C# – Better way to check if a Path is a File or a Directory

cdirectoryfilenetpath

I am processing a TreeView of directories and files. A user can select either a file or a directory and then do something with it. This requires me to have a method which performs different actions based on the user's selection.

At the moment I am doing something like this 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 cannot help to feel that there is a better way to do this! I was hoping to find a standard .NET method to handle this, but I haven't been able to do so. Does such a method exist, and if not, what is the most straightforward means to determine whether a path is a file or directory?

Best Answer

From How to tell if path is file or 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");

Update for .NET 4.0+

Per the comments below, if you are on .NET 4.0 or later (and maximum performance is not critical) you can write the code in a cleaner 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");
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