How does one keep DirectoryInfo's Constructor from always prefixing the app's path in it.

Question

I hope this is the right forum.
I am attempting to write a .net Core application, and I cannot seem to get ahold of a particular directory. Every time I try to create a DirectoryInfo object, it appends whatever I pass in as the parameter to the present working directory as the FullName.

I have tried passing in:
@"c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test"
@"c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test\"
"c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test"
and
"c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test\"

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but in the following example I get:

System.IO.IOException
HResult=0x8007007B
Message=The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. : 'C:\Users\myUsername\Source\repos\ChangeExtensions\ChangeExtensions\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\‪c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test'
Source=System.IO.FileSystem
StackTrace:
at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerator1.CreateDirectoryHandle(String path, Boolean ignoreNotFound) at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerator1.Init()
at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerator1..ctor(String directory, Boolean isNormalized, EnumerationOptions options) at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerable1..ctor(String directory, FindTransform transform, EnumerationOptions options, Boolean isNormalized)
at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerableFactory.FileInfos(String directory, String expression, EnumerationOptions options, Boolean isNormalized)
at System.IO.DirectoryInfo.InternalEnumerateInfos(String path, String searchPattern, SearchTarget searchTarget, EnumerationOptions options)
at System.IO.DirectoryInfo.GetFiles(String searchPattern, EnumerationOptions enumerationOptions)
at System.IO.DirectoryInfo.GetFiles(String searchPattern)
at ChangeExtensions.Program.ChangeExtensions(DirectoryInfo folder, String oldExtension, String newExtension) in C:\Users\myUsername\Source\repos\ChangeExtensions\ChangeExtensions\Program.cs:line 25
at ChangeExtensions.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\myUsername\Source\repos\ChangeExtensions\ChangeExtensions\Program.cs:line 15

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ChangeExtensions
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            string dirPath = "‪c:\\Users\\myUsername\\Desktop\\test";

            DirectoryInfo d = new DirectoryInfo(dirPath);
            //The d variable is populated with: "C:\Users\myUsername\Source\repos\ChangeExtensions\ChangeExtensions\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\‪c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop"
            ChangeExtensions(d, ".text", ".txt");
        }
public static void ChangeExtensions(DirectoryInfo folder, string oldExtension, string newExtension)
    {
        //Get the files that have the extention
        FileInfo[] files = folder.GetFiles("*" + oldExtension);

        //iterate through and rename them
        for(int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
        {
            //double-Check
            if(files[i].Extension.ToLower().Equals(oldExtension.ToLower()))
            {
                string newFullName = Path.ChangeExtension(files[i].FullName, newExtension);

                //Rename
                files[i].MoveTo(newFullName);

            }
        }            
    }

Answer 1

For some reason when I defined my dirPath in this way:

string dirPath = Path.Combine(@"C:\", @"Users\myUsername\Desktop\test");

It WORKED!
Who knows why that was.

Here's a link to the article where I found the hint (answer by myermian):
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14095736/string-file-path-is-not-working-c-sharp

Answer 2

Re-type your string

There is a ? at beginning if I copy-paste it :

"?c:\Users\myUsername\Desktop\test";

Answer 3

Hello,

Even though a batch file worked for you here is how it can be done.

Full source.

Class

Note the check for if the file already exists. In this case it's deleted, you could simply bypass it.

using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

namespace ChangeFileExtensions
{
    public static class FileHelpers
    {
        public static void RenameExtensions(string path, string originalExtensions, string replacementExtension)
        {
            new DirectoryInfo(path).GetFiles($"*.{originalExtensions}")
                .ToList()
                .ForEach(myFile =>
                {
                    var filename = Path.ChangeExtension(myFile.Name, $".{replacementExtension}");
                    var tempName = Path.Combine(path, filename);

                    if (File.Exists(tempName))
                    {
                        File.Delete(tempName);
                    }

                    File.Move(myFile.Name, filename);

                });
        }
    }
}

Console

Program.cs

using System;
using static ChangeFileExtensions.FileHelpers;

namespace ChangeFileExtensions
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            RenameExtensions(
                AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,
                "text",
                "txt");
        }
    }
}