How to: Copy, Delete, and Move Files and Folders (C# Programming Guide)
The following examples show how to copy, move, and delete files and folders in a synchronous manner by using the System.IO.File, System.IO.Directory, System.IO.FileInfo, and System.IO.DirectoryInfo classes from the System.IO namespace. These examples do not provide a progress bar or any other user interface. If you want to provide a standard progress dialog box, see How to: Provide a Progress Dialog Box for File Operations (C# Programming Guide).
Use System.IO.FileSystemWatcher to provide events that will enable you to calculate the progress when operating on multiple files. Another approach is to use platform invoke to call the relevant file-related methods in the Windows Shell. For information about how to perform these file operations asynchronously, see Asynchronous File I/O.
Example
The following example shows how to copy files and directories.
// Simple synchronous file copy operations with no user interface.
// To run this sample, first create the following directories and files:
// C:\Users\Public\TestFolder
// C:\Users\Public\TestFolder\test.txt
// C:\Users\Public\TestFolder\SubDir\test.txt
public class SimpleFileCopy
{
static void Main()
{
string fileName = "test.txt";
string sourcePath = @"C:\Users\Public\TestFolder";
string targetPath = @"C:\Users\Public\TestFolder\SubDir";
// Use Path class to manipulate file and directory paths.
string sourceFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(sourcePath, fileName);
string destFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(targetPath, fileName);
// To copy a folder's contents to a new location:
// Create a new target folder, if necessary.
if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(targetPath))
{
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(targetPath);
}
// To copy a file to another location and
// overwrite the destination file if it already exists.
System.IO.File.Copy(sourceFile, destFile, true);
// To copy all the files in one directory to another directory.
// Get the files in the source folder. (To recursively iterate through
// all subfolders under the current directory, see
// "How to: Iterate Through a Directory Tree.")
// Note: Check for target path was performed previously
// in this code example.
if (System.IO.Directory.Exists(sourcePath))
{
string[] files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(sourcePath);
// Copy the files and overwrite destination files if they already exist.
foreach (string s in files)
{
// Use static Path methods to extract only the file name from the path.
fileName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(s);
destFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(targetPath, fileName);
System.IO.File.Copy(s, destFile, true);
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Source path does not exist!");
}
// Keep console window open in debug mode.
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
The following example shows how to move files and directories.
// Simple synchronous file move operations with no user interface.
public class SimpleFileMove
{
static void Main()
{
string sourceFile = @"C:\Users\Public\public\test.txt";
string destinationFile = @"C:\Users\Public\private\test.txt";
// To move a file or folder to a new location:
System.IO.File.Move(sourceFile, destinationFile);
// To move an entire directory. To programmatically modify or combine
// path strings, use the System.IO.Path class.
System.IO.Directory.Move(@"C:\Users\Public\public\test\", @"C:\Users\Public\private");
}
}
The following example shows how to delete files and directories.
// Simple synchronous file deletion operations with no user interface.
// To run this sample, create the following files on your drive:
// C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\test1.txt
// C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\test2.txt
// C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\SubDir\test2.txt
public class SimpleFileDelete
{
static void Main()
{
// Delete a file by using File class static method...
if(System.IO.File.Exists(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\test.txt"))
{
// Use a try block to catch IOExceptions, to
// handle the case of the file already being
// opened by another process.
try
{
System.IO.File.Delete(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\test.txt");
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
return;
}
}
// ...or by using FileInfo instance method.
System.IO.FileInfo fi = new System.IO.FileInfo(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest\test2.txt");
try
{
fi.Delete();
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
// Delete a directory. Must be writable or empty.
try
{
System.IO.Directory.Delete(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest");
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
// Delete a directory and all subdirectories with Directory static method...
if(System.IO.Directory.Exists(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest"))
{
try
{
System.IO.Directory.Delete(@"C:\Users\Public\DeleteTest", true);
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
}
// ...or with DirectoryInfo instance method.
System.IO.DirectoryInfo di = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Users\Public\public");
// Delete this dir and all subdirs.
try
{
di.Delete(true);
}
catch (System.IO.IOException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
}
}
See Also
Tasks
How to: Provide a Progress Dialog Box for File Operations (C# Programming Guide)