It seems to me that one of the most underused, but very useful classes is the System.IO.Path class. It has a bunch of static methods which are extremely valueable when dealing with file system paths.  Use it instead of doing some string parsing hack jobs!

Here is a list of methods:

ChangeExtension : Changes the extension of a path string.

***Combine : Combines two path strings.

***GetDirectoryName : Returns the directory information for the specified path string.

GetExtension : Returns the extension of the specified path string.

***GetFileName : Returns the file name and extension of the specified path string.

GetFileNameWithoutExtension : Returns the file name of the specified path string without the extension.

GetFullPath : Returns the absolute path for the specified path string.

GetPathRoot : Gets the root directory information of the specified path.

***GetTempFileName : Returns a uniquely named zero-byte temporary file on disk and returns the full path to that file.

GetTempPath : Returns the path of the current system's temporary folder.

HasExtension : Determines whether a path includes a file name extension.

IsPathRooted : Gets a value indicating whether the specified path string contains absolute or relative path information.

More information here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemIOPathClassTopic.asp

1 Comment

• Eric Newton said Thursday, January 26, 2006 12:25:00 PM

  Good call, we all need to remind each other to not reinvent the wheel. In this case path parsing logic via System.IO.Path... Kudos!