How to get relative path from absolute path

Question

There's a part in my apps that displays the file path loaded by the user through OpenFileDialog. It's taking up too much space to display the whole path, but I don't want to display only the filename as it might be ambiguous. So I would prefer to show the file path relative to the assembly/exe directory.

For example, the assembly resides at "C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram" and the file at "C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram\Data\datafile1.dat" then I would like it to show ".\Data\datafile1.dat". If the file is in "C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\datafile1.dat", then I would want "..\datafile1.dat". But if the file is at the root directory or 1 directory below root, then display the full path.

What solution would you recommend? Regex?

Basically I want to display useful file path info without taking too much screen space.

EDIT: Just to clarify a little bit more. The purpose of this solution is to help user or myself knowing which file did I loaded last and roughly from which directory was it from. I'm using a readonly textbox to display the path. Most of the time, the file path is much longer than the display space of the textbox. The path is supposed to be informative but not important enough as to take up more screen space.

Alex Brault comment was good, so is Jonathan Leffler. The Win32 function provided by DavidK only help with part of the problem, not the whole of it, but thanks anyway. As for James Newton-King solution, I'll give it a try later when I'm free.

Answer 1

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromPath">Contains the directory that defines the start of the relative path.</param>
/// <param name="toPath">Contains the path that defines the endpoint of the relative path.</param>
/// <returns>The relative path from the start directory to the end path or <c>toPath</c> if the paths are not related.</returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="UriFormatException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException"></exception>
public static String MakeRelativePath(String fromPath, String toPath)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fromPath)) throw new ArgumentNullException("fromPath");
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(toPath))   throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");

    Uri fromUri = new Uri(fromPath);
    Uri toUri = new Uri(toPath);

    if (fromUri.Scheme != toUri.Scheme) { return toPath; } // path can't be made relative.

    Uri relativeUri = fromUri.MakeRelativeUri(toUri);
    String relativePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(relativeUri.ToString());

    if (toUri.Scheme.Equals("file", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
    {
        relativePath = relativePath.Replace(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
    }

    return relativePath;
}

Answer 2

If you have a readonly text box, could you not not make it a label and set AutoEllipsis=true?

alternatively there are posts with code for generating the autoellipsis yourself: (this does it for a grid, you would need to pass i the width for the text box instead. It isn't quite right as it hacks off a bit more than is necessary, and I haven;t got around to finding where the calculation is incorrect. it would be easy enough to modify to remove the first part of the directory rather than the last if you desire.

Private Function AddEllipsisPath(ByVal text As String, ByVal colIndex As Integer, ByVal grid As DataGridView) As String
    'Get the size with the column's width 
    Dim colWidth As Integer = grid.Columns(colIndex).Width

    'Calculate the dimensions of the text with the current font
    Dim textSize As SizeF = MeasureString(text, grid.Font)

    Dim rawText As String = text
    Dim FileNameLen As Integer = text.Length - text.LastIndexOf("\")
    Dim ReplaceWith As String = "\..."

    Do While textSize.Width > colWidth
        ' Trim to make room for the ellipsis
        Dim LastFolder As Integer = rawText.LastIndexOf("\", rawText.Length - FileNameLen - 1)

        If LastFolder < 0 Then
            Exit Do
        End If

        rawText = rawText.Substring(0, LastFolder) + ReplaceWith + rawText.Substring(rawText.Length - FileNameLen)

        If ReplaceWith.Length > 0 Then
            FileNameLen += 4
            ReplaceWith = ""
        End If
        textSize = MeasureString(rawText, grid.Font)
    Loop

    Return rawText
End Function

Private Function MeasureString(ByVal text As String, ByVal fontInfo As Font) As SizeF
    Dim size As SizeF
    Dim emSize As Single = fontInfo.Size
    If emSize = 0 Then emSize = 12

    Dim stringFont As New Font(fontInfo.Name, emSize)

    Dim bmp As New Bitmap(1000, 100)
    Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)

    size = g.MeasureString(text, stringFont)
    g.Dispose()
    Return size
End Function

Answer 3

It's a long way around, but System.Uri class has a method named MakeRelativeUri. Maybe you could use that. It's a shame really that System.IO.Path doesn't have this.

Answer 4

As pointed above .NET Core 2.x has implementation of Path.GetRelativePath.

Code below is adapted from sources and works fine with .NET 4.7.1 Framework.

// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.

