How do I find the parent directory in C#?

Question

I use this code for finding the debug directory

public string str_directory = Environment.CurrentDirectory.ToString();

\"C:\\\\Us

Answer 1

Like this:

System.IO.DirectoryInfo myDirectory = new DirectoryInfo(Environment.CurrentDirectory);
string parentDirectory = myDirectory.Parent.FullName;

Good luck!

Answer 2

If you append ..\.. to your existing path, the operating system will correctly browse the grand-parent folder.

That should do the job:

System.IO.Path.Combine("C:\\Users\\Masoud\\Documents\\Visual Studio 2008\\Projects\\MyProj\\MyProj\\bin\\Debug", @"..\..");

If you browse that path, you will browse the grand-parent directory.

Answer 3

To get your solution try this

string directory = System.IO.Directory.GetParent(System.IO.Directory.GetParent(Environment.CurrentDirectory).ToString()).ToString();

Answer 4

Directory.GetParent is probably a better answer, but for completeness there's a different method that takes string and returns string: Path.GetDirectoryName.

string parent = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(str_directory);

Answer 5

No one has provided a solution that would work cross-form. I know it wasn't specifically asked but I am working in a linux environment where most of the solutions (as at the time I post this) would provide an error.

Hardcoding path separators (as well as other things) will give an error in anything but Windows systems.

In my original solution I used:

char filesep = Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
string datapath = $"..{filesep}..{filesep}";

However after seeing some of the answers here I adjusted it to be:

string datapath = Directory.GetParent(Directory.GetParent(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).FullName).FullName; 

Answer 6

You shouldn't try to do that. Environment.CurrentDirectory gives you the path of the executable directory. This is consistent regardless of where the .exe file is. You shouldn't try to access a file that is assumed to be in a backwards relative location

I would suggest you move whatever resource you want to access into a local location. Of a system directory (such as AppData)