C# - Regex for file paths e.g. C:\test\test.exe

Question

I am currently looking for a regex that can help validate a file path e.g.:

C:\test\test2\test.exe 

Answer 1

I decided to post this answer which does use a regular expression.

^(?:[a-zA-Z]\:|\\\\[\w\.]+\\[\w.$]+)\\(?:[\w]+\\)*\w([\w.])+$ 

Works for these:

\\test\test$\TEST.xls \\server\share\folder\myfile.txt \\server\share\myfile.txt \\123.123.123.123\share\folder\myfile.txt c:\folder\myfile.txt c:\folder\myfileWithoutExtension 

Edit: Added example usage:

if (Regex.IsMatch (text, @"^(?:[a-zA-Z]\:|\\\\[\w\.]+\\[\w.$]+)\\(?:[\w]+\\)*\w([\w.])+$")) {   // Valid } 

*Edit: * This is an approximation of the paths you could see. If possible, it is probably better to use the Path class or FileInfo class to see if a file or folder exists.