Navigating Directories using Path.Combine

Question

I am trying to go up a few directories and then go in to the input folder...

I have tried this

var path = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), @"..\\..\\..\\Input\\" + filename);

but the value of path ends up being..

C:\\Users\user1\\Desktop\\ToSend\\test\\reverser\\Reverser\\bin\\Debug\\..\\\\..\\\\..\\\\Input\\\\limerick.txt

Any ideas?

possible duplicate of [Path.Combine absolute with relative path strings](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/670566/path-combine-absolute-with-relative-path-strings) — Eugene Podskal, Aug 20 '14 at 07:26
do you want to get rid of the double \ characters or the \\.. paths? — default, Aug 20 '14 at 07:35
This is tangential to your actual issue, but since you are preceding the string literal with `@`, you should be using `\ `, not `\\ `. — JLRishe, Aug 20 '14 at 07:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '14 at 07:29

2

You need to get the absolute not a relative path . So you must use GetFullPath() instead of Combine().

Check this

answered Aug 20 '14 at 07:29

Lamloumi Afif

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 20 '14 at 07:32

0

You can use the DirectoryInfo.Parent Property.

edited Aug 20 '14 at 07:32

JLRishe

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answered Aug 20 '14 at 07:26

Davut Özcan

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 20 '14 at 07:28

First of all, when using @ with Strings there is no need to escape \ characters, so by just using single \ slashes you can avoid the double-escaped slashes in the result.

Concerning the path question: It depends on what you want to do. If the result string is used to do some file operations using System.IO.File.* or to write/read from a file using StreamReader/StreamWriter, the operation itself will take care of walking up the directories when detecting \..\, so no need to worry!

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 20 '14 at 07:33

Assuming you know how many levels you want to remove from your path:

public string DirectoryGOUp(string path, int levelCount) {
    if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(path) || levelCount < 1)
        return path;

    string upperLevel = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(path);

    if(--levelCount > 0)
        return DirectoryGOUp(upperLevel, levelCount);

    return upperLevel;
}

And then call it:

var newPath = DirectoryGOUp(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(),3); newPath = Path.Combine(newPath, @"Input\"+filename);

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 20 '14 at 21:18

0

To expand on lamloumi's answer and cleanup the code:

var path = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), @"..\..\..\Input", filename));

should produce the absolute path to your file.

answered Aug 20 '14 at 21:18

ths

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Navigating Directories using Path.Combine

5 Answers5