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How to get parent directory in a path c#?

it is my path example E:\test\img\sig.jpg
I want to get E:\test\img to create directory
i try split but it be img
so I try function Directory.CreateDirectory and the path is E:\test\img\sig.jpg\
say me a ideas?

The recommended way is to use Path.GetDirectoryName():
string file = #"E:\test\img\sig.jpg";
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(file); // results in #"E:\test\img"

Use Path.GetDirectoryName which returns the directory information for the specified path string.
string directoryName = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);

The Path class contains a lot of useful methods for path handling, which are more reliable than manual string manipulation:
var directoryComponent = Path.GetDirectoryName(#"E:\test\img\sig.jpg");
// yields `E:\test\img`
For completeness, I'd like to mention Path.Combine, which does the opposite:
var dirAndFile = Path.Combine(#"E:\test\img", "sig.jpg");
// no more checking for trailing slashes, hooray!
To create the directory, you can use Directory.Create. Note that it is not necessary to check if the directory exists first.

You can try this code to find the directory name.
System.IO.FileInfo fi = new System.IO.FileInfo(#"E:\test\img\sig.jpg");
string dirname = fi.DirectoryName;
and to create the directory
Directory.CreateDirectory(dirname );

Another solution can be :
FileInfo f = new FileInfo(#"E:\test\img\sig.jpg");
if (f.Exists)
{
string dirName= f.DirectoryName;
}

How to navigate a few folders up?

One option would be to do System.IO.Directory.GetParent() a few times. Is there a more graceful way of travelling a few folders up from where the executing assembly resides?
What I am trying to do is find a text file that resides one folder above the application folder. But the assembly itself is inside the bin, which is a few folders deep in the application folder.

Other simple way is to do this:
string path = #"C:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3\Folder4";
string newPath = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(path, #"..\..\"));
Note This goes two levels up. The result would be:
newPath = #"C:\Folder1\Folder2\";
Additional Note
Path.GetFullPath normalizes the final result based on what environment your code is running on windows/mac/mobile/...

if c:\folder1\folder2\folder3\bin is the path then the following code will return the path base folder of bin folder
//string directory=System.IO.Directory.GetParent(Environment.CurrentDirectory).ToString());
string directory=System.IO.Directory.GetParent(Environment.CurrentDirectory).ToString();
ie,c:\folder1\folder2\folder3
if you want folder2 path then you can get the directory by
string directory = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetParent(Environment.CurrentDirectory).ToString()).ToString();
then you will get path as c:\folder1\folder2\

You can use ..\path to go one level up, ..\..\path to go two levels up from path.
You can use Path class too.
C# Path class

This is what worked best for me:
string parentOfStartupPath = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, #"../"));
Getting the 'right' path wasn't the problem, adding '../' obviously does that, but after that, the given string isn't usable, because it will just add the '../' at the end.
Surrounding it with Path.GetFullPath() will give you the absolute path, making it usable.

public static string AppRootDirectory()
{
string _BaseDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
return Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(_BaseDirectory, #"..\..\"));
}

Maybe you could use a function if you want to declare the number of levels and put it into a function?
private String GetParents(Int32 noOfLevels, String currentpath)
{
String path = "";
for(int i=0; i< noOfLevels; i++)
{
path += #"..\";
}
path += currentpath;
return path;
}
And you could call it like this:
String path = this.GetParents(4, currentpath);

C#
string upTwoDir = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(System.AppContext.BaseDirectory, #"..\..\"));

The following method searches a file beginning with the application startup path (*.exe folder). If the file is not found there, the parent folders are searched until either the file is found or the root folder has been reached. null is returned if the file was not found.
public static FileInfo FindApplicationFile(string fileName)
{
string startPath = Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, fileName);
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(startPath);
while (!file.Exists) {
if (file.Directory.Parent == null) {
return null;
}
DirectoryInfo parentDir = file.Directory.Parent;
file = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(parentDir.FullName, file.Name));
}
return file;
}
Note: Application.StartupPath is usually used in WinForms applications, but it works in console applications as well; however, you will have to set a reference to the System.Windows.Forms assembly. You can replace Application.StartupPath by
Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location) if you prefer.
I use this strategy to find configuration and resource files. This allows me to share them for multiple applications or for Debug and Release versions of an application by placing them in a common parent folder.

