How can I determine if a string is a local folder string or a network string?

Question

How can I determine in c# if a string is a local folder string or a network string besides regular expression?

For example:

I have a string which can be "c:\a" or "\\foldera\folderb"

Even a UNC path (starting with `\\\`) can be pointing to your local machine. — Oded, Dec 01 '10 at 15:11
see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/520753/what-is-the-correct-way-to-check-if-a-path-is-an-unc-path-or-a-local-path/520796#520796 — nos, Dec 01 '10 at 15:13
It is too late but this is perfect answer [link], hope this some one [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2243569/check-if-path-is-on-network#2244497 — mahmoodels, Nov 28 '13 at 08:18
possible duplicate of [Method to determine if path string is local or remote machine](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/354477/method-to-determine-if-path-string-is-local-or-remote-machine) — Drake, Jun 11 '14 at 15:04

Kev · Answer 1 · 2012-11-22T12:07:45.157

I think the full answer to this question is to include usage of the DriveInfo.DriveType property.

public static bool IsNetworkPath(string path)
{
    if (!path.StartsWith(@"/") && !path.StartsWith(@"\"))
    {
        string rootPath = System.IO.Path.GetPathRoot(path); // get drive's letter
        System.IO.DriveInfo driveInfo = new System.IO.DriveInfo(rootPath); // get info about the drive
        return driveInfo.DriveType == DriveType.Network; // return true if a network drive
    }

    return true; // is a UNC path
}

Test the path to see if it begins with a slash char and if it does then it is a UNC path. In this case you will have to assume that it is a network path - in reality it may not be a path that points at a different PC as it could in theory be a UNC path that points to your local machine, but this isn't likely for most people I guess, but you could add checks for this condition if you wanted a more bullet-proof solution.

If the path does not begin with a slash char then use the DriveInfo.DriveType property to determine if it is a network drive or not.

Isn't this wrong for rooted paths like '/tmp/file.txt', even though it's not specified in the examples above? — Snowbear, May 05 '23 at 15:07

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '10 at 15:15

23

new Uri(mypath).IsUnc

answered Dec 01 '10 at 15:15

jtdubs

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There's also IsFile to determine the opposite – Matthew Lock Feb 28 '17 at 23:31
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Notice: this solution is not aware of network drives – Mohammad Feb 12 '19 at 17:20

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

7

See this answer to get the DriveInfo object for a file path

C# DriveInfo FileInfo

Use the DriveType from this to determine if it is a network path.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.driveinfo.drivetype.aspx

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Dec 01 '10 at 15:10

Guy

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The `DriveInfo` won't work with netowrk paths like `\\foldera\folderb` throwing an `ArgumentException' – Phate01 Apr 11 '20 at 15:16

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 17 '15 at 10:47

1

One more way to check whether path point to local or network drive:

var host = new Uri(@"\\foldera\folderb").Host; //returns "foldera"
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(host))
{
   //Network drive
}

answered Aug 17 '15 at 10:47

Vasyl Senko

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This won't work with a mapped network driver. It still returns an empty host – Mohammad Feb 12 '19 at 17:22

How can I determine if a string is a local folder string or a network string?

4 Answers4

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