How can I launch a folder whose name contains a comma, using ProcessStartInfo in C#?

Question

I have an app that queries a database for the location of a nested folder used for a task, and opens this folder (using the ProcessStartInfo class to launch explorer.exe and pass in the folder name as an argument).

This works fine except for a number of folders that contain commas (and unfortunately there are a load of them!)

Say, for a folder called C:\this,folder\, it tries to launch "folder". How can I get it to treat the comma as verbatim?

Sample code:

public void LaunchExplorer() {
        ProcessStartInfo explorer = new ProcessStartInfo();             

        string windir = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("WINDIR");
        System.Diagnostics.Process prc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
        prc.StartInfo.FileName = windir + @"\explorer.exe ";
        prc.StartInfo.Arguments = @"c:\this,folder";
        prc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;

        try                                       
        {                
            prc.Start();
        }

        catch
        {
            MessageBox.Show("cannot open folder " + prc.StartInfo.Arguments);
        }
}

explorer warns you that the folder "folder" does not exist - it is treating the comma as a leading comma, i.e. trying to open "folder" instead of "c:\this,folder" — Daniel Otto Kellett, Mar 09 '11 at 09:52

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 08 '11 at 08:56

5

Have you tried enclosing the folder name in quotes, like this?

prc.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"c:\\this,folder\"";

edited Mar 08 '11 at 08:56

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Mar 08 '11 at 08:47

Jon

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now all I need to do is put in the fields populated by the database query, i.e.: prc.StartInfo.Arguments = pathPrefix + @"\" + workingPath; – Daniel Otto Kellett Mar 09 '11 at 10:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '11 at 08:50

0

prc.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"c:\\this,folder\"";

will do the trick

answered Mar 08 '11 at 08:50

Anders

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How can I launch a folder whose name contains a comma, using ProcessStartInfo in C#?

2 Answers2