How to check if System.IO.File.Delete deleted a file successfully

Question

After removing a file using the system.io.file class:

System.IO.File.Delete(openedPdfs.path);

I need to run some code if the file was sucessfully deleted. As long as the method does not return any value, I am checking if the file exist after the delete method. If it still exist I supposed the operation had failed.

The problem is, the deletion method works fine, but there is a couple of seconds to the file to be deleted. The Exist function return true because at the time it is checking the file is there.

How can I verify for sure if the System.IO.File.Delete(openedPdfs.path); completed successfully?

Code:

FileInfo file = new FileInfo(openedPdfs.path);    
System.IO.File.Delete(openedPdfs.path);
if (file.Exists == false)
{ ... }
else 
{ ... }

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, the File.Delete method will throw an exception in case of failure.

What they omitted to point out is that the exception will be thrown in almost all cases but not in all cases. Specifically, the File.Delete method will not throw an exception if the file to be deleted did not happen to already exist. (Duh? What were they thinking?)

So, you should check if the file exists prior to deleting it; if it does not exist, you should not do anything. If it exists, you should invoke File.Delete, and if that throws an exception, then again, you should not do anything, because the file was not deleted. Otherwise, you should do your post-successful-deletion-of-existing-file stuff.