//Adapted from https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/blob/master/src/Common/src/CoreLib/System/IO/Path.cs#L697
// by Anton Krouglov

using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using Xunit;

namespace System.IO {
    // Provides methods for processing file system strings in a cross-platform manner.
    // Most of the methods don't do a complete parsing (such as examining a UNC hostname), 
    // but they will handle most string operations.
    public static class PathNetCore {

        /// <summary>
        /// Create a relative path from one path to another. Paths will be resolved before calculating the difference.
        /// Default path comparison for the active platform will be used (OrdinalIgnoreCase for Windows or Mac, Ordinal for Unix).
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="relativeTo">The source path the output should be relative to. This path is always considered to be a directory.</param>
        /// <param name="path">The destination path.</param>
        /// <returns>The relative path or <paramref name="path"/> if the paths don't share the same root.</returns>
        /// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">Thrown if <paramref name="relativeTo"/> or <paramref name="path"/> is <c>null</c> or an empty string.</exception>
        public static string GetRelativePath(string relativeTo, string path) {
            return GetRelativePath(relativeTo, path, StringComparison);
        }

        private static string GetRelativePath(string relativeTo, string path, StringComparison comparisonType) {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(relativeTo)) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(relativeTo));
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(path)) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(path));
            Debug.Assert(comparisonType == StringComparison.Ordinal ||
                         comparisonType == StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

            relativeTo = Path.GetFullPath(relativeTo);
            path = Path.GetFullPath(path);

            // Need to check if the roots are different- if they are we need to return the "to" path.
            if (!PathInternalNetCore.AreRootsEqual(relativeTo, path, comparisonType))
                return path;

            int commonLength = PathInternalNetCore.GetCommonPathLength(relativeTo, path,
                ignoreCase: comparisonType == StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

            // If there is nothing in common they can't share the same root, return the "to" path as is.
            if (commonLength == 0)
                return path;

            // Trailing separators aren't significant for comparison
            int relativeToLength = relativeTo.Length;
            if (PathInternalNetCore.EndsInDirectorySeparator(relativeTo))
                relativeToLength--;

            bool pathEndsInSeparator = PathInternalNetCore.EndsInDirectorySeparator(path);
            int pathLength = path.Length;
            if (pathEndsInSeparator)
                pathLength--;

            // If we have effectively the same path, return "."
            if (relativeToLength == pathLength && commonLength >= relativeToLength) return ".";

            // We have the same root, we need to calculate the difference now using the
            // common Length and Segment count past the length.
            //
            // Some examples:
            //
            //  C:\Foo C:\Bar L3, S1 -> ..\Bar
            //  C:\Foo C:\Foo\Bar L6, S0 -> Bar
            //  C:\Foo\Bar C:\Bar\Bar L3, S2 -> ..\..\Bar\Bar
            //  C:\Foo\Foo C:\Foo\Bar L7, S1 -> ..\Bar

            StringBuilder
                sb = new StringBuilder(); //StringBuilderCache.Acquire(Math.Max(relativeTo.Length, path.Length));

            // Add parent segments for segments past the common on the "from" path
            if (commonLength < relativeToLength) {
                sb.Append("..");

                for (int i = commonLength + 1; i < relativeToLength; i++) {
                    if (PathInternalNetCore.IsDirectorySeparator(relativeTo[i])) {
                        sb.Append(DirectorySeparatorChar);
                        sb.Append("..");
                    }
                }
            }
            else if (PathInternalNetCore.IsDirectorySeparator(path[commonLength])) {
                // No parent segments and we need to eat the initial separator
                //  (C:\Foo C:\Foo\Bar case)
                commonLength++;
            }

            // Now add the rest of the "to" path, adding back the trailing separator
            int differenceLength = pathLength - commonLength;
            if (pathEndsInSeparator)
                differenceLength++;

            if (differenceLength > 0) {
                if (sb.Length > 0) {
                    sb.Append(DirectorySeparatorChar);
                }

                sb.Append(path, commonLength, differenceLength);
            }

            return sb.ToString(); //StringBuilderCache.GetStringAndRelease(sb);
        }

        // Public static readonly variant of the separators. The Path implementation itself is using
        // internal const variant of the separators for better performance.
        public static readonly char DirectorySeparatorChar = PathInternalNetCore.DirectorySeparatorChar;
        public static readonly char AltDirectorySeparatorChar = PathInternalNetCore.AltDirectorySeparatorChar;
        public static readonly char VolumeSeparatorChar = PathInternalNetCore.VolumeSeparatorChar;
        public static readonly char PathSeparator = PathInternalNetCore.PathSeparator;

        /// <summary>Returns a comparison that can be used to compare file and directory names for equality.</summary>
        internal static StringComparison StringComparison => StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase;
    }

