C# : Directory handling

System.IO is the namespace where all the file as well as directory handling classes resides. Directory and DirectoryInfo are the 2 classes provided by .NET to handle directories.

C# - Directory handling

All the classes that are used to read and write files reside at System.IO namespace.

System.IO supports both file as well as directory handling.

Here we will see the working of DirectoryInfo types.

DirectoryInfo class is used to get information on directories. It is used to create directories, copy directories, move directories, delete directories and many more.

There is a unique difference between Directory and DirectoryInfo classes.

Directory -> The directory class has only static methods and the instance of this can not be created. If you want a single operation to be done on  a directory, then you can go with directory class and you can accomplish with out creating  any instance.

DirectoryInfo ->  If you want to perform a lot of operations on a directory then it’s better to go with DircetoryInfo. Here you can create an instance and can work with that.

Following are the commonly used methods that we can see under DirectoryInfo type

Create – Creates a directory

Delete – Deletes a directory

GetDirectories - used to get the sub directories in a specified directory.

GetFiles – used to get the files in a specified directory.

MoveTo – used to move directories.

Commonly used properties of DirectoryInfo

CreationTime – returns directory created date and time

CreationimeUtc – returns directory created date and time in UTC format

Exists – used to check the existence of the directory.

FullName – used to get the full path of the directory

LastAccesstime – returns last access time of the directory

LastAccesstime – returns UTC format of LastAccesstime

LastWriteTime – returns last write time of the directory

Parent – used to get the parent directory

Root – used to get the root portion of a path

Let us see all these one by one with examples.

Creating a directory

Directory.CreateDirectory(@“C:\MyDir” );

This will create a directory called MyDir in C drive.

Deleting a directory

Directory.Delete(@"C:\OldDir");

This will delete the specified directory from the  drive.

Before deleting the directory please make sure that the directory is empty.

Directory.Delete(@"C:\OldDir", true);

This wil dete the directory recurrsively. If the boolen value is true, it will delete all the subfolder in the directory and deletes the directory.

Checking for existing directories

if (Directory.Exists(@"C:\MyDir"))

            {

                // directory exists

            }

            else

            {

                // directory does not exists

            }

Directory.Exists return true if the specified directory exists otherwise returns false.

Directory.GetCreationTime(@"E:\MyFolder");

This will return the creation time in datetime format

Current directory

Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()

Returns current working folder of the application

Sub directories

string[] dir = Directory.GetDirectories(@"E:\MyFolder");

this will return all sub directories of specified directory

string[] dir = Directory.GetDirectories(@"E:\MyFolder", "*.*");

*.* is a search pattern to match with.

string[] dir = Directory.GetDirectories(@"E:\MyFolder", "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

SearchOption.AllDirectories -> returns all directories

SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly -> returns only top directories

Volume information

Directory.GetDirectoryRoot("C:\MyFolder")

Returns volume information of the drive where the specified directory resides.

Get file in a directory

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(@"E:\MyFolder","*.*");

this will return all files in the specified directory.

"*.*" is for pattern matchimg

Last access time

DateTime time = Directory.GetLastAccessTime(@"E:\Myfoler")

Returns last access time of the directory

Last write time

DateTime time = Directory.GetLastWriteTime(@"E:\Myfoler")

Returns last write time of the directory

Logical drives

string[] files = Directory.GetLogicalDrives();

Returns logical drive name in the system. These have names like

“<drive name>:\” . Example, c:\ , D:\ etc…

Parent directory

DirectoryInfo info = Directory.GetParent(@"E:\MyFolder");

This will return the parent directory of the specified directory.

Moving directories

Directory.Move(@"C:\Comp\games", @"C:\Comp\movies")

This will move the directory “games” to “movies”.

This is all about handling directories programmatically through C#.

Thanks,

SAN