When writing file paths in C#, I found that I can either write something like "C:\" or "C:/" and get the same path. Which one is recommended? I heard somewhere that using a single / was more recommended than using \ (with \ as an escaped sequence).
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Thanks to John Saunders for pointing out this is a Windows issue. I heard using / is better for cross-compatibility, which doesn't matter too much here as I'm targeting Windows.Dominic K– Dominic K2010-01-01 05:48:41 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2010 at 5:48
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Bug in title: should be "/ or \\", not "// or \".sblom– sblom2010-01-01 13:16:19 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2010 at 13:16
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2@sblom- Not sure the exact difference, but fixed since it works :pDominic K– Dominic K2010-01-01 19:38:23 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2010 at 19:38
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6 Answers
Windows supports both path separators, so both will work, at least for local paths (/ won't work for network paths). The thing is that there is no actual benefit of using the working but non standard path separator (/) on Windows, especially because you can use the verbatim string literal:
string path = @"C:\" //Look ma, no escape
The only case where I could see a benefit of using the / separator is when you'll work with relative paths only and will use the code in Windows and Linux. Then you can have "../foo/bar/baz" point to the same directory. But even in this case is better to leave the System.IO namespace (Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, Path.Combine) to take care of such issues.
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Jay Bazuzi
What you're calling "raw string operator" is really "verbatim string literal".
Vinko Vrsalovic
@Jay: "Verbatim string literal operator"? or just "Verbatim string literal"?
i_am_jorf
Even if you're writing code to use on posix and Windows, you should still use the right one. There are many (third-party) abstractions to make this easy, one such being path_util in Chromium.
Vinko Vrsalovic
@jeffamaphone: I agree. That's what I say in the final phrase, but in this case there's no need for third party abstractions.
Azhdeen
There's a problem with the last paragraph where some sort of files like config files that contain text with directory paths could be generated on different OSes and then shared between them. Windows will want to use backslashes while Mac will expect forward slashes.
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Please use Path.DirectorySeparatorChar OR better, as Poita suggested use Path.Combine.
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Sam Harwell
Path.PathSeparator is a character to split paths in the PATH environment variable. On Windows it is ;. I updated this answer to refer to DirectorySeparatorChar.
SolutionYogi
Oops. Thank you for the correction, I did mean to post about DirectorySeparatorChar.
I write paths in C# like this:
var path = @"C:\My\Path"
The @ character turns off \ escaping.
EDIT a decade later
.NET now runs on Linux. Use Path.Combine() where feasible, otherwise use Path.DirectorySeparatorChar to construct a path with \ or / as appropriate to the underlying OS.
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Use Path.Combine and you don't need to worry about such semantics.
This isn't a C# issue - it's a Windows issue. Paths in Windows are normally shown with a backslash: C:\. In my opinion, that's what you should use in C#. Use @"C:\" to prevent special handling of backslash characters.
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.Net Framework 4.8 (VS 2022)
If I am using this:
string myPath = @"C:\myFile.txt";
It's throw an exception "Access to the path 'C:\myFile.txt' is denied.'"
But When I am creating a folder in C:\ then it is working.
string myPath = @"C:\mie\myFile.txt";
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