to save your path and use string.Join() but its better to use Path.Combine instead.
You could always use the Directory.GetCurrentDirectory and the Directory.GetParent methods.
DirectoryInfo parentDirectoryInfo = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
string []AllFiles = Directory.GetFiles(parentDirectoryInfo.FullName);
Hope I helped!

File Copy vs Another Choice?

I want to copy a file to a directory. I thought it would be a simple enough process.
This is the code im using:
string strSrcPath = "C:\Users\Documents\Development\source\11.0.25.10\",
strDstPath = "C:\Users\Documents\Development\testing\11.0.25.10\",
strFile = "BuildLog.txt"
File.Copy(Path.Combine(sourcePath, sourceFile), strDstPath);
The problem here is that when i'm doing the File.Copy it wants to copy one file to another, but I dont want to do that since the file does not exist in the destination path. Therefore I get thrown an error which states something along the lines of 'Cannot copy, strDstPath is a destination not a file"
Was there something I could use instead of File.Copy to copy a file that doesnt exist in the destinaion from the source to destination?
The problem is that the parameters are the source filename and the destination filename. You are passing a destination directory and the program is confused because you can't make the file into a directory.
Use instead:
File.Copy(Path.Combine(strSrcPath , strFile ), Path.Combine(strDstPath, strFile);
You seem to be passing some wrong parameter to the Path.Combine (the second one). It should be strFile instead of sourceFile which is quite unclear where is it coming from.
And you also need to provide a filename for the destination folder:
File.Copy(Path.Combine(sourcePath, strFile), Path.Combine(strDstPath, strFile));
You also need to escape the \ characters in your string because your code will probably not compile. This could be done by either using \\ or by using the # character at the beginning of your string.
string strSrcPath = #"C:\Users\Documents\Development\source\11.0.25.10\",
strDstPath = #"C:\Users\Documents\Development\testing\11.0.25.10\",
strFile = "BuildLog.txt"
File.Copy(Path.Combine(sourcePath, strFile), Path.Combine(strDstPath, strFile));
Also make sure that the destination folder you specified exists. If it doesn't exist you need to create it first (using the Directory.CreateDirectory method).
You have to specify a filename for your destination
so
File.Copy("XMLFile1.xml", #"c:\temp");
will fail where
File.Copy("XMLFile1.xml", #"c:\temp\XMLFile1.xml");
will not

Open a text file with WPF

There is a text file that I have created in my project root folder. Now, I am trying to use Process.Start() method to externally launch that text file.
The problem I have got here is that the file path is incorrect and Process.Start() can't find this text file. My code is as follows:
Process.Start("Textfile.txt");
So how should I correctly reference to that text file? Can I use the relative path instead of the absolute path? Thanks.
Edit:
If I change above code to this, would it work?
string path = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
Process.Start(path + "/ReadMe.txt");
Windows needs to know where to find the file, so you need somehow specify that:
Either using absolute path:
Process.Start("C:\\1.txt");
Or set current directory:
Environment.CurrentDirectory = "C:\\";
Process.Start("1.txt");
Normally CurrentDirectory is set to the location of the executable.
[Edit]
If the file is in the same directory where executable is you can use the code like this:
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
var file = Path.Combine(directory, "1.txt");
Process.Start(file);
The way you are doing this is fine. This will find the text file that is in the same directory as your exe and it will open it with the default application (probably notepad.exe). Here are more examples of how to do this:
http://www.dotnetperls.com/process-start
However, if you want to put a path in, you have to use the full path. You can build the full path while only caring about the relative path using the method listed in this post:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/e763ae8c-1284-43fe-9e55-4b36f8780f1c
It would look something like this:
string pathPrefix;
if(System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached())
{
pathPrefix = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(Application.StartupPath + "\..\..\resources\");
}
else
{
pathPrefix = Application.StartupPath + "\resources\";
}
Process.Start(pathPrefix + "Textfile.txt");
This is for opening a file in a folder you add to your project called resources. If you want it in your project root, just drop off the resources folder in the above two strings and you will be good to go.
You'll need to know the current directory if you want to use a relative path.
System.Envrionment.CurrentDirectory
You could append that to your path with Path
System.IO.Path.Combine(System.Envrionment.CurrentDirectory, "Textfile.txt")
Try using Application.StartupPath path as default path may point to current directory.
This scenario has been explained on following links..
Environment.CurrentDirectory in C#.NET
http://start-coding.blogspot.com/2008/12/applicationstartuppath.html
On a windows box:
Start notepad with the file's location immediately following it. WIN
process.start("notepad C:\Full\Directory\To\File\FileName.txt");

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