Directory.CreateDirectory Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.IO

Assembly:

System.Runtime.dll

Creates all the directories in a specified path.

Overloads

CreateDirectory(String)	Creates all directories and subdirectories in the specified path unless they already exist.
CreateDirectory(String, UnixFileMode)	Creates all directories and subdirectories in the specified path with the specified permissions unless they already exist.

CreateDirectory(String)

Source:

Directory.cs

Creates all directories and subdirectories in the specified path unless they already exist.

public:
 static System::IO::DirectoryInfo ^ CreateDirectory(System::String ^ path);

public static System.IO.DirectoryInfo CreateDirectory (string path);

static member CreateDirectory : string -> System.IO.DirectoryInfo

Public Shared Function CreateDirectory (path As String) As DirectoryInfo

Parameters

path

String

The directory to create.

Returns

DirectoryInfo

An object that represents the directory at the specified path. This object is returned regardless of whether a directory at the specified path already exists.

Exceptions

IOException

The directory specified by path is a file.

-or-

The network name is not known.

UnauthorizedAccessException

The caller does not have the required permission.

ArgumentException

.NET Framework and .NET Core versions older than 2.1: path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the GetInvalidPathChars() method.

-or-

path is prefixed with, or contains, only a colon character (:).

ArgumentNullException

path is null.

PathTooLongException

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

DirectoryNotFoundException

The specified path is invalid (for example, it is on an unmapped drive).

NotSupportedException

path contains a colon character (:) that is not part of a drive label ("C:\").

Examples

The following example creates and deletes the specified directory:

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
int main()
{
   
   // Specify the directory you want to manipulate.
   String^ path = "c:\\MyDir";
   try
   {
      
      // Determine whether the directory exists.
      if ( Directory::Exists( path ) )
      {
         Console::WriteLine( "That path exists already." );
         return 0;
      }
      
      // Try to create the directory.
      DirectoryInfo^ di = Directory::CreateDirectory( path );
      Console::WriteLine( "The directory was created successfully at {0}.", Directory::GetCreationTime( path ) );
      
      // Delete the directory.
      di->Delete();
      Console::WriteLine( "The directory was deleted successfully." );
   }
   catch ( Exception^ e ) 
   {
      Console::WriteLine( "The process failed: {0}", e );
   }

}

using System;
using System.IO;

class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // Specify the directory you want to manipulate.
        string path = @"c:\MyDir";

        try
        {
            // Determine whether the directory exists.
            if (Directory.Exists(path))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("That path exists already.");
                return;
            }

            // Try to create the directory.
            DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
            Console.WriteLine("The directory was created successfully at {0}.", Directory.GetCreationTime(path));

            // Delete the directory.
            di.Delete();
            Console.WriteLine("The directory was deleted successfully.");
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString());
        }
        finally {}
    }
}

open System.IO

// Specify the directory you want to manipulate.
let path = @"c:\MyDir"

try
    // Determine whether the directory exists.
    if Directory.Exists path then
        printfn "That path exists already."
    else
        // Try to create the directory.
        let di = Directory.CreateDirectory path
        printfn $"The directory was created successfully at {Directory.GetCreationTime path}."

        // Delete the directory.
        di.Delete()
        printfn "The directory was deleted successfully."
with e ->
    printfn $"The process failed: {e}"

Imports System.IO

Public Class Test
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Specify the directory you want to manipulate.
        Dim path As String = "c:\MyDir"

        Try
            ' Determine whether the directory exists.
            If Directory.Exists(path) Then
                Console.WriteLine("That path exists already.")
                Return
            End If

            ' Try to create the directory.
            Dim di As DirectoryInfo = Directory.CreateDirectory(path)
            Console.WriteLine("The directory was created successfully at {0}.", Directory.GetCreationTime(path))

            ' Delete the directory.
            di.Delete()
            Console.WriteLine("The directory was deleted successfully.")

        Catch e As Exception
            Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}.", e.ToString())
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

To create the directory C:\Users\User1\Public\Html when the current directory is C:\Users\User1, use any of the following calls to ensure that the backslash is interpreted properly:

Directory.CreateDirectory("Public\Html")
Directory.CreateDirectory("\Users\User1\Public\Html")
Directory.CreateDirectory("c:\Users\User1\Public\Html")

Directory.CreateDirectory("Public\\Html");
Directory.CreateDirectory("\\Users\\User1\\Public\\Html");
Directory.CreateDirectory("c:\\Users\\User1\\Public\\Html");

Directory::CreateDirectory("Public\\Html");
Directory::CreateDirectory("\\Users\\User1\\Public\\Html");
Directory::CreateDirectory("c:\\Users\\User1\\Public\\Html");

Remarks

Any and all directories specified in path are created, unless they already exist or unless some part of path is invalid. If the directory already exists, this method does not create a new directory, but it returns a DirectoryInfo object for the existing directory.

The path parameter specifies a directory path, not a file path.

Trailing spaces are removed from the end of the path parameter before creating the directory.

You can create a directory on a remote computer, on a share that you have write access to. UNC paths are supported; for example, you can specify the following for path: \\2009\Archives\December in Visual Basic, and \\\\2009\\Archives\\December in C#.

Creating a directory with only the colon character (:) is not supported, and will cause a NotSupportedException to be thrown.

On Unix systems, use a forward slash (/) as path separator.

See also

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

CreateDirectory(String, UnixFileMode)

Source:

Directory.cs

Creates all directories and subdirectories in the specified path with the specified permissions unless they already exist.

public:
 static System::IO::DirectoryInfo ^ CreateDirectory(System::String ^ path, System::IO::UnixFileMode unixCreateMode);

[System.Runtime.Versioning.UnsupportedOSPlatform("windows")]
public static System.IO.DirectoryInfo CreateDirectory (string path, System.IO.UnixFileMode unixCreateMode);

[<System.Runtime.Versioning.UnsupportedOSPlatform("windows")>]
static member CreateDirectory : string * System.IO.UnixFileMode -> System.IO.DirectoryInfo

Public Shared Function CreateDirectory (path As String, unixCreateMode As UnixFileMode) As DirectoryInfo

Parameters

path

String

The directory to create.

unixCreateMode

UnixFileMode

A bitwise combination of the enumeration values that specifies the Unix file mode used to create directories.

Returns

DirectoryInfo

An object that represents the directory at the specified path. This object is returned regardless of whether a directory at the specified path already exists.

Attributes

UnsupportedOSPlatformAttribute

Exceptions

ArgumentException

path is a zero-length string, or contains one or more invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the GetInvalidPathChars() method.

ArgumentNullException

path is null.

ArgumentException

The file mode is invalid.

UnauthorizedAccessException

The caller does not have the required permission.

PathTooLongException

The specified path exceeds the system-defined maximum length.

IOException

path is a file.

DirectoryNotFoundException

A component of the path is not a directory.