Working with Directory Class in .Net (C#)

Directory class is static class provides static methods to do normal directory related operations such as Copy, Paste, Move, Rename, Delete etc. It is available in System.IO namespace.  Below code demonstrates some basic majorly used methods of directory class.

//Creates temp directory if not exist

if (!Directory.Exists(@"d:\temp"))

    Directory.CreateDirectory(@"d:\temp");

//set/get current directory

Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(@"d:\temp");

Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());

//gets root of directory

Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(@"d:\temp"));

//gets creation and last modified time of directory

Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetCreationTime(@"d:\temp"));

Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetLastWriteTime(@"d:\temp"));

           

//enumerates all files available in temp directory          

foreach (string file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(@"d:\temp"))

    Console.WriteLine(file);

//enumerates all directories available in temp directory

foreach (string directory in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(@"d:\temp"))

    Console.WriteLine(directory);

//enumerates all logical drives

foreach (string drive in Directory.GetLogicalDrives())

    Console.WriteLine(drive);

//deletes an empty directory. if not empty throws an exception

Directory.Delete(@"d:\temp");

Enumerate files and folders using DirectoryInfo

DirectoryInfo class provides some basic features to create, copy, move, rename and delete operations. It also provides some basic information like directory name, full path, attribute, root name etc. Let’s have a look on below code which loop through all the files and directories in specific directory.

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(@"d:\temp");

Console.WriteLine(di.FullName);

//gets all files in temp directory

foreach (FileInfo file in di.GetFiles())

    Console.WriteLine(file.Name);

//gets all directories in temp directory

foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in di.GetDirectories())

    Console.WriteLine(dir.Name);

How to get Special Folders?

Special folders are defined under Environment.SpecialFolder enum. This enum is available in System.Environment class. Let’s see how to get path for special folders like MyDocuments, MyPictures, Desktop, ProgramFiles, System, Windows etc.

Console.WriteLine("My Documents - {0}", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments));

Console.WriteLine("My Videos - {0}", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyVideos));

Console.WriteLine("Windows - {0}", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Windows));

Console.WriteLine("ProgramFiles - {0}", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles));

Console.WriteLine("System - {0}", Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System));

Output –

My Documents - D:\Users\mitesh\Documents

My Videos - D:\Users\mitesh\Videos

Windows - C:\WINDOWS

ProgramFiles - C:\Program Files

System - C:\WINDOWS\system32

//Enumerates all SpecialFolders available in Enviroment.SpecialFolder enum

foreach (var specialFolder in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Environment.SpecialFolder)))

    Console.WriteLine(specialFolder);

Output –

Desktop

Programs

MyDocuments

Favorites

Startup

Recent

SendTo

StartMenu

…

…

…

See Also - 
Working with File Class in .Net (C#)
Performance Counters in .Net
Semaphore in Threading