How to check if a directory exists in C#
The Directory static class in the System.IO namespace provides the Exists() method to check the existence of a directory on the disk. This method takes the path of the directory as a string input, and returns true if the directory exists at the specified path; otherwise, it returns false.
Syntax
public static bool Exists (string? path);
The Exists() method returns false if:
- The input directory does not exist.
- The input path is
null. - The input path is an empty string.
- The input path is invalid.
- The caller does not have sufficient permissions.
- The input path is a file.
Code example
In the example below, we are using the Directory.Exists() method to check the existence of the /usercode directory, which is an existing directory in our environment.
The Directory.Exists() method returns true for this path and the program prints Directory /usercode exists.
using System;using System.IO;class HelloWorld{static void Main(){// Note : Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() can also return the current working directory.string currentDirectoryPath = "/usercode";if(Directory.Exists(currentDirectoryPath)){Console.WriteLine($"Directory {currentDirectoryPath} exists!");} else{Console.WriteLine($"Directory {currentDirectoryPath} does not exist!");}}}
Note: Both
and absolute paths are allowed as input. The input path is not case-sensitive. relative Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory
