Directory.GetCurrentDirectory Method

public:
 static System::String ^ GetCurrentDirectory();

public static string GetCurrentDirectory();

static member GetCurrentDirectory : unit -> string

Public Shared Function GetCurrentDirectory () As String

Returns

A string that contains the absolute path of the current working directory, and does not end with a backslash (\).

Exceptions

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to use the GetCurrentDirectory method.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Test
{
 public static void Main()
 {
 try
 {
 // Get the current directory.
 string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
 string target = @"c:\temp";
 Console.WriteLine("The current directory is {0}", path);
 if (!Directory.Exists(target))
 {
 Directory.CreateDirectory(target);
 }

 // Change the current directory.
 Environment.CurrentDirectory = (target);
 if (target.Equals(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()))
 {
 Console.WriteLine("You are in the temp directory.");
 }
 else
 {
 Console.WriteLine("You are not in the temp directory.");
 }
 }
 catch (Exception e)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString());
 }
 }
}

open System
open System.IO

try
 // Get the current directory.
 let path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
 let target = @"c:\temp"
 printfn $"The current directory is {path}"
 if not (Directory.Exists target) then
 Directory.CreateDirectory target |> ignore

 // Change the current directory.
 Environment.CurrentDirectory <- target
 if path.Equals(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()) then
 printfn "You are in the temp directory."
 else
 printfn "You are not in the temp directory."
with e ->
 printfn $"The process failed: {e}"

Imports System.IO

Public Class Test
 Public Shared Sub Main()
 Try
 ' Get the current directory.
 Dim path As String = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
 Dim target As String = "c:\temp"
 Console.WriteLine("The current directory is {0}", path)
 If Directory.Exists(target) = False Then
 Directory.CreateDirectory(target)
 End If
 ' Change the current directory.
 Environment.CurrentDirectory = (target)
 If path.Equals(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()) Then
 Console.WriteLine("You are in the temp directory.")
 Else
 Console.WriteLine("You are not in the temp directory.")
 End If
 Catch e As Exception
 Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString())
 End Try
 End Sub
End Class

Remarks

The current directory is distinct from the original directory, which is the one from which the process was started.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

See also

• File and Stream I/O
• How to: Read Text from a File
• How to: Write Text to a File