GetDirectories not returning “.” and “..”

Question

I wish to list the subdirectories of a given directory so I am using Directory.GetDirectories(string) . Everything works fine but I don't see "." and ".." in the return array. Those two shouldn't be there?

Answer 1

GetDirectories only returns sub-directories . Not the parent directory, not the current directory.

Documentation:

Return Value
Type: System.String[]
An array of the full names (including paths) of subdirectories in the specified path.

Answer 2

Suppose you call as Directory.GetDirectories(path); then

. is the path and

.. is the new DirectoryInfo(path).Parent.FullName