c# - Function to replicate the folder structure in the file path

Question

I need a simple function which will take a FileInfo and a destination_directory_name as input, get the file path from the fileinfo and replicate it in the destination_directory_name passed as the second parameter.

for ex. filepath is "d:\recordings\location1\client1\job1\file1.ext the function should create the directories in the destination_directory_name if they dont exist and copy the file after creating the directories.

Dowable

Easiest way: #59244 – Cardew

Please select this answer so it comes to the top for the sake of future visitors. The currently selected answer is unnecessarily complex and misleading. – Persevering

Answer 1

I'm using the following method for that purpose:

public static void CreateDirectory(DirectoryInfo directory)
{
    if (!directory.Parent.Exists)
        CreateDirectory(directory.Parent);
    directory.Create();
}

Use it in this way:

// path is your file path
string directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
CreateDirectory(new DirectoryInfo(directory));

Gotthelf

Thanks for the answer. Even i wanted this for one of my application – Eolanda

While this is working solution, the answer from Andy is way more convenient, so please consider to accept it instead of this one. Literally you don't have to worry about creating all nested folder in the path by yourself - method System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory() will try to create all of them automatically if any part will be missed. – Arola

Answer 2

System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory can be used to create the final directory, it will also automatically create all folders in the path if they do not exist.

//Will create all three directories (if they do not already exist).
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory("C:\\First\\Second\\Third")

Piperine

I think if you put some more detail in this, just a simple code example and a link to the MSDN docs, and removed the extraneous sign-off, it would make more sense for this to be the accepted answer. – Rictus

This seems to be very straightforward to understand. Why there is a need for an example. Please see: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/… – Fillagree

No need for explanation. The code snippet is enough. Also MSDN specifically states that ".. it will automatically create all folders in the path if they do not exist", and the @Piperine is correct. – Ectoenzyme

I don't see why this isn't the accepted answer, what more detail would be needed? Gets the upvote from me. – Valval

Answer 3

Based on @NTDLS's answer here's a method that will replicate source to destination. It handles case where source is a file or a folder. Function name kind of stinks... lemme know if you think of a better one.

    /// <summary>
    /// Copies the source to the dest.  Creating any neccessary folders in the destination path as neccessary.
    /// 
    /// For example:
    /// Directory Example:
    /// pSource = C:\somedir\conf and pDest=C:\somedir\backups\USER_TIMESTAMP\somedir\conf   
    /// all files\folders under source will be replicated to destination and any paths in between will be created.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="pSource">path to file or directory that you want to copy from</param>
    /// <param name="pDest">path to file or directory that you want to copy to</param>
    /// <param name="pOverwriteDest">if true, files/directories in pDest will be overwritten.</param>
    public static void FileCopyWithReplicate(string pSource, string pDest, bool pOverwriteDest)
    {
        string destDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(pDest);
        System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirectory);

        if (Directory.Exists(pSource))
        {
            DirectoryCopy(pSource, pDest,pOverwriteDest);
        }
        else
        {
            File.Copy(pSource, pDest, pOverwriteDest);
        }
    }

    // From MSDN Aricle "How to: Copy Directories"
    // Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762914.aspx
    private static void DirectoryCopy(string sourceDirName, string destDirName, bool copySubDirs)
    {
        DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirName);
        DirectoryInfo[] dirs = dir.GetDirectories();

        if (!dir.Exists)
        {
            throw new DirectoryNotFoundException(
                "Source directory does not exist or could not be found: "
                + sourceDirName);
        }

        if (!Directory.Exists(destDirName))
        {
            Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirName);
        }

        FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
        foreach (FileInfo file in files)
        {
            string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, file.Name);
            file.CopyTo(temppath, true);
        }

        if (copySubDirs)
        {
            foreach (DirectoryInfo subdir in dirs)
            {
                string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, subdir.Name);
                DirectoryCopy(subdir.FullName, temppath, copySubDirs);
            }
        }
    }

Patagonia

Answer 4

Similar to the question, I am copying a folder structure from one destination and duplicating it to another. Sorry for posting to an old thread, but it may be useful for someone that ends up here.

Let's assume that we have an application that is standalone, and we need to copy the folder structure from an Input folder to an Output folder. The Input folder and Output folder is in the root directory of our application.

We can make a DirectoryInfo for the Input folder (structure we want to copy) like this:

DirectoryInfo dirInput = new DirectoryInfo(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "\\Input\\");

Our output folder location can be stored in a string.

string dirOutput = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "\\Output\\";

This recursive method should handle the rest for us.

    public static void ProcessDirectories(DirectoryInfo dirInput, string dirOutput)
    {
        string dirOutputfix = String.Empty;

        foreach (DirectoryInfo di in dirInput.GetDirectories())
        {
            dirOutputfix = dirOutput + "\\" + di.Name);

            if (!Directory.Exists(dirOutputfix))
            {
                try
                {
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(dirOutputfix);
                }
                catch(Exception e)
                {
                    throw (e);
                }
            }

            ProcessDirectories(di, dirOutputfix);
        }
    }

This method can be easily modified to handle files also, but I designed it with only folders in mind for my project.

Now we just call the method with our dirInput and dirOutput.

ProcessDirectories(dirInput, dirOutput); 

Bifid