CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
Mick
Mick

Reputation: 727

C#: Need to remove last folder from file name path

I'm pulling a file path from a database to use as a file source. I need to remove the last folder from the source path, so I can then create new folders to use as the destination path.

Example source file path: \\\\ServerName\\Documents\\MasterDocumentFolder\\

I need to remove the last folder from that string and get this: \\\\ServerName\\Documents\\

So I can create a folder like this: \\\\ServerName\\Documents\\NewDocumentFolder1\\

Edit: I have updated my example paths to show why the Path.GetDirectoryName() won't work in this case.

Upvotes: 43

Views: 54252

Answers (7)

Andrew_STOP_RU_WAR_IN_UA
Andrew_STOP_RU_WAR_IN_UA

Reputation: 11426

With this method you can create dir by dirPath (if dir is not exist) and to create directory from the filePath if needed

private void CreateDirIfNotExist(string dirPath, bool removeFilename = false)
{
    if (removeFilename)
        dirPath = Directory.GetParent(dirPath).FullName;

    if (!Directory.Exists(dirPath))
        Directory.CreateDirectory(dirPath);
}

Upvotes: 0

SteveCinq
SteveCinq

Reputation: 1963

In VB:

Dim MyNewPath As String = StrReverse(Strings.Split(StrReverse(MyPath), "\", 2)(1))

This works down to the root, eg C:\MyPath but fails (without validation) for a bare folder.

Obviously, you need to handle differently if there is a file appended.

Upvotes: -1

Brandon
Brandon

Reputation: 702

System.IO.DirectoryInfo is probably the cleanest way to accomplish what you're asking for.

var path = "\\\\ServerName\\Documents\\MasterDocumentFolder\\";
string newPath = new DirectoryInfo(path).Parent.CreateSubdirectory("NewDocumentFolder1").FullName;
Console.WriteLine(newPath.FullName);
//> "\\ServerName\Documents\NewDocumentFolder1\"

Note that DirectoryInfo does NOT require an existing or accessible directory:

var dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Asdf\Qwer\Zxcv\Poiu\Lkj\Mn");
Console.WriteLine( dir.Exists );
//> False

But making sure it exists is a snap

var dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Asdf\Qwer\Zxcv\Poiu\Lkj\Mn");
dir.Create();
Console.WriteLine( dir.Exists );
//> True

It will also do nifty things like resolve relative paths:

var dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Asdf\Qwer\Zxcv\Poiu\Lkj\..\..\..\Mn");
Console.WriteLine( dir.FullName );
//> C:\Asdf\Qwer\Mn

Regarding other answers trimming and appending slashes, note the difference in behavior between Directory.GetParent("...\") and DirectoryInfo("...\").Parent when dealing with trailing \'s - DirectoryInfo is more consistent:

Console.WriteLine( Directory.GetParent( @"C:\Temp\Test" ).FullName );
//> C:\Temp
Console.WriteLine( Directory.GetParent( @"C:\Temp\Test\" ).FullName );
//> C:\Temp\Test
Console.WriteLine( new DirectoryInfo( @"C:\Temp\Test" ).Parent.FullName );
//> C:\Temp
Console.WriteLine( new DirectoryInfo( @"C:\Temp\Test\" ).Parent.FullName );
//> C:\Temp

Again, to avoid dealing with trailing slashes, always use Path.Combine() to concatenate paths and file names. It will handle paths correctly whether they contain a trailing \ or not:

Console.WriteLine( Path.Combine( @"C:\Temp\Test\", "Test.txt" ) );
//> C:\Temp\Test\Test.txt
Console.WriteLine( Path.Combine( @"C:\Temp\Test", "Test.txt" ) );
//> C:\Temp\Test\Test.txt
Console.WriteLine( Path.Combine( @"C:\", "Temp", "Test", "Test.txt" ) );
//> C:\Temp\Test\Test.txt

Upvotes: 7

Eric Herlitz
Eric Herlitz

Reputation: 26267

What you are looking for is the GetParent() method in the Directory class

string path = @"C:\Documents\MasterDocumentFolder\";
DirectoryInfo parentDir = Directory.GetParent(path);
// or possibly
DirectoryInfo parentDir = Directory.GetParent(path.EndsWith("\\") ? path : string.Concat(path, "\\"));

// The result is available here
var myParentDir = parentDir.Parent.FullName

Upvotes: 52

Jason Meckley
Jason Meckley

Reputation: 7591

This should account for the path being either a file or directory

DirectoryInfo parent = null;
if (File.Exists(path))
{
    parent = new FileInfo(path).Directory.Directory
}
if(Directory.Exists(path))
{
    parent = new DirectoryInfo(path).Directory;
}

Upvotes: 2

Sergey Berezovskiy
Sergey Berezovskiy

Reputation: 236208

Thats ugly, but works

string path = @"C:\Documents\MasterDocumentFolder\file.any";
var lastFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
var pathWithoutLastFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(lastFolder);

But if you have less than one level of directories (drive root), then pathWithoutLastFolder will be null, so you have to deal with it.

Upvotes: 13

siger
siger

Reputation: 3162

Have you tried splitting the string per "\", and then reconstructing a new path by joining every element but the last one?

You would also need to consider the case where the original path is at the root, and when it ends in a backslash or not.

Upvotes: 1

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