Extracting Path from OpenFileDialog path/filename

Question

I'm writing a little utility that starts with selecting a file, and then I need to select a folder. I'd like to default the folder to where the selected file was.

OpenFileDialog.FileName returns the full path & filename - what I want is to obtain just the path portion (sans filename), so I can use that as the initial selected folder.

    private System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog ofd;
    private System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog fbd;
    ...
    if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        string sourceFile = ofd.FileName;
        string sourceFolder = ???;
    }
    ...
    fbd.SelectedPath = sourceFolder; // set initial fbd.ShowDialog() folder
    if (fbd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
       ...
    }

Are there any .NET methods to do this, or do I need to use regex, split, trim, etc??

Jeff Yates · Accepted Answer · 2009-01-13 14:03:06Z

116

Use the Path class from System.IO. It contains useful calls for manipulating file paths, including GetDirectoryName which does what you want, returning the directory portion of the file path.

Usage is simple.

string directoryPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);

edited Jan 13, 2009 at 14:03

answered Jan 13, 2009 at 13:57

Jeff Yates

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1 Comment

Kevin Haines Over a year ago

Thanks - it had to be a simple answer. Note to self: coding after midnight is not recommended. Reading more than just the method prototype also helps, as the VS documentation lists this as public static string GetDirectoryName(string path) & I misinterpreted the parameter.

Jan Macháček · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-15 12:23:15Z

32

how about this:

string fullPath = ofd.FileName;
string fileName = ofd.SafeFileName;
string path = fullPath.Replace(fileName, "");

answered Feb 15, 2013 at 12:23

Jan Macháček

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Comments

Adi Lester · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-10 20:00:14Z

18

if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK)
{
    strfilename = openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory + openFileDialog1.FileName;
}

edited Oct 10, 2012 at 20:00

Adi Lester

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answered Jul 10, 2012 at 17:13

Max

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1 Comment

Brian J Over a year ago

Does initial directory change when the user selects a file? If not, then this approach would cause a problem when the user changes directory. Also, I don't think he wanted the FileName as part of his sourceFolder.

Mafii · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 09:45:06Z

10

You can use FolderBrowserDialog instead of FileDialog and get the path from the OK result.

FolderBrowserDialog browser = new FolderBrowserDialog();
string tempPath ="";

if (browser.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
  tempPath  = browser.SelectedPath; // prints path
}

edited Aug 10, 2016 at 9:45

Mafii

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answered Sep 21, 2012 at 17:11

Shaahin

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1 Comment

shinzou Over a year ago

So choose the file first and then navigate to it again and choose the folder??

Abdel · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-26 14:15:09Z

0

Here's the simple way to do It !

string fullPath =openFileDialog1.FileName;
string directory;
directory = fullPath.Substring(0, fullPath.LastIndexOf('\\'));

answered Apr 26, 2016 at 14:15

Abdel

1

Comments

WiiLF · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-16 06:12:55Z

0

This was all I needed for the full path to a file

@openFileDialog1.FileName

answered Dec 16, 2021 at 6:12

WiiLF

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