    /// <summary>Contains internal path helpers that are shared between many projects.</summary>
    internal static class PathInternalNetCore {
        internal const char DirectorySeparatorChar = '\\';
        internal const char AltDirectorySeparatorChar = '/';
        internal const char VolumeSeparatorChar = ':';
        internal const char PathSeparator = ';';

        internal const string ExtendedDevicePathPrefix = @"\\?\";
        internal const string UncPathPrefix = @"\\";
        internal const string UncDevicePrefixToInsert = @"?\UNC\";
        internal const string UncExtendedPathPrefix = @"\\?\UNC\";
        internal const string DevicePathPrefix = @"\\.\";

        //internal const int MaxShortPath = 260;

        // \\?\, \\.\, \??\
        internal const int DevicePrefixLength = 4;

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns true if the two paths have the same root
        /// </summary>
        internal static bool AreRootsEqual(string first, string second, StringComparison comparisonType) {
            int firstRootLength = GetRootLength(first);
            int secondRootLength = GetRootLength(second);

            return firstRootLength == secondRootLength
                   && string.Compare(
                       strA: first,
                       indexA: 0,
                       strB: second,
                       indexB: 0,
                       length: firstRootLength,
                       comparisonType: comparisonType) == 0;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the length of the root of the path (drive, share, etc.).
        /// </summary>
        internal static int GetRootLength(string path) {
            int i = 0;
            int volumeSeparatorLength = 2; // Length to the colon "C:"
            int uncRootLength = 2; // Length to the start of the server name "\\"

            bool extendedSyntax = path.StartsWith(ExtendedDevicePathPrefix);
            bool extendedUncSyntax = path.StartsWith(UncExtendedPathPrefix);
            if (extendedSyntax) {
                // Shift the position we look for the root from to account for the extended prefix
                if (extendedUncSyntax) {
                    // "\\" -> "\\?\UNC\"
                    uncRootLength = UncExtendedPathPrefix.Length;
                }
                else {
                    // "C:" -> "\\?\C:"
                    volumeSeparatorLength += ExtendedDevicePathPrefix.Length;
                }
            }

            if ((!extendedSyntax || extendedUncSyntax) && path.Length > 0 && IsDirectorySeparator(path[0])) {
                // UNC or simple rooted path (e.g. "\foo", NOT "\\?\C:\foo")

                i = 1; //  Drive rooted (\foo) is one character
                if (extendedUncSyntax || (path.Length > 1 && IsDirectorySeparator(path[1]))) {
                    // UNC (\\?\UNC\ or \\), scan past the next two directory separators at most
                    // (e.g. to \\?\UNC\Server\Share or \\Server\Share\)
                    i = uncRootLength;
                    int n = 2; // Maximum separators to skip
                    while (i < path.Length && (!IsDirectorySeparator(path[i]) || --n > 0)) i++;
                }
            }
            else if (path.Length >= volumeSeparatorLength &&
                     path[volumeSeparatorLength - 1] == PathNetCore.VolumeSeparatorChar) {
                // Path is at least longer than where we expect a colon, and has a colon (\\?\A:, A:)
                // If the colon is followed by a directory separator, move past it
                i = volumeSeparatorLength;
                if (path.Length >= volumeSeparatorLength + 1 && IsDirectorySeparator(path[volumeSeparatorLength])) i++;
            }

            return i;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// True if the given character is a directory separator.
        /// </summary>
        [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
        internal static bool IsDirectorySeparator(char c) {
            return c == PathNetCore.DirectorySeparatorChar || c == PathNetCore.AltDirectorySeparatorChar;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Get the common path length from the start of the string.
        /// </summary>
        internal static int GetCommonPathLength(string first, string second, bool ignoreCase) {
            int commonChars = EqualStartingCharacterCount(first, second, ignoreCase: ignoreCase);

            // If nothing matches
            if (commonChars == 0)
                return commonChars;

            // Or we're a full string and equal length or match to a separator
            if (commonChars == first.Length
                && (commonChars == second.Length || IsDirectorySeparator(second[commonChars])))
                return commonChars;

            if (commonChars == second.Length && IsDirectorySeparator(first[commonChars]))
                return commonChars;

            // It's possible we matched somewhere in the middle of a segment e.g. C:\Foodie and C:\Foobar.
            while (commonChars > 0 && !IsDirectorySeparator(first[commonChars - 1]))
                commonChars--;

            return commonChars;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the count of common characters from the left optionally ignoring case
        /// </summary>
        internal static unsafe int EqualStartingCharacterCount(string first, string second, bool ignoreCase) {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(first) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(second)) return 0;

            int commonChars = 0;

            fixed (char* f = first)
            fixed (char* s = second) {
                char* l = f;
                char* r = s;
                char* leftEnd = l + first.Length;
                char* rightEnd = r + second.Length;

                while (l != leftEnd && r != rightEnd
                                    && (*l == *r || (ignoreCase &&
                                                     char.ToUpperInvariant((*l)) == char.ToUpperInvariant((*r))))) {
                    commonChars++;
                    l++;
                    r++;
                }
            }

            return commonChars;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns true if the path ends in a directory separator.
        /// </summary>
        internal static bool EndsInDirectorySeparator(string path)
            => path.Length > 0 && IsDirectorySeparator(path[path.Length - 1]);
    }