Hiding a looped call to Directory.GetParent(path) inside an static method is the way to go.
Messing around with ".." and Path.Combine will ultimately lead to bugs related to the operation system or simply fail due to mix up between relative paths and absolute paths.
public static class PathUtils
{
public static string MoveUp(string path, int noOfLevels)
{
string parentPath = path.TrimEnd(new[] { '/', '\\' });
for (int i=0; i< noOfLevels; i++)
{
parentPath = Directory.GetParent(parentPath ).ToString();
}
return parentPath;
}
}

this may help
string parentOfStartupPath = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, #"../../")) + "Orders.xml";
if (File.Exists(parentOfStartupPath))
{
// file found
}

If you know the folder you want to navigate to, find the index of it then substring.
var ind = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().ToString().IndexOf("Folderame");
string productFolder = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().ToString().Substring(0, ind);

I have some virtual directories and I cannot use Directory methods. So, I made a simple split/join function for those interested. Not as safe though.
var splitResult = filePath.Split(new[] {'/', '\\'}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
var newFilePath = Path.Combine(filePath.Take(splitResult.Length - 1).ToArray());
So, if you want to move 4 up, you just need to change the 1 to 4 and add some checks to avoid exceptions.

Path parsing via System.IO.Directory.GetParent is possible, but would require to run same function multiple times.
Slightly simpler approach is to threat path as a normal string, split it by path separator, take out what is not necessary and then recombine string back.
var upperDir = String.Join(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, dir.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).SkipLast(2));
Of course you can replace 2 with amount of levels you need to jump up.
Notice also that this function call to Path.GetFullPath (other answers in here) will query whether path exists using file system. Using basic string operation does not require any file system operations.

Get path to executable from command (as cmd does)

Given a command-line style path to a command such as bin/server.exe or ping, how can I get the full path to this executable (as cmd or Process.Start would resolve it)?
I tried Path.GetFullPath, but it always expands relative to the working directory. It expands bin/server.exe correctly, however given ping it returns c:\users\matt\ping (non-existent). I want c:\Windows\system32\ping.exe.
Edit: I would like the same behaviour as cmd. Some considerations:
When there is a local executable with the same name as one in the path, cmd prefers the local one
cmd can expand the command server to server.bat or server.exe (adding the file extension)
I also tried Windows' command-line tool called where . It does almost I want:
Displays the location of files that match the search pattern. By default, the search is done along the current directory and in the paths specified by the PATH environment variable.
>where ping
C:\Windows\System32\PING.EXE
>where bin\server
INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).
(This question is hard to search around because of the two different meanings of the word 'path')

Considering PATHEXT too, stealing from Serj-Tm's answer (sorry! +1 to him):
public static string WhereSearch(string filename)
{
var paths = new[]{ Environment.CurrentDirectory }
.Concat(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH").Split(';'));
var extensions = new[]{ String.Empty }
.Concat(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATHEXT").Split(';')
.Where(e => e.StartsWith(".")));
var combinations = paths.SelectMany(x => extensions,
(path, extension) => Path.Combine(path, filename + extension));
return combinations.FirstOrDefault(File.Exists);
}
Sorry the indentation's a bit all-over-the-place - I was trying to make it not scroll. I don't know if the StartsWith check is really necessary - I'm not sure how CMD copes with pathext entries without a leading dot.

public static string GetFullPath(string filename)
{
return new[]{Environment.CurrentDirectory}
.Concat(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH").Split(';'))
.Select(dir => Path.Combine(dir, filename))
.FirstOrDefault(path => File.Exists(path));
}

