System.IO.Directory Class

public sealed class Directory

Base Types

Object
  Directory

Assembly

mscorlib

Library

BCL

Summary

Provides information and performs operations on directories.

Description

Implementations are required to preserve the case of file and directory path strings, and to be case sensitive if and only if the current platform is case-sensitive.

[Note: In most Directory methods that accept path arguments, the path can refer to a file or a directory. ]

See Also

System.IO Namespace

Members

Directory Methods

Directory.Delete(System.String) Method
Directory.Delete(System.String, bool) Method
Directory.Exists Method
Directory.GetCreationTime Method
Directory.GetCurrentDirectory Method
Directory.GetDirectories(System.String) Method
Directory.GetDirectories(System.String, System.String) Method
Directory.GetDirectoryRoot Method
Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(System.String) Method
Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(System.String, System.String) Method
Directory.GetFiles(System.String) Method
Directory.GetFiles(System.String, System.String) Method
Directory.GetLastAccessTime Method
Directory.GetLastWriteTime Method
Directory.Move Method
Directory.SetCreationTime Method
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory Method
Directory.SetLastAccessTime Method
Directory.SetLastWriteTime Method

path

A String containing the name of the directory to delete. This directory must be writable and empty.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
DirectoryNotFoundException	The specified path was not found.
IOException	The directory specified by path is read-only or is not empty.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

This method behaves identically to System.IO.Directory.Delete(System.String)(path, false ).

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory to delete. This directory must be writable and cannot contain files unless recursive is true.

recursive

Specify true to delete subdirectories and files in path; otherwise, specify false .

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
DirectoryNotFoundException	The specified path was not found.
IOException	The directory specified by path is read-only, or recursive is false and path is not an empty directory.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

Returns a Boolean indicating whether the specified directory exists.

Parameters

path

A String containing the name of the directory to check.

Return Value

true if the caller has the required permissions and path contains the name of an existing directory; otherwise, false . If path is null , a zero-length string, or contains the name of a file, returns false .

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.

Description

If the caller does not have sufficient permissions to read the files in the directory specified by path, no exception is thrown and the method returns false regardless of the existence of path.

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the file or directory for which to obtain creation date and time information.

Return Value

A DateTime structure set to the creation date and time for the specified directory. This value is expressed in local time.

Platforms that do not support this feature return System.DateTime.MinValue.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
IOException	The directory specified by path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

This method is equivalent to System.IO.File.GetCreationTime(System.String) (path).

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

A String containing the path of the current working directory.

Platforms that do not support this feature return System.String.Empty.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory for which an array of subdirectory names is returned.

Return Value

A String array containing the names of subdirectories in path.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains implementation-defined invalid characters.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
IOException	path is a file name.

Description

This method is identical to System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(System.String) (path , "*").

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

The names returned by this method are prefixed with the directory information provided in path.

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the starting location for the search.

searchPattern

A String containing the text pattern to match against the names of subdirectories of path. searchPattern cannot contain System.IO.Path.DirectorySeparatorChar or System.IO.Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar.

Return Value

A String array containing the names of subdirectories of path that match searchPattern.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	path or searchPattern is null .
SecurityException	The caller does not have permission to access the requested information.
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains implementation-defined invalid characters. searchPattern does not contain a valid pattern.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
IOException	path is a file name.

Description

The following wild card specifiers are permitted in searchPattern:

Wild card	Description
*	Zero or more characters.
?	Exactly one character.

The period (".") character, if immediately followed by a wild card specifier, indicates that the period or the empty string matches the pattern. For example, "foo.*" and "foo.?" match "foo". Note that "foo.*" and "foo*" behave identically. If the period is not immediately followed by a wildcard, it has no special meaning (it represents a period).

Characters other than the wild card specifiers represent themselves, for example, the searchPattern string "*t" searches for all names inpath ending with the letter "t". The searchPattern string "s*" searches for all names in path beginning with the letter "s".

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of a file or directory.

Return Value

A String containing the root information for the specified path.

Platforms that do not support this feature return System.String.Empty.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

This method obtains the full path information for path, as returned by System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(System.String) (path) and returns the path root component. The specified path is not required to exist.

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory .]

Example

The following example demonstrates the System.IO.Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(System.String) method.

using System;
using System.IO;
class GetDirectoryTest {
  public static void Main() {
    string [] paths = {                                          

@"\ecmatest\examples\pathtests.txt",
      "pathtests.xyzzy",
      @"\",
      @"C:\",
      @"\\myserver\myshare\foo\bar\baz.txt"
    };
    foreach (string pathString in paths) {
      string s = Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(pathString);
      Console.WriteLine("Path: {0} Directory Root is {1}",pathString, s== null? "null":s);
    }
  }
}

The output is

Path: \ecmatest\examples\pathtests.txt Directory Root is C:\

Path: pathtests.xyzzy Directory Root is C:\

Path: \ Directory Root is C:\

Path: C:\ Directory Root is C:\

Path: \\myserver\myshare\foo\bar\baz.txt Directory Root is \\myserver\myshare

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory for which file and subdirectory names are returned.

Return Value

A String array containing the names of file system entries in the specified directory.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
IOException	path is a file name.

Description

This method is identical to System.IO.Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(System.String) (path, "*").

