Where to place resource files?

Question

If the project has these directories

  MyProject
   - bin
     - Debug
       - program.exe
     - Release
       - program.exe
   - program.cs

Where to place a data.csv file that will be parsed by the program? I'd like to have it in the same folder as the program. Do I have to copy it to the Debug and Release dirs? Or is there a better way?

Edit I also needed to copy whole directories to output directory, but Visual Studio doesn't have this option. I found the answer here. If the Directory is huge (like in my case) it can be solved to copy only newer files using /D xcopy attribute. In my case, I added this command to post-build events (Project->Properties) and it works great:

xcopy "$(ProjectDir)\FolderToCopy" "$(TargetDir)\FolderToCopy" /D /E /I /Q /Y

(xcopy syntax)

Place it wherever you like in your project folder. Just remember to change it to "Content" in properties so it will be copied to your build folder. — Patrick, Jul 04 '14 at 11:36

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

You can place it anywhere you like in your project (except inside the bin/obj folders). In order to have it copied to your output, you simply need to mark it as "Copy to Output Directory":

Include the file in the project
Click the file in Solution Explorer
Hit F4
In the properties window, change the setting "Copy to Output Directory" to any of "Copy always" or "Copy if newer"

This will list the file in your project msbuild file (.csproj file) like this:

<None Include="data.csv">
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>

As opposed to:

<None Include="data.csv" />

If you did not change the setting as written above.

As I side note, you may want to avoid the term "resource" since that is normally used for files that are embedded into the assembly (such as .resx files). You could, conceivably, do that with your data.csv file as well: Instead of copying it to the output directory, it would be embedded in your assembly. You would need to access the file in a different way though. To achieve simply change "Build Action" to "Embedded Resource" instead of setting the "Copy to Output Directory" setting.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '14 at 11:37

The default method by Visual Studio is to create a Resources folder right under MyProject.

Then, in your project settings, you go to the Resources tab and there is a link to generate a resource file for you. It will usually create a Resources.resx file for you in the Properties folder.

You can add your resources there.

If you don't want to have it compiled into the assembly, but have it next to it, your can include a file from your project folder (or even a linked file), by setting the Copy to output directory property. It will copy the file to the bin folder for you.

Where to place resource files?

2 Answers2