Combining parts of full file path in C# .NET

The Path class in the System.IO namespace provides a number of useful filepath-related methods. Say that you have the following ingredients of a full file path:

string drive = @"C:\";
string folders = @"logfiles\october\";
string fileName = "log.txt";

You can combine them into a full path using the Path.Combine method:

string fullPath = Path.Combine(drive, folders, fileName);

“fullPath” will be correctly set to C:\logfiles\october\log.txt. Path.Combine treats the individual parameters as path fragments and tries its best to concatenate them but it does more than just concatenating the strings.

Be careful when using drive names though. If you run the above example with

string drive = @"C:";

…i.e. miss the last slash then Path.Combine will not put it there automatically and “fullPath” will be C:logfiles\october\log.txt. If you miss the last slash from the folder name then Path.Combine will insert it for you.

Let’s see another example:

fullPath = Path.Combine(@"C:\logfiles", "october", "log.txt");

fullPath will be correctly set to C:\logfiles\october\log.txt.

View all various C# language feature related posts here.