How to check if directory 1 is a subdirectory of dir2 and vice versa

Question

What is an easy way to check if directory 1 is a subdirectory of directory 2 and vice versa?

I checked the Path and DirectoryInfo helperclasses but found no system-r

Answer 1

this is what I got, after first verifying that the two directory path strings are something and in a path format I know something about: shouldnotbechilddirpath.ToUpper().StartsWith(maybeparentdirpath.ToUpper())

Be sure to take out the ToUppers() if you are maybe working in a case sensitive file system.

Answer 2

You can compare directory2 to directory1's Parent property when using a DirectoryInfo in both cases.

DirectoryInfo d1 = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Program Files\MyApp");
DirectoryInfo d2 = new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Program Files\MyApp\Images");

if(d2.Parent.FullName == d1.FullName)
{
    Console.WriteLine ("Sub directory");
}

Answer 3

In response to the first part of the question: "Is dir1 a sub-directory of dir2?", this code should work:

public bool IsSubfolder(string parentPath, string childPath)
{
    var parentUri = new Uri(parentPath);
    var childUri = new DirectoryInfo(childPath).Parent;
    while (childUri != null)
    {
        if(new Uri(childUri.FullName) == parentUri)
        {
            return true;
        }
        childUri = childUri.Parent;
    }
    return false;
}

The URIs (on Windows at least, might be different on Mono/Linux) are case-insensitive. If case sensitivity is important, use the Compare method on Uri instead.

Answer 4

See original answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31941159/134761

• Case insensitive
• Tolerates mix of \ and / folder delimiters
• Tolerates ..\ in path
• Avoids matching on partial folder names (c:\foobar not a subpath of c:\foo)

Code:

public static class StringExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Returns true if <paramref name="path"/> starts with the path <paramref name="baseDirPath"/>.
    /// The comparison is case-insensitive, handles / and \ slashes as folder separators and
    /// only matches if the base dir folder name is matched exactly ("c:\foobar\file.txt" is not a sub path of "c:\foo").
    /// </summary>
    public static bool IsSubPathOf(this string path, string baseDirPath)
    {
        string normalizedPath = Path.GetFullPath(path.Replace('/', '\\')
            .WithEnding("\\"));

        string normalizedBaseDirPath = Path.GetFullPath(baseDirPath.Replace('/', '\\')
            .WithEnding("\\"));

        return normalizedPath.StartsWith(normalizedBaseDirPath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns <paramref name="str"/> with the minimal concatenation of <paramref name="ending"/> (starting from end) that
    /// results in satisfying .EndsWith(ending).
    /// </summary>
    /// <example>"hel".WithEnding("llo") returns "hello", which is the result of "hel" + "lo".</example>
    public static string WithEnding([CanBeNull] this string str, string ending)
    {
        if (str == null)
            return ending;

        string result = str;

        // Right() is 1-indexed, so include these cases
        // * Append no characters
        // * Append up to N characters, where N is ending length
        for (int i = 0; i <= ending.Length; i++)
        {
            string tmp = result + ending.Right(i);
            if (tmp.EndsWith(ending))
                return tmp;
        }

        return result;
    }

    /// <summary>Gets the rightmost <paramref name="length" /> characters from a string.</summary>
    /// <param name="value">The string to retrieve the substring from.</param>
    /// <param name="length">The number of characters to retrieve.</param>
    /// <returns>The substring.</returns>
    public static string Right([NotNull] this string value, int length)
    {
        if (value == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
        }
        if (length < 0)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("length", length, "Length is less than zero");
        }

        return (length < value.Length) ? value.Substring(value.Length - length) : value;
    }
}

Test cases (NUnit):

[TestFixture]
public class StringExtensionsTest
{
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo", @"c:", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo", @"c:\", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo", @"c:\foo", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo", @"c:\foo\", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\", @"c:\foo", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\bar\", @"c:\foo\", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\bar", @"c:\foo\", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\a.txt", @"c:\foo", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\FOO\a.txt", @"c:\foo", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:/foo/a.txt", @"c:\foo", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foobar", @"c:\foo", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foobar\a.txt", @"c:\foo", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foobar\a.txt", @"c:\foo\", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\a.txt", @"c:\foobar", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\a.txt", @"c:\foobar\", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\..\bar\baz", @"c:\foo", Result = false)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\..\bar\baz", @"c:\bar", Result = true)]
    [TestCase(@"c:\foo\..\bar\baz", @"c:\barr", Result = false)]
    public bool IsSubPathOfTest(string path, string baseDirPath)
    {
        return path.IsSubPathOf(baseDirPath);
    }
}

Update 2015-08-18: Fix bug matching on partial folder names. Add test cases.

Update 2016-01-29: Link to original question https://stackoverflow.com/a/31941159/134761

Answer 5

With help from the great test cases written in angularsen's answer, I wrote the following simpler extension method on .NET Core 3.1 for Windows:

public static bool IsSubPathOf(this string dirPath, string baseDirPath)
{
    dirPath = dirPath.Replace('/', '\\');
    if (!dirPath.EndsWith('\\'))
    {
        dirPath += '\\';
    }

    baseDirPath = baseDirPath.Replace('/', '\\');
    if (!baseDirPath.EndsWith('\\'))
    {
        baseDirPath += '\\';
    }

    var dirPathUri = new Uri(dirPath).LocalPath;
    var baseDirUri = new Uri(baseDirPath).LocalPath;

    return dirPathUri.Contains(baseDirUri, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
}

Answer 6

DirectoryInfo has a property Parent which is also a DirectoryInfo type. You can use that to to determine if your directory is a subdirectory of a parent directory.