I have the Directory and Filename stored into a string. How can I tell C# to copy the file stored at this location??

Question

I have the full path of a file stored in a string called currFileName

string currFileName = sourceFiles[i].FullName; //Store The Dir and File Name

Is there any way to tell it to copy the file stored at this location??

Dan · Answer

Okay now I am focusing on getting the progress bar to work. I have decided I will use a Background Worker to do this. Could somebody tell me what goes inside the background worker?? Does the background worker contain the code for actually copying the files or is this still done by the main form? I would assume that it is like this: - The main form will still do all the transferring/copying of files... - The background worker will sit within the main form - The background worker will calculate what % of the work has been done and then report this to the progress bar on the second form and update the progress bar .Value() property. - This will be done using .reportprogress() - WorkReportsProgress will be set to 'true' Hope that makes sense.

Dan · Answer

EDIT....... I have fixed the problem below. I replaced .Replace() with .CopyTo() and instructed it to overwrite an exisiting file. I didn't realise that replace deletes the original file and there is no choice about this. ------------------------------------------------------ After further testing I have a problem //Replace The File sourceFiles[i].Replace(newFileFullNamenull); //Replace the file with the source file } This line seems to correctly replace the file in the DESTINATION folder as expected. However it also DELETES the file in the SOURCE folder which I do not want to happen. When using .Replace() you can not just put in the name of the file that will be replaced you need to put something where I typed null.

Dan · Answer

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.IO; namespace BackupUtility { public partial class Form1 : Form { //public variable declarations string sourceDir; string destDir; public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void helpFileToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { } private void Form1_Load(object sender EventArgs e) { } private void backupData(string source string destination) { } private void cmdBrowseSource_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { FolderBrowserDialog fbdSource = new FolderBrowserDialog(); fbdSource.ShowNewFolderButton = false; DialogResult source = fbdSource.ShowDialog(); if (source == DialogResult.OK) { txtSource.Text = fbdSource.SelectedPath; } sourceDir = txtSource.Text; } private void cmdBrowseDest_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { FolderBrowserDialog fbdDest = new FolderBrowserDialog(); fbdDest.ShowNewFolderButton = false; DialogResult source = fbdDest.ShowDialog(); if (source == DialogResult.OK) { txtDest.Text = fbdDest.SelectedPath; } destDir = txtDest.Text; } private void cmdBackup_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { DirectoryInfo diSourceDir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDir); DirectoryInfo diDestDir = new DirectoryInfo(destDir); FileInfo[] sourceFiles = diSourceDir.GetFiles(); FileInfo[] destFiles = diDestDir.GetFiles(); int sourceFilesCount = sourceFiles.GetLength(0); int destFilesCount = destFiles.GetLength(0); int matchCount = 0; //Used to store number of matches found for (int i = 0; i { string currFileName = sourceFiles[i].Name; //Store Name of File string currFileFullName = sourceFiles[i].FullName; //Store The Dir and File Name string newFileFullName = destDir + \ + currFileName; // Store intended path for new file bool matchFound = checkFiles(currFileName destDir); //Check if a match is found if (matchFound == false) //If no match is found copy files { sourceFiles[i].CopyTo(newFileFullName); //Copy the file with  BACKUP on the end lblStatus.Text = Copying:  + currFileName; //Output Message to User via Label } else //If a match is found check is source file newer? { bool sourceNewer = checkSourceFileNewer(currFileFullName newFileFullName); if (sourceNewer == true) //IF the source file is newer than the destination file { //Replace The File sourceFiles[i].Replace(newFileFullNamenull); //Replace the file with the Source File lblStatus.Text = Copying:  + currFileName; //Output Message to User via Label } else //If the source is NOT newer than the destination file { matchCount++;//Add to counter of files not copied } } } if (matchCount > 0) { MessageBox.Show(matchCount +  files were not copied - Newer versions already exist); } } private bool checkFiles(string fileToCopy string destLocation) { string checkString = destLocation + \ + fileToCopy; //Store the Location to Check FileInfo checkFile = new FileInfo(checkString); //Create checkFile FileInfo //Check to see if a match exists and return result if (checkFile.Exists == true) { return true; } else { return false; } } private bool checkSourceFileNewer(string sourceFile string destFile) { FileInfo sourceFilePath = new FileInfo(sourceFile); //Create source File FileInfo FileInfo destFilePath = new FileInfo(destFile); // Create dest File FileInfo //IF source file is newer than dest file return true if (sourceFilePath.LastWriteTime > destFilePath.LastWriteTime) { return true; } else //IF source file is older than dest file return false { return false; } } } }