If you're only interested in searching the current directory and the paths specified in the PATH environment variable, you can use this snippet:
public static string GetFullPath(string fileName)
{
if (File.Exists(fileName))
return Path.GetFullPath(fileName);
var values = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH");
foreach (var path in values.Split(';'))
{
var fullPath = Path.Combine(path, fileName);
if (File.Exists(fullPath))
return fullPath;
}
return null;
}

You have to search the entire disk.
Windows can respond to things like, iexplore, ping, cmd, etc, because they are in the registry under this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
App Paths
The only other way is to search the entire disk for the application.
EDIT: My understanding was, that you want to search for any random executable name, not the ones that are already known to Windows..

internal class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string fullPath = GetExactPathFromEnvironmentVar("ping.exe");
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fullPath))
Console.WriteLine(fullPath);
else
Console.WriteLine("Not found");
}
static string GetExactPathFromEnvironmentVar(string program)
{
var pathVar = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH");
string[] folders = pathVar.Split(';');
foreach (var folder in folders)
{
string path = Path.Combine(folder, program);
if (File.Exists(path))
{
return path;
}
}
return null;
}
}
HTH

How should I handle windows/Linux paths in c#

My intention is for my application to run on windows and linux.
The application will be making use of a certain directory structure e.g.
appdir/
/images
/sounds
What would be a good way of handling the differences in file(path) naming differences between windows and linux? I don't want to code variables for each platform. e.g. pseudo code
if #Win32
string pathVar = ':c\somepath\somefile.ext';
else
string pathVar = '/somepath/somefile.ext';

You can use the Path.DirectorySeparatorChar constant, which will be either \ or /.
Alternatively, create paths using Path.Combine, which will automatically insert the correct separator.

How about using System.IO.Path.Combine to form your paths?
Windows example:
var root = #"C:\Users";
var folder = "myuser";
var file = "text.txt";
var fullFileName = System.IO.Path.Combine(root, folder, file);
//Result: "C:\Users\myuser\text.txt"
Linux example:
var root = #"Home/Documents";
var folder = "myuser";
var file = "text.txt";
var fullFileName = System.IO.Path.Combine(root, folder, file);
//Result: "Home/Documents/myuser/text.txt"

If you're using Mono. In the System.IO.Path class you will find:
Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar
Path.DirectorySeparatorChar
Hope this helps!

Problem with deployment of windows application using setup wizard

I have some xml files, which are used in my application. They are stored in the same folder with application , in subfolder DATA: "C:\MyProject\DATA\".
To get the DATA folder path i use this code :
static public string GetDataFolderPath()
{
string s = System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().Replace(#"\bin\Debug", "");
int i = s.LastIndexOf(#"\");
s = s.Substring(0, i);
i = s.LastIndexOf(#"\");
s= s.Substring(0, i);
return s + #"\Data\";
}
So when i want to deploy my application, i create a setup project, and add the DATA folder to Application folder. But after i install the program f.e. "C:\Project"(DATA folder- "C:\Project\DATA" i got the error: "folder C:\DATA is not found".
What i need to change to make things working after deployment. Why it looks for the DATA folder on 1 level higher?

Try this, it might work better:
public static string GetDataFolderPath()
{
#if DEBUG
// This will be executed in Debug build
string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().Replace(#"\bin\Debug", "");
#else
// This will be executed in Release build
string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
#endif
return Path.Combine(path, "Data");
}
Or just this if you want one for both Debug and Release builds:
public static string GetDataFolderPath()
{
string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().Replace(#"\bin\Debug", "");
return Path.Combine(path, "Data");
}
You have to add using System.IO; for this to work.

Maybe current directory (during launching your program) is not the same one that assemblies lie?
try:
//get the full location of the assembly
string fullPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(<your class name>)).Location;
//get the folder that's in
string theDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName( fullPath );
or
string codeBase = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
UriBuilder uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
string path = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path);
return Path.GetDirectoryName(path);