How to get relative path from absolute path

Question

There\'s a part in my apps that displays the file path loaded by the user through OpenFileDialog. It\'s taking up too much space to display the whole path, but I don\'t want

Answer 1

.NET Core 2.0 Answer

.NET Core 2.0 has Path.GetRelativePath which can be used like so:

var relativePath = Path.GetRelativePath(
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram",
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram\Data\datafile1.dat");

In the above example, the relativePath variable is equal to Data\datafile1.dat.

Alternative .NET Answer

@Dave's solution does not work when the file paths do not end with a forward slash character (/) which can happen if the path is a directory path. My solution fixes that problem and also makes use of the Uri.UriSchemeFile constant instead of hard coding "FILE".

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromPath">Contains the directory that defines the start of the relative path.</param>
/// <param name="toPath">Contains the path that defines the endpoint of the relative path.</param>
/// <returns>The relative path from the start directory to the end path.</returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"><paramref name="fromPath"/> or <paramref name="toPath"/> is <c>null</c>.</exception>
/// <exception cref="UriFormatException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException"></exception>
public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(fromPath))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("fromPath");
    }

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(toPath))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");
    }

    Uri fromUri = new Uri(AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(fromPath));
    Uri toUri = new Uri(AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(toPath));

    if (fromUri.Scheme != toUri.Scheme)
    {
        return toPath;
    }

    Uri relativeUri = fromUri.MakeRelativeUri(toUri);
    string relativePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(relativeUri.ToString());

    if (string.Equals(toUri.Scheme, Uri.UriSchemeFile, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
    {
        relativePath = relativePath.Replace(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
    }

    return relativePath;
}

private static string AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(string path)
{
    // Append a slash only if the path is a directory and does not have a slash.
    if (!Path.HasExtension(path) &&
        !path.EndsWith(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar.ToString()))
    {
        return path + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
    }

    return path;
}

Windows Interop Answer

There is a Windows API called PathRelativePathToA that can be used to find a relative path. Please note that the file or directory paths that you pass to the function must exist for it to work.

var relativePath = PathExtended.GetRelativePath(
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram",
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram\Data\datafile1.dat");

public static class PathExtended
{
    private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = 0x10;
    private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;
    private const int MaximumPath = 260;

    public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
    {
        var fromAttribute = GetPathAttribute(fromPath);
        var toAttribute = GetPathAttribute(toPath);

        var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(MaximumPath);
        if (PathRelativePathTo(
            stringBuilder,
            fromPath,
            fromAttribute,
            toPath,
            toAttribute) == 0)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Paths must have a common prefix.");
        }

        return stringBuilder.ToString();
    }

    private static int GetPathAttribute(string path)
    {
        var directory = new DirectoryInfo(path);
        if (directory.Exists)
        {
            return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY;
        }

        var file = new FileInfo(path);
        if (file.Exists)
        {
            return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL;
        }

        throw new FileNotFoundException(
            "A file or directory with the specified path was not found.",
            path);
    }

    [DllImport("shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern int PathRelativePathTo(
        StringBuilder pszPath,
        string pszFrom,
        int dwAttrFrom,
        string pszTo,
        int dwAttrTo);
}

Answer 2

Play with something like:

private String GetRelativePath(Int32 level, String directory, out String errorMessage) {
        if (level < 0 || level > 5) {
            errorMessage = "Find some more smart input data";
            return String.Empty;
        }
        // ==========================
        while (level != 0) {
            directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(directory);
            level -= 1;
        }
        // ==========================
        errorMessage = String.Empty;
        return directory;
    }

And test it

[Test]
    public void RelativeDirectoryPathTest() {
        var relativePath =
            GetRelativePath(3, AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, out var errorMessage);
        Console.WriteLine(relativePath);
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(errorMessage) == false) {
            Console.WriteLine(errorMessage);
            Assert.Fail("Can not find relative path");
        }
    }

