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C# Application Relative Paths

I just started learning C# and it looks like when you are writing an output file or reading an input file, you need to provide the absolute path such as follows:
string[] words = { "Hello", "World", "to", "a", "file", "test" };
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"C:\Users\jackf_000\Projects\C#\First\First\output.txt"))
{
foreach (string word in words)
{
sw.WriteLine(word);
}
sw.Close();
}
MSDN's examples make it look like you need to provide the absolute directory when instantiating a StreamWriter:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8bh11f1k.aspx
I have written in both C++ and Python and you do not need to provide the absolute directory when accessing files in those languages, just the path from the executable/script. It seems like an inconvenience to have to specify an absolute path every time you want to read or write a file.
Is there any quick way to grab the current directory and convert it to a string, combining it with the outfile string name? And is it good style to use the absolute directory or is it preferred to, if it's possible, quickly combine it with the "current directory" string?
Thanks.

You don't need to specify full directory everytime, relative directory also work for C#, you can get current directory using following way-
Gets the current working directory of the application.
string directory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
Gets or sets the fully qualified path of the current working directory.
string directory = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Get program executable path
string directory = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location);
Resource Link 1 Resource Link 2

defiantly, you no need specify full path , what is the good way you perform this type of criteria?
should use relative path #p.s.w.g mention already by comment to use Directory.GetCurrentDirectory and Path.Combine
some more specify by flowing way
You can get the .exe location of your app with System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location.
string exePath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string exeDir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exePath);
DirectoryInfo binDir = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(exeDir);
on the other hand
Internally, when getting Environment.CurrentDirectory it will call Directory.GetCurrentDirectory and when setting Environment.CurrentDirectory it will call Directory.SetCurrentDirectory.
Just pick a favorite and go with it.
thank you welcome C# i hope it will help you to move forward

Make folder in .special folder hidden C#

i know im doing something small wrong im just braindead right now. The path is the problem, i tried to use path.combine and also put system.IO in front of it but nothing worked.
string path = (Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData + #"\MSPhone").ToString();
File.SetAttributes(path, FileAttributes.Hidden);

you need to use Environment.GetFolderPath along with your SpecialFolder. Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData is just an enum value, not representative of the path without acting on it:
Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
"MSPhone");
this gives me "C:\Users\jonesopolis\AppData\Roaming\MSPhone"
and of course, always use Path.Combine rather than building the path yourself.

Converting absolute path to relative path C# [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Getting path relative to the current working directory?
I have code in C# that includes some images from an absolute path to a relative so the image can be found no matter where the application fold is located.
For example the path in my code (and in my laptop for the image) is
C:/something/res/images/image1.jpeg
and I want the path in my code to be
..../images/image1.jpeg
So it can run wherever the folder is put, whatever the name of the C: partition is etc.
I want to have a path in my code which is independant of the application folder location or if it is in another partition, as long as it is in the same folder as the the rest of the solution.
I have this code:
try
{
File.Delete("C:/JPD/SCRAT/Desktop/Project/Resources/images/image1.jpeg");
}
catch (Exception)
{
MessageBox.Show("File not found:C:/Users/JPD/Desktop/Project/images/image1.jpeg");
}
This code only runs if the file and folder are in that certain path, (which is also the location of the code) I wish for that path to be relative so wherever I put the whole folder (code, files etc) the program will still work as long as the code (which is under project folder) is at the same location with the folder images... what should I do?

Relative paths are based from the binary file from which your application is running. By default, your binary files will be outputted in the [directory of your .csproj]/bin/debug. So let's say you wanted to create your images folder at the same level as your .csproj. Then you could access your images using the relative path "../../images/someImage.jpg".
To get a better feel for this, try out the following as a test:
1) create a new visual studio sample project,
2) create an images folder at the same level as the .csproj
3) put some files in the images folder
4) put this sample code in your main method -
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
foreach (string s in Directory.EnumerateFiles("../../images/"))
{
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
Console.ReadLine(); // Just to keep the console from disappearing.
}
You should see the relative paths of all the files you placed in step (3).

see: Getting path relative to the current working directory?
Uri uri1 = new Uri(#"c:\foo\bar\blop\blap");
Uri uri2 = new Uri(#"c:\foo\bar\");
string relativePath = uri2.MakeRelativeUri(uri1).ToString();

Depending on the set up of your program, you might be able to simply use a relative path by skipping a part of the full path string. It's not braggable, so J. Skit might be up my shiny for it but I'm getting the impression that you simply want to make it work. Beauty being a later concern.
String absolutePath = #"c:\beep\boop\HereWeStart\hopp.gif";
String relativePath = absolutePath.Substring(13);
You could then, if you need/wish, exchange the number 13 (which is an ugly and undesirable approach, still working, though) for a dynamically computed one. For instance (assuming that the directory "HereWeStart", where your relative path is starting, is the first occurrence of that string in absolutePath) you could go as follows.
String absolutePath = #"c:\beep\boop\HereWeStart\hopp.gif";
int relativePathStartIndex = absolutePath.IndexOf("HereWeStart");
String relativePath = absolutePath.Substring(relativePathStartIndex);
Also, your question begs an other question. I'd like to know how you're obtaining the absolute path. Perhaps there's an even more clever way to avoid the hustle all together?
EDIT
You could also try the following approach. Forget the Directory class giving you an absolute path. Go for the relative path straight off. I'm assuming that all the files you're attempting to remove are in the same directory. If not, you'll need to add some more lines but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Don't forget to mark an answer as green-checked (or explain what's missing or improvable still).
String
deletableTarget = #"\images\image1.jpeg",
hereWeAre = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
MessageBox.Show("The taget path is:\n" + hereWeAre + deletableTarget);
try
{ File.Delete(hereWeAre + deletableTarget); }
catch (Exception exception)
{ MessageBox.Show(exception.Message); }
Also, please note that I took the liberty of changing your exception handling. While yours is working, it's a better style to rely on the built-in messaging system. That way you'll get more professionally looking error messages. Not that we ever get any errors at run-time, right? ;)

How to get image files in c# using relative path?

I've checked this thread How to get files in a relative path in C#, the directory is in IDE, which is not correct for me. I have a website application, needs to get image files from the same level folder img. I can use following code to get them:
DirectoryInfo path=new DirectoryInfo(#"c:\WebsiteSolution\wwwroot\Chat\img");
FileInfo[] images = path.GetFiles("*");
But I want to use something like .\img to replace the parameter in the first line code, is that possible?

Call the Server.MapPath utility to get the relative path.
DirectoryInfo path = Server.MapPath("~\Chat\img");

For ASP.Net use MapPath - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpserverutility.mappath.aspx.
Also if you just need to construct path for rendering a page just /Chat/img/My.gif is enough.

You need to find an anchor - something like Application.ExecutablePath - and then use that anchor with Path.Combine() to reach your image directory.
If your Application.ExecutablePath were: #"c:\WebSiteSolution\wwwroot\chat\code", then you could use string imgPath = Path.Combine(Application.ExecutablePath, #"..\img");
If you have a hard time finding a good anchor, there's a bunch to consider. You can get the path of the executing assembly via Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location

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");