C# Directory: A Complete Tutorial To Work With Directories in C#

using System.IO;

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
string subdir = @"C:\Temp\Mahesh";  
// If directory does not exist, create it.  
if (!Directory.Exists(root))  
{  
    Directory.CreateDirectory(root);  
}

// Create sub directory  
if (!Directory.Exists(subdir))  
{  
    Directory.CreateDirectory(subdir);  
}

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// If directory does not exist, don't even try  
if (Directory.Exists(root))  
{  
    Directory.Delete(root);  
}

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// If directory does not exist, don't even try  
if (Directory.Exists(root))  
{  
    Directory.Delete(root);  
}

string sourceDirName = @"C:\Temp";  
string destDirName = @"C:\NewTemp";  
try  
{  
    Directory.Move(sourceDirName, destDirName);  
}  
catch (IOException exp)  
{  
    Console.WriteLine(exp.Message);  
}

// Get and set file creation time  
string fileName = @"c:\temp\Mahesh.txt";  
File.SetCreationTime(fileName, DateTime.Now);  
DateTime dt = File.GetCreationTime(fileName);  
Console.WriteLine("File created time: {0}",dt.ToString());  

// Get and set file last access time  
string fileName = @"c:\temp\Mahesh.txt";  
File.SetLastAccessTime(fileName,DateTime.Now);  
DateTime dt = File.GetLastAccessTime(fileName);  
Console.WriteLine("File last access time: {0}", dt.ToString());

The SetLastWriteTime and GetLastWriteTime methods are used to set and get the specified file's last write date and time. The following code snippet sets and gets a file's last write date and time.

// Get and set file last write time  
string fileName = @"c:\temp\Mahesh.txt";  
File.SetLastWriteTime(fileName,DateTime.Now);  
DateTime dt = File.GetLastWriteTime(fileName);  
Console.WriteLine("File last write time: {0}", dt.ToString()); 

Enumerate Directory in C#

The Directory.EnumerateDirectories method returns an enumerable collection of directory names in the specified directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// Get a list of all subdirectories  
var dirs = from dir in  
    Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root)  
             select dir;  
Console.WriteLine("Subdirectories: {0}", dirs.Count<string>().ToString());  
Console.WriteLine("List of Subdirectories");  
foreach (var dir in dirs)  
{  
    Console.WriteLine("{0}", dir.Substring(dir.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1));  
}  
  
// Get a list of all subdirectories starting with 'Ma'  
var MaDirs = from dir in  
    Directory.EnumerateDirectories(root, "Ma*")  
             select dir;  
Console.WriteLine("Subdirectories: {0}", MaDirs.Count<string>().ToString());  
Console.WriteLine("List of Subdirectories");  
foreach (var dir in MaDirs)  
{  
    Console.WriteLine("{0}", dir.Substring(dir.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1));  
}

Enumerate Files in C#

The Directory.The EnumerateFiles method returns an enumerable collection of file names in the specified directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// Get a list of all subdirectories  
var files = from file in  
Directory.EnumerateFiles(root)  
            select file;  
Console.WriteLine("Files: {0}", files.Count<string>().ToString());  
Console.WriteLine("List of Files");  
foreach (var file in files)  
{  
    Console.WriteLine("{0}", file);  
}

Get and Set File Creation Time

The Directory.SetCreationTime and Directory.GetCreationTime methods are used to set and get the creation date and time of the specified directory. The following code snippet sets and gets the creation time of a directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// Get and Set Creation time  
Directory.SetCreationTime(root, DateTime.Now);  
DateTime creationTime = Directory.GetCreationTime(root);  
Console.WriteLine(creationTime);

Get and Set File Last Access Time

The SetLastAccessTime and GetLastAccessTime methods are used to set and get the specified directory's last access date and time. The following code snippet sets and gets a directory's last access date and time.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// Get and Set Last Access time  
Directory.SetLastAccessTime(root, DateTime.Now);  
DateTime lastAccessTime = Directory.GetLastAccessTime(root);  
Console.WriteLine(lastAccessTime);

Get and Set File Last Write Time

The SetLastWriteTime and GetLastWriteTime methods are used to set and get the specified directory's last write date and time. The following code snippet sets and gets a directory's last write date and time.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
// Get and Set Last Write time  
Directory.SetLastWriteTime(root, DateTime.Now);  
DateTime lastWriteTime =Directory.GetLastWriteTime(root);  
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTime);

Get and Set the Current Directory in C#

The SetCurrentDirectory method sets the specified directory as the current directory. The GetCurrentDirectory method returns the current directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";   
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(root);      
Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());

Get Sub Directories in C#

The GetDirectories method of the Directory class loads all the subdirectories of a directory. To get all subdirectories, we can read subdirectories recursively.

public void GetSubDirectories()  
{  
    string root = @"C:\Temp";  
    // Get all subdirectories  
    string[] subdirectoryEntries = Directory.GetDirectories(root);  
    // Loop through them to see if they have any other subdirectories  
    foreach (string subdirectory in subdirectoryEntries)  
        LoadSubDirs(subdirectory);  
}  
private void LoadSubDirs(string dir)  
{  
    Console.WriteLine(dir);  
    string[] subdirectoryEntries = Directory.GetDirectories(dir);  
    foreach (string subdirectory in subdirectoryEntries)  
    {  
        LoadSubDirs(subdirectory);  
    }  
}

Get Files in a Directory in C#

The GetFiles method gets a list of files in the specified directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
string[] fileEntries = Directory.GetFiles(root);  
foreach (string fileName in fileEntries);  
Console.WriteLine(fileName);

Get Root Directory in C#

The GetRootDirecoty method returns the root directory of the specified directory.

string root = @"C:\Temp";  
Console.WriteLine(Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(root));

Get all drives in C#

The GetLogicalDrives method returns all the logical drives on a system.

string[] drives = System.IO.Directory.GetLogicalDrives();  
foreach (string drive in drives)  
{  
    System.Console.WriteLine(drive);  
}

Summary

This article taught you how to work with the C# Directory class to create and get access to folders and files in C#.