Answer 3

In ASP.NET Core 2, if you want the relative path to bin\Debug\netcoreapp2.2 you can use the following combination:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
public class RenderingService : IRenderingService
{

    private readonly IHostingEnvironment _hostingEnvironment;
    public RenderingService(IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment)
    {
    _hostingEnvironment = hostingEnvironment;
    }

    public string RelativeAssemblyDirectory()
    {
        var contentRootPath = _hostingEnvironment.ContentRootPath;
        string executingAssemblyDirectoryAbsolutePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
        string executingAssemblyDirectoryRelativePath = System.IO.Path.GetRelativePath(contentRootPath, executingAssemblyDirectoryAbsolutePath);
        return executingAssemblyDirectoryRelativePath;
    }
}

Answer 4

A bit late to the question, but I just needed this feature as well. I agree with DavidK that since there is a built-in API function that provides this, you should use it. Here's a managed wrapper for it:

public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
{
    int fromAttr = GetPathAttribute(fromPath);
    int toAttr = GetPathAttribute(toPath);

    StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(260); // MAX_PATH
    if(PathRelativePathTo(
        path,
        fromPath,
        fromAttr,
        toPath,
        toAttr) == 0)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Paths must have a common prefix");
    }
    return path.ToString();
}

private static int GetPathAttribute(string path)
{
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
    if (di.Exists)
    {
        return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY;
    }

    FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(path);
    if(fi.Exists)
    {
        return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL;
    }

    throw new FileNotFoundException();
}

private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = 0x10;
private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;

[DllImport("shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int PathRelativePathTo(StringBuilder pszPath, 
    string pszFrom, int dwAttrFrom, string pszTo, int dwAttrTo);

Answer 5

There is a Win32 (C++) function in shlwapi.dll that does exactly what you want: PathRelativePathTo()

I'm not aware of any way to access this from .NET other than to P/Invoke it, though.

Answer 6

I have used this in the past.

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file
/// or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromDirectory">
/// Contains the directory that defines the
/// start of the relative path.
/// </param>
/// <param name="toPath">
/// Contains the path that defines the
/// endpoint of the relative path.
/// </param>
/// <returns>
/// The relative path from the start
/// directory to the end path.
/// </returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"></exception>
public static string MakeRelative(string fromDirectory, string toPath)
{
  if (fromDirectory == null)
    throw new ArgumentNullException("fromDirectory");

  if (toPath == null)
    throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");

  bool isRooted = (Path.IsPathRooted(fromDirectory) && Path.IsPathRooted(toPath));

  if (isRooted)
  {
    bool isDifferentRoot = (string.Compare(Path.GetPathRoot(fromDirectory), Path.GetPathRoot(toPath), true) != 0);

    if (isDifferentRoot)
      return toPath;
  }

  List<string> relativePath = new List<string>();
  string[] fromDirectories = fromDirectory.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

  string[] toDirectories = toPath.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

  int length = Math.Min(fromDirectories.Length, toDirectories.Length);

  int lastCommonRoot = -1;

  // find common root
  for (int x = 0; x < length; x++)
  {
    if (string.Compare(fromDirectories[x], toDirectories[x], true) != 0)
      break;

    lastCommonRoot = x;
  }

  if (lastCommonRoot == -1)
    return toPath;

  // add relative folders in from path
  for (int x = lastCommonRoot + 1; x < fromDirectories.Length; x++)
  {
    if (fromDirectories[x].Length > 0)
      relativePath.Add("..");
  }

  // add to folders to path
  for (int x = lastCommonRoot + 1; x < toDirectories.Length; x++)
  {
    relativePath.Add(toDirectories[x]);
  }

  // create relative path
  string[] relativeParts = new string[relativePath.Count];
  relativePath.CopyTo(relativeParts, 0);

  string newPath = string.Join(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar.ToString(), relativeParts);

  return newPath;
}