Relative path to absolute path in C#?

91
votes

I have xml files that contain href file paths to images (e.g. "....\images\image.jpg"). The hrefs contain relative paths. Now, I need to extract the hrefs to the images and turn them into absolute paths in the file system.

I know about the GetFullPath method, but I tried it and it only seems to work from the CurrentDirectory set, which appears to be C: so I don't see how I could use that. And still, I have the absolute path of the file containing the hrefs, and the href relative paths, so since it is a simple task for me to count back the number of "....\" parts based on the absolute path of the containing file, it seems there must be a way to do this programmatically as well.

I'm hoping there's some simple method I just don't know about! Any ideas?

8
c#relative-pathabsolute-path
Is this a desktop or web applicaiton? - Chris Kooken
Possible Duplicate how to convert relative path to absolute path in windows application?. - Ryan Gates

8 Answers

111
votes

Assuming you know the real directory the XML file lives in use Path.Combine, e.g.

var absolute_path = Path.Combine(directoryXmlLivesIn, "..\images\image.jpg");

If you want to get back the full path with any ..'s collapsed then you can use:

Path.GetFullPath((new Uri(absolute_path)).LocalPath);
148
votes
string exactPath = Path.GetFullPath(yourRelativePath);

works

34
votes

This worked.

var s = Path.Combine(@"C:\some\location", @"..\other\file.txt");
s = Path.GetFullPath(s);
9
votes

It`s best way for convert the Relative path to the absolute path!

string absolutePath = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(relativePath);
6
votes

You can use Path.Combine with the "base" path, then GetFullPath on the results.

string absPathContainingHrefs = GetAbsolutePath(); // Get the "base" path
string fullPath = Path.Combine(absPathContainingHrefs, @"..\..\images\image.jpg");
fullPath = Path.GetFullPath(fullPath);  // Will turn the above into a proper abs path
5
votes

Have you tried Server.MapPath method. Here is an example

string relative_path = "/Content/img/Upload/Reports/59/44A0446_59-1.jpg";
string absolute_path = Server.MapPath(relative_path);
//will be c:\users\.....\Content\img\Upload\Reports\59\44A0446_59-1.jpg
1
votes

This worked for me.

//used in an ASP.NET MVC app
private const string BatchFilePath = "/MyBatchFileDirectory/Mybatchfiles.bat"; 
var batchFile = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(BatchFilePath);