Dan · Answer

Thanks Alan. I have now progressed with the code. If a matching file is found in the destination directory it now checks to see which one was edited last and if the source file is newer it replaces the file in the destination folder if the source file is older it just adds a 1 to a counter of files that were not copied. I am wondering if anybody can advise me on other things I should check before overwriting the file. Is checking that the source file was written to since the last copy enough or should I compare anything else before giving the go-ahead to copy the files?? The other thing I wanted to know is how can I go about giving the user some feedback on what is happening. For exmaple if they were to copy some larger files how can I get a progress bar etc to appear? Is there some sort of progress dialogue built into .NET that looks like what you see when copying large files in windows? I am going to look for this now but if anybody can let me know what to be looking at thats great. Following post contains code so far if you have any comments then please let me know.

Alan · Answer

Hi Dan I'd suggest changing this line: sourceFiles[i].CopyTo(currFileName +  BACKUP); //Copy the file with  BACKUP on the end to this; sourceFiles[i].CopyTo(currFileFullName +  BACKUP); //Copy the file with  BACKUP on the end Otherwise the file will be copied to the current working directory rather than the destination directory chosen by the user.

Dan · Answer

I've tried using the CopyTo method just to get it to copy the file into the same directory but with a different file name however this does not seem to work for some reason. Here is the code I have to attempt to do what I described in my second post. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.IO; namespace BackupUtility { public partial class Form1 : Form { //public variable declarations string sourceDir; string destDir; public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void helpFileToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { } private void Form1_Load(object sender EventArgs e) { } private void backupData(string source string destination) { } private void cmdBrowseSource_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { FolderBrowserDialog fbdSource = new FolderBrowserDialog(); fbdSource.ShowNewFolderButton = false; DialogResult source = fbdSource.ShowDialog(); if (source == DialogResult.OK) { txtSource.Text = fbdSource.SelectedPath; } sourceDir = txtSource.Text; } private void cmdBrowseDest_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { FolderBrowserDialog fbdDest = new FolderBrowserDialog(); fbdDest.ShowNewFolderButton = false; DialogResult source = fbdDest.ShowDialog(); if (source == DialogResult.OK) { txtDest.Text = fbdDest.SelectedPath; } destDir = txtDest.Text; } private void cmdBackup_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { DirectoryInfo diSourceDir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDir); DirectoryInfo diDestDir = new DirectoryInfo(destDir); FileInfo[] sourceFiles = diSourceDir.GetFiles(); FileInfo[] destFiles = diDestDir.GetFiles(); int sourceFilesCount = sourceFiles.GetLength(0); int destFilesCount = destFiles.GetLength(0); for (int i = 0; i { string currFileName = sourceFiles[i].Name; //Store Name of File string currFileFullName = sourceFiles[i].FullName; //Store The Dir and File Name sourceFiles[i].CopyTo(currFileName +  BACKUP); //Copy the file with  BACKUP on the end string newFile = currFileFullName +  BACKUP; // Store the name of the new file that was created //TODO:Move the newFile to folder stored in destDir } } } }

Alan · Answer

Check out the File.Copy (or FileInfo.CopyTo) methods. If you're copying a file from one folder to another the name and/or extension doesn't have to be the same in the destination folder as it is in the source folder.

Dan · Answer

okay scratch that. Here is my new code. When I click the Backup button so far it should create a copy of each file in the same directory with  BACKUP tagged onto the end of it... This however does not work how I planned above. Could somebody offer some guidance without giving me the actual answer as I'd like to figure as much of it out as possible.