A Look at C# File and FileInfo Classes
(Page 1 of 4 )
When you think about creating files programmatically in C# you have the option of using the File class or the FileInfo class. In this article, we are going to create, copy and move files using those classes. This is the second article in a multi-part series.
You need to read my earlier article, "A Look at C# Directory and DirectoryInfo Classes," before you read this one because we are going to use the concepts explained in that article here. You need VS.NET 2003 installed on your machine in order to run the code examples. Before you run the examples, you may need to change the drive letter because I'm using the drive letter F (actually, this is an empty drive on my machine).
We discuss the Path class first. Let's get to work.
Understanding the Path Class
As you already know, a path is a string that tells you where your file or directory is located. So F:MyFolderMyFolder1help.txt is a path to the file help.txt which tells us that the file exists in the folder MyFolder1, which exists in the MyFolder directory. Different platforms use different separator characters, but we can use the Path class to build path names without worrying about this issue.
The Path class contains only static members such as the Path.Combine() method, which you use to build the path name that's platform-specific. The Path class provides us with other useful members that are illustrated by the following example.
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace IOProject
{
class Class1
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("The Path Separator Character = {0}",
Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
Console.WriteLine("The Path Alternative Separator
Character = {0}",
Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar);
Console.WriteLine("The Path Separator = {0}",
Path.PathSeparator);
Console.WriteLine("Combining the string " F:MyFolder "
and " + "" MyFolder1 " using Path.Combine()");
Console.WriteLine(Path.Combine("F:MyFolder",
"MyFolder1"));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
To run the above code create a new VS.NET Console Application Project, replace the Class1.cs auto-generated code with the above code, then run it.
The first line in the Main() method prints out the value of the Property Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, the "" character, which is used on the Windows operating system to separate the names of folders and files to build the path; the value of this Property on Unix is "/". The next line prints out the value of the Property Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar which is the "/" character on Windows and "" in the Unix Operating System to separate the names of folders and files to build the path. The Path.PathSeparator property returns the path separator character ;. The Path.Combine() method combines two strings and forms one path name. So the method call Path.Combine("F:MyFolder", "MyFolder1") returns F:MyFolderMyFolder1. There are some other members of the Path class but we will not discuss them. Instead, we are going to begin our discussion of the FileInfo and File Classes.
Next: The File and FileInfo Classes >>
More C# Articles
More By Michael Youssef
/ 11 
