How to check if specific folders exist in a path in C#

Question

I have a path for example C:/desktop and i wanna know if in this path are any folders named like folder A, folder B... i dont care whats in them i just need to know if they exist. ive seen the similar questions being asked but they were about splitting the path name, but the only path name i have is the most basic one, in those other question the path name was like, c:/desktop/folderA/folderB i wanna just know if C:/desktop/folderA exists or not and do it with a bunch of other folder names

there's a [`Directory.Exists`](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.directory.exists?view=net-5.0) method you can use. Can you show an example of what you currently have as input and some pseudo code of how you intented to use it? — default, Apr 28 '21 at 14:06

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 28 '21 at 13:57

3

Have you tried GetDirectories()?

var folders = System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(@"C:/desktop");

answered Apr 28 '21 at 13:57

mxmissile

11,464
3
53
79

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:12

3

if (Directory.Exists(@"location")){
//found it
}

answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:12

emeraldXen

41
2

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:07

2

You can use an overload on the GetDirectories mentioned by @mxmissile to make it explicit you want to search to top directories only.

System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories("C:/desktop", "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)

answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:07

DeMaki

371
4
15

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:09

1

You can search through a folder with System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories

In your case you should find your "Folder A" with: Directory.GetDirectories(@"C:\desktop\", "folderA");

answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:09

Kimon M

36
1
5

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:09

You can try to check if Directory.Exists(). If you already know which folders you're looking for, you could do this:

var main_dir = @"C:\desktop\";
string[] folders = {"FolderA", "FolderB"};

string[] dir = new string[folders.Length];
for(int i = 0; i < folders.Length; ++i)
{
    dir[i] = Path.Combine(main_dir, folders[i]);
    Console.WriteLine(dir[i]);

    Console.WriteLine(Directory.Exists(dir[i]));
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 28 '21 at 14:10

Here is what you ask for. I have added a foreach to get all cases (folder A, b, c ...)

    bool directoryExist = System.IO.Directory.Exists(@"c:\desktop\forder A");
    foreach (var folderPath in System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(@"c:\desktop"))
    {
        string folderName = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(folderPath);
        if (folderName == "Folder A") { //Case Sensible
            
        }
    }

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited May 08 '21 at 19:19

You can try querying with a help of Linq:

  using System.IO;
  using System.Linq;

  ...

  // Do we have in root
  string root = @"C:/desktop";

  // Any subdir(s) mentioned
  HashSet<string> subdirs = new HashSet<string>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase) {
    @"folder A", 
    @"folder B",
  };

  bool contains = Directory
    .EnumerateDirectories(root, "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
    .Any(dir => subdirs.Contains(new DirectoryInfo(dir).Name));

Change SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly into SearchOption.AllDirectories if you want deep search (if root itself or its any subdirectory has a folder mentioned in subdirs). You can alter the query to asnwer different questions:

  // If all subdirs exist:
  bool conatinsAll = Directory
    .EnumerateDirectories(root, "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
    .All(dir => subdirs.Contains(new DirectoryInfo(dir).Name)); 

  // Names of subdirs exist
  string[] existingSubDirs = Directory
    .EnumerateDirectories(root, "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
    .Where(dir => subdirs.Contains(new DirectoryInfo(dir).Name))
    .ToArray();

How to check if specific folders exist in a path in C#

7 Answers7