.NET Tips and Tricks

Blog archive

The Answer to Every File Path Related Problem

If you do anything at all with file path, you need the Path class (in the System.IO namespace). The methods on the Path class that you're most likely to use include:

  • GetTempFileName: Doesn't just return a filename that's guaranteed to be unique -- it also creates the file in the TEMP folder so you can start writing to it
  • GetFileName: Returns the file name from a path (and returns null if the path is just the path to a folder without a file name)
  • GetDirectoryName: Passed a file path, pulls out the full path to the folder without the closing backslash. One warning: this method returns null if passed the root folder ("c:\")
  • Combine: Puts a set of strings together to create a valid file path. Combine will add or remove backslashes as necessary, so the method will do the right thing with the path return by GetDirectoryName

These are the answers; any more questions?

Posted by Peter Vogel on 08/24/2015


comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • VS Code 1.125 Adds Copilot Spend Meter After Billing Shock

    VS Code 1.125 adds in-editor visibility into additional Copilot budget usage as GitHub's AI-credit billing model continues to draw developer scrutiny.

  • TypeScript 7.0 RC Moves Microsoft's Go Rewrite Into the Mainline Compiler

    Microsoft's Go-based TypeScript rewrite has reached Release Candidate status, moving from a separate native-preview package into the regular TypeScript npm package while leaving some ecosystem-facing API work for TypeScript 7.1 or later.

  • Microsoft Highlights Visual Studio Live! Event Lineup and Longtime Developer Community Role

    A Microsoft MVP Blog post on Visual Studio Live!'s longevity arrives as the 2026 conference series continues with upcoming stops at Microsoft HQ, San Diego and Orlando.

  • Using Local AI to Cut Copilot Usage-Based Billing Shock

    After being gobsmacked by the new billing plan using almost all my monthly credits in one or two days, I tried pushing some Copilot-style coding work onto local models in VS Code. What I found was less "free AI" and more "pick your pain": cloud charges on one side, heavy local resource use and long waits on the other.

Subscribe on YouTube