Rename a file in C

Question

How do I rename a file using C

User · Answer

I ve encountered a case when I had to rename the file inside the event handler  which was triggering for any file change  including rename  and to skip forever renaming of the file I had to rename it  with   Making its copy Removing the original  File Copy fileFullPath  destFileName      Both have the format of  quot D        myFile ext quot  Thread Sleep 100      Wait for the OS to unfocus the file File Delete fileFullPath

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Just add  namespace System IO       public static class FileInfoExtensions               public static void Rename this FileInfo fileInfo  string newName                        fileInfo MoveTo Path Combine fileInfo Directory FullName  newName                       And then    FileInfo file   new FileInfo  quot c  test txt quot    file Rename  quot test2 txt quot

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public static class ImageRename       public static void ApplyChanges string fileUrl                                      string temporaryImageName                                      string permanentImageName                var currentFileName   Path Combine fileUrl                                             temporaryImageName            if   File Exists currentFileName               throw new FileNotFoundException             var extention   Path GetExtension temporaryImageName           var newFileName   Path Combine fileUrl                                           quot  permanentImageName                                            extention  quot             if  File Exists newFileName               File Delete newFileName            File Move currentFileName  newFileName

User · Answer

Use   using System IO   string oldFilePath     C  OldFile txt      Full path of old file string newFilePath     C  NewFile txt      Full path of new file  if  File Exists newFilePath         File Delete newFilePath     File Move oldFilePath  newFilePath

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System IO File Move oldNameFullPath  newNameFullPath

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First solution  Avoid System IO File Move solutions posted here  marked answer included   It fails over networks  However  copy delete pattern works locally and over networks  Follow one of the move solutions  but replace it with Copy instead  Then use File Delete to delete the original file   You can create a Rename method to simplify it  Ease of use  Use the VB assembly in C   Add reference to Microsoft VisualBasic  Then to rename the file   Microsoft VisualBasic FileIO FileSystem RenameFile myfile  newName    Both are strings  Note that myfile has the full path  newName does not  For example   a    C  whatever a txt   b    b txt   Microsoft VisualBasic FileIO FileSystem RenameFile a  b     The C  whatever  folder will now contain b txt

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I couldn t find an approach which suits me  so I propose my version  Of course  it needs input and error handling  public void Rename string filePath  string newFileName        var newFilePath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName filePath   newFileName   Path GetExtension filePath        System IO File Move filePath  newFilePath

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Use  int rename const char   oldname  const char   newname    The rename   function is defined in the stdio h header file  It renames a file or directory from oldname to newname  The rename operation is the same as move  hence you can also use this function to move a file

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In my case  I want the name of the renamed file to be unique  so I add a date-time stamp to the name  This way  the filename of the  old  log is always unique   if  File Exists clogfile         Int64 fileSizeInBytes   new FileInfo clogfile  Length      if  fileSizeInBytes  gt  5000000                string path   Path GetFullPath clogfile           string filename   Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension clogfile           System IO File Move clogfile  Path Combine path  string Format   0  1  log   filename  DateTime Now ToString  yyyyMMdd HHmmss

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NOTE  In this example code we open a directory and search for PDF files with open and closed parenthesis in the name of the file  You can check and replace any character in the name you like or just specify a whole new name using replace functions   There are other ways to work from this code to do more elaborate renames but my main intention was to show how to use File Move to do a batch rename  This worked against 335 PDF files in 180 directories when I ran it on my laptop  This is spur of the moment code and there are more elaborate ways to do it   using System  using System Collections Generic  using System IO  using System Linq  using System Text  using System Threading Tasks   namespace BatchRenamer       class Program               static void Main string   args                        var dirnames   Directory GetDirectories   C  the full directory path of files to rename goes here                 int i   0               try                               foreach  var dir in dirnames                                        var fnames   Directory GetFiles dir     pdf   Select Path GetFileName                        DirectoryInfo d   new DirectoryInfo dir                       FileInfo   finfo   d GetFiles    pdf                         foreach  var f in fnames                                                i                            Console WriteLine  The number of the file being renamed is   0    i                            if   File Exists Path Combine dir  f ToString   Replace          Replace                                                                   File Move Path Combine dir  f   Path Combine dir  f ToString   Replace          Replace                                                               else                                                       Console WriteLine  The file you are attempting to rename already exists  The file path is  0     dir                               foreach  FileInfo fi in finfo                                                                Console WriteLine  The file modify date is   0     File GetLastWriteTime dir                                                                                                                              catch  Exception ex                                Console WriteLine ex Message                             Console Read

