How to Create a Folder with a Date in C#?

In this C# tutoriai, you’ll learn how to create a folder with a date in C#. I will show you three methods to create a folder with a date in C#. We will also discuss how to create a folder with the date and time in C#.

To create a folder with a date in C#, first format the current date using DateTime.Now.ToString(“yyyyMMdd”) to get a date string. Then, concatenate this string with your desired folder path and use the Directory.CreateDirectory method. This approach automatically generates a folder named with the current date in your specified location.

Creating folders with a date as part of the name can be useful for:

Backup purposes
Archiving files
Organizing logs and other data

By adding a date to the folder name, you can easily sort and identify when the folder was created, enhancing your application’s file management capabilities.

Table of Contents

Create a Folder with a Date in C#

Now, let us see the below methods to create a folder with a date in C#.

To work with directories and files, you’ll need to include the System.IO namespace in your C# program. This namespace provides the Directory class, which contains various methods for working with directories, such as creating and deleting folders.

Using System.IO.Directory

Let us see how to create a folder in C# with a date using the System.IO.Directory. Here is the steps:

Import Namespace: Import the System.IO namespace.
Get Current Date: Utilize the DateTime class.
Format the Date: Stringify the date in the desired format.
Create the Folder: Use Directory.CreateDirectory().

Below is the complete code:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;
        string formattedDate = currentDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
        string folderPath = @"C:\Temp\" + formattedDate;

        Directory.CreateDirectory(folderPath);
        Console.WriteLine($"Folder created at {folderPath}");
    }
}

Once you run the code, you can see the output below:

Using System.IO.DirectoryInfo

You can also use the System.IO.DirectoryInfo to create a folder in C# with a date.

Import Namespace: Import the System.IO namespace.
Create DirectoryInfo Object: Initialize it with the folder path.
Create the Folder: Call the Create() method on the DirectoryInfo object.

Here is the complete code to create a folder with a date using the Using System.IO.DirectoryInfo.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;
        string formattedDate = currentDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
        string folderPath = @"C:\Temp\" + formattedDate;

        DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(folderPath);
        dirInfo.Create();
        Console.WriteLine($"Folder created at {folderPath}");
    }
}

Once you run the code using Visual Studio, you can see the output like the figure below:

How to Create a Folder with a Date in C#

Using Shell Commands

You can also use shell commands to create a folder in C#. This method is less common but useful for specific scenarios.

Import Namespace: Import the System.Diagnostics namespace.
Execute Command: Use the Process.Start() method to run the shell command.

Here is the complete code:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;
        string formattedDate = currentDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
        string folderPath = @"C:\Temp\" + formattedDate;

        Process.Start("cmd.exe", $"/c mkdir {folderPath}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Folder created at {folderPath}");
    }
}

How to Create a Folder with Date and Time in C#?

Let us now check out how to create a folder with the date and time in C#.

Below is a complete example of how to create a folder with a date and time stamp in C#.

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace CreateFolderWithDateTime
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Get the current date and time
            DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
            
            // Format the date and time into a string
            string formattedDateTime = now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss");
            
            // Define the folder name with the date-time string
            string folderName = "MyFolder_" + formattedDateTime;
            
            // Define the path where the folder will be created
            string path = Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, folderName);
            
            // Create the folder
            if (!Directory.Exists(path))
            {
                Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
                Console.WriteLine("Folder created: " + path);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Folder already exists: " + path);
            }
        }
    }
}

We use the DateTime.Now() method to get the current date and time.
We format this date and time into a string that can be used in a folder name.
Using the Directory.CreateDirectory() method, we create the folder.

Once you run the code using Visual Studio, you can see the folder created with Date and time, like the screenshot below.

How to Create a Folder with Date and Time in C#

Conclusion

I hope now you have an idea of how to create a folder with a date in C# using various methods like Using System.IO.Directory, Using System.IO.DirectoryInfo, Using Shell Commands. We discuss each method with examples.