I'm working on TreeView for directories and files. Users can select a file or directory and then operate on it. This requires me to have a way to perform different actions according to the user's choice.

Currently, I am doing the following to determine whether the path is a file or a directory:

bool bIsFile = false;
bool bIsDirectory = false;

try
{
    string[] subfolders = Directory.GetDirectories(strFilePath);

    bIsDirectory = true;
    bIsFile = false;
}
catch(System.IO.IOException)
{
    bIsFolder = false;
    bIsFile = true;
}

I can't help feeling that there is a better way to do it! I hope to find a standard. NET method to deal with this problem, but I haven't been able to. Is there such a method? If not, what is the most direct way to determine whether the path is a file or a directory?

#1 building

This is what we use:

using System;

using System.IO;

namespace crmachine.CommonClasses
{

  public static class CRMPath
  {

    public static bool IsDirectory(string path)
    {
      if (path == null)
      {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("path");
      }

      string reason;
      if (!IsValidPathString(path, out reason))
      {
        throw new ArgumentException(reason);
      }

      if (!(Directory.Exists(path) || File.Exists(path)))
      {
        throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("Could not find a part of the path '{0}'",path));
      }

      return (new System.IO.FileInfo(path).Attributes & FileAttributes.Directory) == FileAttributes.Directory;
    } 

    public static bool IsValidPathString(string pathStringToTest, out string reasonForError)
    {
      reasonForError = "";
      if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(pathStringToTest))
      {
        reasonForError = "Path is Null or Whitespace.";
        return false;
      }
      if (pathStringToTest.Length > CRMConst.MAXPATH) // MAXPATH == 260
      {
        reasonForError = "Length of path exceeds MAXPATH.";
        return false;
      }
      if (PathContainsInvalidCharacters(pathStringToTest))
      {
        reasonForError = "Path contains invalid path characters.";
        return false;
      }
      if (pathStringToTest == ":")
      {
        reasonForError = "Path consists of only a volume designator.";
        return false;
      }
      if (pathStringToTest[0] == ':')
      {
        reasonForError = "Path begins with a volume designator.";
        return false;
      }

      if (pathStringToTest.Contains(":") && pathStringToTest.IndexOf(':') != 1)
      {
        reasonForError = "Path contains a volume designator that is not part of a drive label.";
        return false;
      }
      return true;
    }

    public static bool PathContainsInvalidCharacters(string path)
    {
      if (path == null)
      {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("path");
      }

      bool containedInvalidCharacters = false;

      for (int i = 0; i < path.Length; i++)
      {
        int n = path[i];
        if (
            (n == 0x22) || // "
            (n == 0x3c) || // <
            (n == 0x3e) || // >
            (n == 0x7c) || // |
            (n  < 0x20)    // the control characters
          )
        {
          containedInvalidCharacters = true;
        }
      }

      return containedInvalidCharacters;
    }


    public static bool FilenameContainsInvalidCharacters(string filename)
    {
      if (filename == null)
      {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("filename");
      }

      bool containedInvalidCharacters = false;

      for (int i = 0; i < filename.Length; i++)
      {
        int n = filename[i];
        if (
            (n == 0x22) || // "
            (n == 0x3c) || // <
            (n == 0x3e) || // >
            (n == 0x7c) || // |
            (n == 0x3a) || // : 
            (n == 0x2a) || // * 
            (n == 0x3f) || // ? 
            (n == 0x5c) || // \ 
            (n == 0x2f) || // /
            (n  < 0x20)    // the control characters
          )
        {
          containedInvalidCharacters = true;
        }
      }

      return containedInvalidCharacters;
    }

  }

}

#2 building

I ran into this problem when I encountered a similar problem, but when a file or folder may not actually exist, I need to check whether the path of the file or folder exists. With regard to the above answers, some comments mentioned that they did not apply to this situation. I found a solution that seemed good to me (I use VB.NET, but can convert as needed):

Dim path As String = "myFakeFolder\ThisDoesNotExist\"
Dim bIsFolder As Boolean = (IO.Path.GetExtension(path) = "")
'returns True

Dim path As String = "myFakeFolder\ThisDoesNotExist\File.jpg"
Dim bIsFolder As Boolean = (IO.Path.GetExtension(path) = "")
'returns False

I hope it helps someone!

#3 building

How to use these?

File.Exists();
Directory.Exists();

#4 building

from How to determine whether the path is a file or a directory :

// get the file attributes for file or directory
FileAttributes attr = File.GetAttributes(@"c:\Temp");

//detect whether its a directory or file
if ((attr & FileAttributes.Directory) == FileAttributes.Directory)
    MessageBox.Show("Its a directory");
else
    MessageBox.Show("Its a file");

. NET 4.0 + update

According to the following comments, if you are using. NET 4.0 or later (and the highest performance is not critical), you can write code in a more concise way:

// get the file attributes for file or directory
FileAttributes attr = File.GetAttributes(@"c:\Temp");

if (attr.HasFlag(FileAttributes.Directory))
    MessageBox.Show("Its a directory");
else
    MessageBox.Show("Its a file");

#5 building

The most accurate way is to use some interoperation code in shlwapi.dll

[DllImport(SHLWAPI, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
[return: MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
[ResourceExposure(ResourceScope.None)]
internal static extern bool PathIsDirectory([MarshalAsAttribute(UnmanagedType.LPWStr), In] string pszPath);

You can then call it this:

#region IsDirectory
/// <summary>
/// Verifies that a path is a valid directory.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="path">The path to verify.</param>
/// <returns><see langword="true"/> if the path is a valid directory; 
/// otherwise, <see langword="false"/>.</returns>
/// <exception cref="T:System.ArgumentNullException">
/// <para><paramref name="path"/> is <see langword="null"/>.</para>
/// </exception>
/// <exception cref="T:System.ArgumentException">
/// <para><paramref name="path"/> is <see cref="F:System.String.Empty">String.Empty</see>.</para>
/// </exception>
public static bool IsDirectory(string path)
{
    return PathIsDirectory(path);
}