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When C  doesn t have some feature  I use C   or C   public partial class Program        DllImport  msvcrt   CallingConvention   CallingConvention Cdecl  SetLastError   true       public static extern int rename               MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr               string oldpath               MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr               string newpath        static void FileRename                 while  true                        Console Clear                Console Write  Enter a folder name                  string dir   Console ReadLine   Trim                           if  string IsNullOrWhiteSpace dir                   break              if   Directory Exists dir                                 Console WriteLine   0  does not exist   dir                   continue                            string   files   Directory GetFiles dir     mp3                 for  int i   0  i  lt  files Length  i                                  string oldName   Path GetFileName files i                    int pos   oldName IndexOfAny new char      0    1    2                      if  pos    0                      continue                   string newName   oldName Substring pos                   int res   rename files i   dir   newName                                   Console WriteLine   n t tPress any key to go to main menu n            Console ReadKey true

User · Answer

In the File Move method  this won t overwrite the file if it is already exists  And it will throw an exception   So we need to check whether the file exists or not      Delete the file if exists  else no exception thrown      File Delete newFileName      Delete the existing file if exists File Move oldFileName newFileName      Rename the oldFileName into newFileName   Or surround it with a try catch to avoid an exception

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Move is doing the same   copy and delete old one  File Move   quot C  ScanPDF Test pdf quot     quot C  BackupPDF  quot    string Format  quot backup- 0 yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss  pdf quot   DateTime Now

User · Answer

Use  public static class FileInfoExtensions            lt summary gt          Behavior when a new filename exists           lt  summary gt      public enum FileExistBehavior                    lt summary gt              None  throw IOException  quot The destination file already exists  quot               lt  summary gt          None   0               lt summary gt              Replace  replace the file in the destination               lt  summary gt          Replace   1               lt summary gt              Skip  skip this file               lt  summary gt          Skip   2               lt summary gt              Rename  rename the file  like a window behavior               lt  summary gt          Rename   3                  lt summary gt          Rename the file           lt  summary gt           lt param name  quot fileInfo quot  gt the target file  lt  param gt           lt param name  quot newFileName quot  gt new filename with extension  lt  param gt           lt param name  quot fileExistBehavior quot  gt behavior when new filename is exist  lt  param gt      public static void Rename this System IO FileInfo fileInfo  string newFileName  FileExistBehavior fileExistBehavior   FileExistBehavior None                string newFileNameWithoutExtension   System IO Path GetFileNameWithoutExtension newFileName           string newFileNameExtension   System IO Path GetExtension newFileName           string newFilePath   System IO Path Combine fileInfo Directory FullName  newFileName            if  System IO File Exists newFilePath                         switch  fileExistBehavior                                case FileExistBehavior None                      throw new System IO IOException  quot The destination file already exists  quot                     case FileExistBehavior Replace                      System IO File Delete newFilePath                       break                   case FileExistBehavior Rename                      int dupplicate count   0                      string newFileNameWithDupplicateIndex                      string newFilePathWithDupplicateIndex                      do                                               dupplicate count                            newFileNameWithDupplicateIndex   newFileNameWithoutExtension    quot    quot    dupplicate count    quot   quot    newFileNameExtension                          newFilePathWithDupplicateIndex   System IO Path Combine fileInfo Directory FullName  newFileNameWithDupplicateIndex                                             while  System IO File Exists newFilePathWithDupplicateIndex                         newFilePath   newFilePathWithDupplicateIndex                      break                   case FileExistBehavior Skip                      return                                  System IO File Move fileInfo FullName  newFilePath            How to use this code class Program       static void Main string   args                string targetFile   System IO Path Combine   quot D   test quot    quot New Text Document txt quot            string newFileName    quot Foo txt quot               Full pattern         System IO FileInfo fileInfo   new System IO FileInfo targetFile           fileInfo Rename newFileName               Or short form         new System IO FileInfo targetFile  Rename newFileName

User · Answer

You can copy it as a new file and then delete the old one using the System IO File class   if  File Exists oldName         File Copy oldName  newName  true       File Delete oldName

User · Answer

None of the answers mention writing a unit testable solution  You could use System IO Abstractions as it provides a testable wrapper around FileSystem operations  using which you can create a mocked file system objects and write unit tests  using System IO Abstractions   IFileInfo fileInfo    fileSystem FileInfo FromFileName  quot filePathAndName quot    fileInfo MoveTo Path Combine fileInfo DirectoryName  newName     It was tested  and it is working code to rename a file

User · Answer

Take a look at System IO File Move   move  the file to a new name   System IO File Move  oldfilename    newfilename

User · Answer

You can use File Move to do it

[c#] Rename a file in C#

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