The names returned by this method are prefixed with the directory information provided in path. The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory .]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory to search.

searchPattern

A String containing the text pattern for which to search. searchPattern cannot contain System.IO.Path.DirectorySeparatorChar or System.IO.Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar .

Return Value

A String array containing file and directory names matching the specified search criteria.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	searchPattern or path is null .
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
IOException	path is a file name.

Description

The following wild card specifiers are permitted in searchPattern:

Wild card	Description
*	Zero or more characters.
?	Exactly one character.

The period (".") character, if immediately followed by a wild card specifier, indicates that the period or the empty string matches the pattern. For example, "foo.*" and "foo.?" match "foo". Note that "foo.*" and "foo*" behave identically. If the period is not immediately followed by a wildcard, it has no special meaning (it represents a period).

Characters other than the wild card specifiers represent themselves, for example, the searchPattern string "*t" searches for all names in path ending with the letter "t". The searchPattern string "s*" searches for all names in path beginning with the letter "s".

The names returned by this method are prefixed with the directory information provided in path. The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory for which file names are returned.

Return Value

A String array containing the names of the files in the specified directory.

Platforms that do not support this feature return null .

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	path is null.
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
IOException	path is a file name.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

This method is identical to System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(System.String) (path, "*").

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory to search.

searchPattern

A String containing the text pattern to match against the names of files in path. searchPattern cannot contain System.IO.Path.DirectorySeparatorChar or System.IO.Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar.

Return Value

A String array containing the names of files in the specified directory that match the specified search pattern.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	searchPattern or path is null .
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
IOException	path is a file name.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
DirectoryNotFoundException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

The following wild card specifiers are permitted in searchPattern:

Wild card	Description
*	Zero or more characters.
?	Exactly one character.

The period (".") character, if immediately followed by a wild card specifier, indicates that the period or the empty string matches the pattern. For example, "foo.*" and "foo.?" match "foo". Note that "foo.*" and "foo*" behave identically. If the period is not immediately followed by a wildcard, it has no special meaning (it represents a period).

Characters other than the wild card specifiers and the period always represent themselves, for example, the searchPattern string "*t" searches for all names in path ending with the letter "t". The searchPattern string "s*" searches for all names in path beginning with the letter "s".

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the file or directory for which to obtain access date and time information.

Return Value

A DateTime structure set to the date and time the specified file or directory was last accessed. This value is expressed in local time.

Platforms that do not support this feature return System.DateTime.MinValue.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
IOException	The specified path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

This method is equivalent to System.IO.File.GetLastAccessTime(System.String) (path).

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the file or directory for which to obtain modification date and time information.

Return Value

A DateTime structure set to the date and time the specified file or directory was last written to. This value is expressed in local time.

Platforms that do not support this feature return System.DateTime.MinValue.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
IOException	The specified path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

This method is equivalent to System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(System.String) (path ).

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

sourceDirName

A String containing the name of the file or directory to move.

destDirName

A String containing the new location for sourceDirName. This string cannot identify an existing file or directory.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	sourceDirName or destDirName is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	sourceDirName or destDirName is null .
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.
IOException	An attempt was made to move a directory to a different volume, or destDirName already exists.
DirectoryNotFoundException	sourceDirName was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length or absolute path information for sourceDirName or destDirName exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

The destDirName argument cannot specify a location on a different disk or volume than sourceDirName. The sourceDirName and destDirName arguments cannot identify the same file or directory.

[Note: This method throws a IOException if, for example, you try to move "\mydir" to "\public", and "\public" already exists. You must specify "\public\mydir" as the destDirName.]

The sourceDirName and destDirName arguments are permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the file or directory for which to set the creation date and time information.

creationTime

A DateTime containing the value to set for the creation date and time of path. This value is expressed in local time.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	creationTime specifies a value outside the range of date/times permitted for this operation.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
FileNotFoundException	path was not found.
IOException	An I/O error occurred while performing the operation.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

On platforms that do not support this feature, this method has no effect. If this feature is supported, the range of dates that is valid for this operation is implementation-specific.

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the path to which the current working directory is set.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
FileNotFoundException	path was not found.
IOException	An I/O error occurred while performing the operation.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

Description

When the application terminates, the working directory is restored to its original location (the directory where the process was started).

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

On platforms that do not support this feature, this method has no effect.

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the file or directory for which to set the access date and time information.

lastAccessTime

A DateTime containing the value to set for the access date and time of path. This value is expressed in local time.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
IOException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

The path argument is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

On platforms that do not support this feature, this method has no effect. If this feature is supported, the range of dates that is valid for this operation is implementation-specific.

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace

path

A String containing the name of the directory for which to set the date and time information.

lastWriteTime

A DateTime containing the value to set for the last write date and time of path. This value is expressed in local time.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentException	path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more implementation-defined invalid characters.
ArgumentNullException	path is null .
IOException	path was not found.
PathTooLongException	The length of path or the absolute path information for path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.
SecurityException	The caller does not have the required permission.

Description

Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. [Note: To obtain the current working directory, see System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory.]

On platforms that do not support this feature, this method has no effect. If this feature is supported, the range of dates that is valid for this operation is implementation-specific.

See Also

System.IO.Directory Class, System.IO Namespace