How to read a text file in project s root directory

Question

I want to read the first line of a text file that I added to the root directory of my project  Meaning  my solution explorer is showing the  txt file along side my  cs files in my project   So  I tried to do   TextReader tr   new StreamReader   myfile txt    string myText   tr ReadLine      But this doesn t work since it s referring to the Bin Folder and my file isn t in there    How can I make this work      Thanks

User · Accepted Answer

From Solution Explorer  right click on myfile txt and choose  Properties   From there  set the Build Action to content and Copy to Output Directory to either Copy always or Copy if newer

User · Answer

private string  filePath   Path GetDirectoryName System AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory     The method above will bring you something like this    C  Users myuser Documents Visual Studio 2015 Projects myProjectNamespace bin Debug    From here you can navigate backwards using System IO Directory GetParent    filePath   Directory GetParent  filePath  FullName    1 time will get you to  bin  2 times will get you to  myProjectNamespace  so it would be like this    filePath   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent  filePath  FullName  FullName    Well  now you have something like  C  Users myuser Documents Visual Studio 2015 Projects myProjectNamespace   so just attach the final path to your fileName  for example     filePath       myfile txt   TextReader tr   new StreamReader  filePath     Hope it helps

User · Answer

In this code you access to root directory project   string  filePath   Path GetDirectoryName System AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory    then  StreamReader r   new StreamReader  filePath    quot  cities2 json quot

User · Answer

You can have it embedded  build action set to Resource  as well  this is how to retrieve it from there   private static UnmanagedMemoryStream GetResourceStream string resName        var assembly   Assembly GetExecutingAssembly        var strResources   assembly GetName   Name     g resources       var rStream   assembly GetManifestResourceStream strResources       var resourceReader   new ResourceReader rStream       var items   resourceReader OfType lt DictionaryEntry gt         var stream   items First x   gt   x Key as string     resName ToLower    Value      return  UnmanagedMemoryStream stream     private void Button1 Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e        string resName    Test txt       var file   GetResourceStream resName       using  var reader   new StreamReader file                 var line   reader ReadLine            MessageBox Show line              Some code taken from this answer by Charles

User · Answer

You have to use absolute path in this case  But if you set the CopyToOutputDirectory   CopyAlways  it will work as you are doing it

User · Answer

You can use the following to get the root directory of a website project   String FilePath  FilePath   Server MapPath   MyWebSite      Or you can get the base directory like so   AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory

User · Answer

Add a Resource File to your project  Right Click Project- Properties- Resources   Where it says  strings   you can switch to be  files   Choose  Add Resource  and select your file   You can now reference your file through the Properties Resources collection

[c#] How to read a text file in project's root directory?

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