Creating temporary folders

Question

I am working on a program that needs to create a multiple temporary folders for the application. These will not be seen by the user. The app is written in VB.net. I can think of a few ways to do it such as incremental folder name or random numbered folder names, but I was wondering, how other people solve this problem?

Answer 1

Update: Added File.Exists check per comment (2012-Jun-19)

Here's what I've used in VB.NET. Essentially the same as presented, except I usually didn't want to create the folder immediately.

The advantage to use GetRandomFilename is that it doesn't create a file, so you don't have to clean up if your using the name for something other than a file. Like using it for folder name.

Private Function GetTempFolder() As String     Dim folder As String = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath, Path.GetRandomFileName)     Do While Directory.Exists(folder) or File.Exists(folder)         folder = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath, Path.GetRandomFileName)     Loop      Return folder End Function 

Random Filename Example:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\u3z5e0co.tvq

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Here's a variation using a Guid to get the temp folder name.

Private Function GetTempFolderGuid() As String     Dim folder As String = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath, Guid.NewGuid.ToString)     Do While Directory.Exists(folder) or File.Exists(folder)         folder = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath, Guid.NewGuid.ToString)     Loop      Return folder End Function 

guid Example:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\2dbc6db7-2d45-4b75-b27f-0bd492c60496

Answer 2

You have to use System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName()

Creates a uniquely named, zero-byte temporary file on disk and returns the full path of that file.

You can use System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName()) to get only the temp folder information, and create your folders in there

They are created in the windows temp folder and that's consider a best practice