Get directory of a file name in Javascript

Question

How to get the directory of a file?

For example, I pass in a string

C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin\\nant.exe

I want a function that r

Answer 1

function getFileDirectory(filePath) {
  if (filePath.indexOf("/") == -1) { // windows
    return filePath.substring(0, filePath.lastIndexOf('\\'));
  } 
  else { // unix
    return filePath.substring(0, filePath.lastIndexOf('/'));
  }
}
console.assert(getFileDirectory('C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin\\nant.exe') === 'C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin');
console.assert(getFileDirectory('/usr/bin/nant') === '/usr/bin');

Answer 2

The core Javascript language doesn't provide file/io functions. However if you're working in a Windows OS you can use the FileSystemObject (ActiveX/COM).

Note: Don't use this in the client script-side script of a web application though, it's best in other areas such as in Windows script host, or the server side of a web app where you have more control over the platform.

This page provides a good tutorial on how to do this.

Here's a rough example to do what you want:

   var fso, targetFilePath,fileObj,folderObj;

   fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");

   fileObj = fso.GetFile(targetFilePath);

   folderObj=fileObj.ParentFolder;

   alert(folderObj.Path);

Answer 3

Sorry to bring this back up but was also looking for a solution without referencing the variable twice. I came up with the following:

var filepath = 'C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin\\nant.exe';
    // C:\Program Files\nant\bin\nant.exe
var dirpath = filepath.split('\\').reverse().splice(1).reverse().join('\\');
    // C:\Program Files\nant\bin

This is a bit of a walk through manipulating a string to array and back but it's clean enough I think.

Answer 4

There's no perfect solution, because this functionality isn't built-in, and there's no way to get the system file-separator. You can try:

path = path.substring(0, Math.max(path.lastIndexOf("/"), path.lastIndexOf("\\"))); 
alert(path);

Answer 5

And this?

If isn't a program in addressFile, return addressFile

function(addressFile) {
    var pos = addressFile.lastIndexOf("/");
    pos = pos != -1 ? pos : addressFile.lastIndexOf("\\");

    if (pos > addressFile.lastIndexOf(".")) {
        return addressFile;
    }

    return addressFile.substring(
        0,
        pos+1
    );
}


console.assert(getFileDirectory('C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin\\nant.exe') === 'C:\\Program Files\\nant\\bin\\');
console.assert(getFileDirectory('/usr/bin/nant') === '/usr/bin/nant/');
console.assert(getFileDirectory('/usr/thisfolderhaveadot.inhere') === '/usr/');

Answer 6

If you use typescript, path module is quite handy.

path.dirname("/home/workspace/filename.txt") // '/home/workspace/'