What is the .NET equivalent of java's System.getProperty("user.dir") ?

Question

I am trying to get the full path of a file in my unit test which is in a folder in my project. i tried using

Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

but that returns the directory which my tests are running in. I want the directory of the project (or solution) without having to hard-code it in there. Then I can append the last part of the filename. Something similar to

System.getProperty("user.dir")

in java

Answer 1

string filePath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string folderPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);

Also, it's best to tag your c# posts with win-forms, WPF or asp-net so that we can tell what platform you're working on.

Answer 2

Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)

will get you the path of the running unit test DLL itself.

In order to access a file in a project subfolder, the simplest thing to do is mark the relevant files as Build Action = Content and Copy to Output Directory = Copy if newer. If you do that, then they will be copied to relative folders underneath the running assembly folder whenever you build the project. You can then calculate the physical path relative to the running assembly.

For example:

• You have a text file located at <project root>\TestData\Data1.txt.
• When you build the project in Debug mode, it will be copied to <project root>\bin\Debug\TestData\Data1.txt.
• The physical path in your code will be Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), "TestData\Data1.txt").