    /// <summary> Tests for PathNetCore.GetRelativePath </summary>
    public static class GetRelativePathTests {
        [Theory]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"C:\", @".")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\a\", @".")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\A", @"C:\a\", @".")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\", @"C:\a", @".")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"C:\b", @"b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\b", @"..\b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\b\", @"..\b\")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b", @"C:\a", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b", @"C:\a\", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\", @"C:\a", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\", @"C:\a\", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c", @"C:\a\b", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c", @"C:\a\b\", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c", @"C:\a", @"..\..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c", @"C:\a\", @"..\..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c\", @"C:\a\b", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c\", @"C:\a\b\", @"..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c\", @"C:\a", @"..\..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\b\c\", @"C:\a\", @"..\..")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\", @"C:\b", @"..\b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\a\b", @"b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\A\b", @"b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\b\c", @"..\b\c")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\", @"C:\a\b", @"b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"D:\", @"D:\")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"D:\b", @"D:\b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"D:\b\", @"D:\b\")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"D:\b", @"D:\b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a\", @"D:\b", @"D:\b")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\ab", @"C:\a", @"..\a")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\a", @"C:\ab", @"..\ab")]
        [InlineData(@"C:\", @"\\LOCALHOST\Share\b", @"\\LOCALHOST\Share\b")]
        [InlineData(@"\\LOCALHOST\Share\a", @"\\LOCALHOST\Share\b", @"..\b")]
        //[PlatformSpecific(TestPlatforms.Windows)]  // Tests Windows-specific paths
        public static void GetRelativePath_Windows(string relativeTo, string path, string expected) {
            string result = PathNetCore.GetRelativePath(relativeTo, path);
            Assert.Equal(expected, result);

            // Check that we get the equivalent path when the result is combined with the sources
            Assert.Equal(
                Path.GetFullPath(path).TrimEnd(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar),
                Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Path.GetFullPath(relativeTo), result))
                    .TrimEnd(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar),
                ignoreCase: true,
                ignoreLineEndingDifferences: false,
                ignoreWhiteSpaceDifferences: false);
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

I have used this in the past.

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file
/// or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromDirectory">
/// Contains the directory that defines the
/// start of the relative path.
/// </param>
/// <param name="toPath">
/// Contains the path that defines the
/// endpoint of the relative path.
/// </param>
/// <returns>
/// The relative path from the start
/// directory to the end path.
/// </returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"></exception>
public static string MakeRelative(string fromDirectory, string toPath)
{
  if (fromDirectory == null)
    throw new ArgumentNullException("fromDirectory");

  if (toPath == null)
    throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");

  bool isRooted = (Path.IsPathRooted(fromDirectory) && Path.IsPathRooted(toPath));

  if (isRooted)
  {
    bool isDifferentRoot = (string.Compare(Path.GetPathRoot(fromDirectory), Path.GetPathRoot(toPath), true) != 0);

    if (isDifferentRoot)
      return toPath;
  }

  List<string> relativePath = new List<string>();
  string[] fromDirectories = fromDirectory.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

  string[] toDirectories = toPath.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);

  int length = Math.Min(fromDirectories.Length, toDirectories.Length);

  int lastCommonRoot = -1;

  // find common root
  for (int x = 0; x < length; x++)
  {
    if (string.Compare(fromDirectories[x], toDirectories[x], true) != 0)
      break;

    lastCommonRoot = x;
  }

  if (lastCommonRoot == -1)
    return toPath;

  // add relative folders in from path
  for (int x = lastCommonRoot + 1; x < fromDirectories.Length; x++)
  {
    if (fromDirectories[x].Length > 0)
      relativePath.Add("..");
  }

  // add to folders to path
  for (int x = lastCommonRoot + 1; x < toDirectories.Length; x++)
  {
    relativePath.Add(toDirectories[x]);
  }

  // create relative path
  string[] relativeParts = new string[relativePath.Count];
  relativePath.CopyTo(relativeParts, 0);

  string newPath = string.Join(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar.ToString(), relativeParts);

  return newPath;
}

Answer 6

There is a Win32 (C++) function in shlwapi.dll that does exactly what you want: PathRelativePathTo()

I'm not aware of any way to access this from .NET other than to P/Invoke it, though.