Could not find a part of the path 'C:\

Question

Im getting this error. Even though i already created a folder "CMSExportedData" Could not find a part of the path 'C:\CMSExportedData\Sales-20\07\2012.txt'.

Kindly help please

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("C:\\CMSExportedData\\Sales-" + DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") + ".txt", FileMode.Create))
{
    using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs, Encoding.Default))
    {
        //use stream
    }
}

20\07\2012 : well, do you really think that it's a good idea to have a date with slashes in a path ? — Raphaël Althaus
– Raphaël Althaus, Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 6:58
do you have a Sales-20 subfolder containing a 07 subfolder in which you want to write a file named 2012.txt ? — Felice Pollano
– Felice Pollano, Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 6:59
Raphael: your right, my mistake Felice: love your detailed explanation. thank you i realised my mistake Marc: Because im using sql server 2008 and vb 2010? Alex: yes your right. my mistake — Newbie
– Newbie, Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 7:11

phoog · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 06:59:25Z

9

You're formatting the date as part of the filename in such a way that the date separators are slashes, which get converted to backslashes (path separators) by the path logic:

'C:\CMSExportedData\Sales-20\07\2012.txt'.

There's no Sales-20 folder, and no 07 folder.

Solution: don't use path separator characters in your file names :). This solution also formats the date as year-month-day because that makes the file names sort in chronological order:

"C:\\CMSExportedData\\Sales-" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + ".txt"

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 6:59

phoog

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4 Comments

Aneef Over a year ago

Else use DateTime.Now.ToFileTime()

phoog Over a year ago

@Aneef how does ToFiletime help? It just returns an Int64. That's not very helpful as a chronological component of a file name.

Newbie Over a year ago

@phoog, if i change to yyyyMMdd, do i have to actually change my PC and server's time format to match it?

phoog Over a year ago

@Newbie You shouldn't have to do that. The DateTime is stored in a numeric binary format internally; the display format of your computer only sets the default string representation of the DateTime. With the expression above, you're not using the default string representation, but instead a custom string representation. Since you're using this as part of a file name, the operating system only sees it as a string. It doesn't even know that it's a date; it could be any string.

Felice Pollano · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 07:08:56Z

5

A filename cannot contain any of the following characters:

\ / : * ? " < > |

apparently your date formatting uses '/' that is not allowed. A suggestion can be to use '-' as a separator so your file will be:

C:\CMSExportedData\Sales-20-07-2012.txt

Just for completeness, non alphanumeric charachters accebtable are:

 ^   Accent circumflex (caret)
   &   Ampersand
   '   Apostrophe (single quotation mark)
   @   At sign
   {   Brace left
   }   Brace right
   [   Bracket opening
   ]   Bracket closing
   ,   Comma
   $   Dollar sign
   =   Equal sign
   !   Exclamation point
   -   Hyphen
   #   Number sign
   (   Parenthesis opening
   )   Parenthesis closing
   %   Percent
   .   Period
   +   Plus
   ~   Tilde
   _   Underscore

edited Jul 20, 2012 at 7:08

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 7:01

Felice Pollano

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Comments

Gerald Versluis · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 07:01:49Z

1

The problem is that you are adding a date to your filename, with slashes!

Each slash in the Windows File System delimits a directory. So with your code it will be looking in Sales-20 folder, then the 07 folder and in that folder it tries to find 2012.txt.

Best practice is never to use slashes in your filename (don't even think you can manually in Windows) so replace them with a '-' sign or remove any of that characters at all.

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 7:01

Gerald Versluis

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