.NET Framework System.IO.File class Move a File from one location to another

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Example

File.Move

In order to move a file from one location to another, one simple line of code can achieve this:

File.Move(@"C:\TemporaryFile.txt", @"C:\TemporaryFiles\TemporaryFile.txt");

However, there are many things that could go wrong with this simple operation. For instance, what if the user running your program does not have a Drive that is labelled 'C'? What if they did - but they decided to rename it to 'B', or 'M'?

What if the Source file (the file in which you would like to move) has been moved without your knowing - or what if it simply doesn't exist.

This can be circumvented by first checking to see whether the source file does exist:

string source = @"C:\TemporaryFile.txt", destination = @"C:\TemporaryFiles\TemporaryFile.txt";
if(File.Exists("C:\TemporaryFile.txt"))
{
    File.Move(source, destination);
}

This will ensure that at that very moment, the file does exist, and can be moved to another location. There may be times where a simple call to File.Exists won't be enough. If it isn't, check again, convey to the user that the operation failed - or handle the exception.

A FileNotFoundException is not the only exception you are likely to encounter.

See below for possible exceptions:

Exception TypeDescription
IOExceptionThe file already exists or the source file could not be found.
ArgumentNullExceptionThe value of the Source and/or Destination parameters is null.
ArgumentExceptionThe value of the Source and/or Destination parameters are empty, or contain invalid characters.
UnauthorizedAccessExceptionYou do not have the required permissions in order to perform this action.
PathTooLongExceptionThe Source, Destination or specified path(s) exceed the maximum length. On Windows, a Path's length must be less than 248 characters, while File names must be less than 260 characters.
DirectoryNotFoundExceptionThe specified directory could not be found.
NotSupportedExceptionThe Source or Destination paths or file names are in an invalid format.


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