How to Use Openfiledialog to Select a Folder

How do I use OpenFileDialog to select a folder?

Basically you need the FolderBrowserDialog class:

Prompts the user to select a folder. This class cannot be inherited.

Example:

using(var fbd = new FolderBrowserDialog())
{
    DialogResult result = fbd.ShowDialog();

    if (result == DialogResult.OK && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fbd.SelectedPath))
    {
        string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(fbd.SelectedPath);

        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Files found: " + files.Length.ToString(), "Message");
    }
}

If you work in WPF you have to add the reference to System.Windows.Forms.

you also have to add using System.IO for Directory class

How to use Open File Dialog to Select a Folder

The folder selection dialog of Windows Vista looks quite similar to what you want. Unfortunately, .NET's FolderBrowserDialog shows the old Windows-XP-like dialog, which you want to avoid.

To access this Vista-style dialog, you can either

• use some third-party .NET library (e.g. Ookii.Dialogs),

• use the relevant Windows API calls or

• use the Windows API Code Pack:

    using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Dialogs;
  
    ...
  
    var dialog = new CommonOpenFileDialog(); 
    dialog.IsFolderPicker = true;
    CommonFileDialogResult result = dialog.ShowDialog();
  

  Note that this dialog is not available on operating systems older than Windows Vista, so be sure to check CommonFileDialog.IsPlatformSupported first.

How do you configure an OpenFileDialog to select folders?

I have a dialog that I wrote called an OpenFileOrFolder dialog that allows you to open either a folder or a file.

If you set its AcceptFiles value to false, then it operates in only accept folder mode.

You can download the source from GitHub here

Open directory dialog

You can use the built-in FolderBrowserDialog class for this. Don't mind that it's in the System.Windows.Forms namespace.

using (var dialog = new System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog())
{
    System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult result = dialog.ShowDialog();
}

If you want the window to be modal over some WPF window, see the question How to use a FolderBrowserDialog from a WPF application.

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EDIT: If you want something a bit more fancy than the plain, ugly Windows Forms FolderBrowserDialog, there are some alternatives that allow you to use the Vista dialog instead:

• Third-party libraries, such as Ookii dialogs (.NET 4.5+)

• The Windows API Code Pack-Shell:

    using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Dialogs;
  
    ...
  
    var dialog = new CommonOpenFileDialog();
    dialog.IsFolderPicker = true;
    CommonFileDialogResult result = dialog.ShowDialog();
  

  Note that this dialog is not available on operating systems older than Windows Vista, so be sure to check CommonFileDialog.IsPlatformSupported first.

How to get file path from OpenFileDialog and FolderBrowserDialog?

For OpenFileDialog:

OpenFileDialog choofdlog = new OpenFileDialog();
choofdlog.Filter = "All Files (*.*)|*.*";
choofdlog.FilterIndex = 1;
choofdlog.Multiselect = true;

if (choofdlog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)    
{     
    string sFileName = choofdlog.FileName; 
    string[] arrAllFiles = choofdlog.FileNames; //used when Multiselect = true           
}

For FolderBrowserDialog:

FolderBrowserDialog fbd = new FolderBrowserDialog();
fbd.Description = "Custom Description"; 

if (fbd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
    string sSelectedPath = fbd.SelectedPath;
}

To access selected folder and selected file name you can declare both string at class level.

namespace filereplacer
{
   public partial class Form1 : Form
   {
      string sSelectedFile;
      string sSelectedFolder;

      public Form1()
      {
         InitializeComponent();
      }

      private void direc_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
         FolderBrowserDialog fbd = new FolderBrowserDialog();
         //fbd.Description = "Custom Description"; //not mandatory

         if (fbd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)      
               sSelectedFolder = fbd.SelectedPath;
         else
               sSelectedFolder = string.Empty;    
      }

      private void choof_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
         OpenFileDialog choofdlog = new OpenFileDialog();
         choofdlog.Filter = "All Files (*.*)|*.*";
         choofdlog.FilterIndex = 1;
         choofdlog.Multiselect = true;

         if (choofdlog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)                 
             sSelectedFile = choofdlog.FileName;            
         else
             sSelectedFile = string.Empty;       
      }

      private void replacebtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
          if(sSelectedFolder != string.Empty && sSelectedFile != string.Empty)
          {
               //use selected folder path and file path
          }
      }
      ....
}

NOTE:

As you have kept choofdlog.Multiselect=true;, that means in the OpenFileDialog() you are able to select multiple files (by pressing ctrl key and left mouse click for selection).

In that case you could get all selected files in string[]:

At Class Level:

string[] arrAllFiles;

Locate this line (when Multiselect=true this line gives first file only):

sSelectedFile = choofdlog.FileName; 

To get all files use this:

arrAllFiles = choofdlog.FileNames; //this line gives array of all selected files

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