C# Create Directory

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a directory in C# using the Directory.CreateDirectory() static method.

Introduction to the C# Directory.CreateDirectory() static method

The Directory.CreateDirectory() static method allows you to create a new directory. Here’s the syntax of the Directory.CreateDirectory() method:

public static DirectoryInfo CreateDirectory (
    string path
);Code language: C# (cs)

In this syntax, the path specifies the directory to create.

The CreateDirectory() static method creates a new directory and returns a DirectoryInfo object that represents the directory of the specified path.

If the path to the directory exists, the CreateDirectory() doesn’t throw an exception. Also, it returns a DirectoryInfo object that represents the existing directory.

The CreateDirectory() static method raises an IOException if the path is a file, not a directory.

If the path contains subdirectories that do not exist, the CreateDirectory() static method also creates corresponding subdirectories.

For example, if you want to create a directory like C:\backup\2023\03\ and the C:\backup already exists, the CreateDirectory() static method will create two directories:

• C:\backup\2023
• C:\backup\2023\03

The CreateDirectory() method also allows you to create a directory on a remote computer to which the program has access. For example, you can create a directory to a shared folder like @"\\shared\reports\sales\".

Using C# Directory.CreateDirectory() method to create new directories example

The following program demonstrates how to use the Directory.CreateDirectory() method to create a directory 2023 in the C:\backup directory and 12 subdirectories (from 00 to 12) inside the directory 2023:

using static System.Console;

string dirname = @"C:\backup\2023";

for (int i = 1; i <= 12; i++)
{
    Directory.CreateDirectory(
        Path.Combine(dirname, i.ToString("00"))
    );
}Code language: C# (cs)

How it works.

First, declare a dirname variable that stores the parent directory:

string dirname = @"C:\backup\2023";Code language: C# (cs)

Second, iterate over the number from 1 to 12 and create the subdirectories from 00 to 12:

for (int i = 1; i <= 12; i++)
{
    Directory.CreateDirectory(
        Path.Combine(dirname, i.ToString("00"))
    );
}Code language: C# (cs)

Note that we use the i.ToString("00") to pad a leading zero to a number like 01, 02, etc.

The program will create the directories structure like this:

c:\backup
└── 2023
   ├── 01
   ├── 02
   ├── 03
   ├── 04
   ├── 05
   ├── 06
   ├── 07
   ├── 08
   ├── 09
   ├── 10
   ├── 11
   └── 12

directory: 13Code language: plaintext (plaintext)

Summary

• Use the Directory.CreateDirectory() method to create a new directory if it does not exist.