How to get relative path from absolute path

Question

.NET Core 2.0 has Path.GetRelativePath, else, use this.

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromPath">Contains the directory that defines the start of the relative path.</param>
/// <param name="toPath">Contains the path that defines the endpoint of the relative path.</param>
/// <returns>The relative path from the start directory to the end path or <c>toPath</c> if the paths are not related.</returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="UriFormatException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException"></exception>
public static String MakeRelativePath(String fromPath, String toPath)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fromPath)) throw new ArgumentNullException("fromPath");
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(toPath))   throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");

    Uri fromUri = new Uri(fromPath);
    Uri toUri = new Uri(toPath);

    if (fromUri.Scheme != toUri.Scheme) { return toPath; } // path can't be made relative.

    Uri relativeUri = fromUri.MakeRelativeUri(toUri);
    String relativePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(relativeUri.ToString());

    if (toUri.Scheme.Equals("file", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
    {
        relativePath = relativePath.Replace(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
    }

    return relativePath;
}

A bit late to the question, but I just needed this feature as well. I agree with DavidK that since there is a built-in API function that provides this, you should use it. Here's a managed wrapper for it:

public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
{
    int fromAttr = GetPathAttribute(fromPath);
    int toAttr = GetPathAttribute(toPath);

    StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(260); // MAX_PATH
    if(PathRelativePathTo(
        path,
        fromPath,
        fromAttr,
        toPath,
        toAttr) == 0)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Paths must have a common prefix");
    }
    return path.ToString();
}

private static int GetPathAttribute(string path)
{
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
    if (di.Exists)
    {
        return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY;
    }

    FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(path);
    if(fi.Exists)
    {
        return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL;
    }

    throw new FileNotFoundException();
}

private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = 0x10;
private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;

[DllImport("shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int PathRelativePathTo(StringBuilder pszPath, 
    string pszFrom, int dwAttrFrom, string pszTo, int dwAttrTo);

.NET Core 2.0 Answer

.NET Core 2.0 has Path.GetRelativePath which can be used like so:

var relativePath = Path.GetRelativePath(
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram",
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram\Data\datafile1.dat");

In the above example, the relativePath variable is equal to Data\datafile1.dat.

Alternative .NET Answer

@Dave's solution does not work when the file paths do not end with a forward slash character (/) which can happen if the path is a directory path. My solution fixes that problem and also makes use of the Uri.UriSchemeFile constant instead of hard coding "FILE".

/// <summary>
/// Creates a relative path from one file or folder to another.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fromPath">Contains the directory that defines the start of the relative path.</param>
/// <param name="toPath">Contains the path that defines the endpoint of the relative path.</param>
/// <returns>The relative path from the start directory to the end path.</returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException"><paramref name="fromPath"/> or <paramref name="toPath"/> is <c>null</c>.</exception>
/// <exception cref="UriFormatException"></exception>
/// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException"></exception>
public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(fromPath))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("fromPath");
    }

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(toPath))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("toPath");
    }

    Uri fromUri = new Uri(AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(fromPath));
    Uri toUri = new Uri(AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(toPath));

    if (fromUri.Scheme != toUri.Scheme)
    {
        return toPath;
    }

    Uri relativeUri = fromUri.MakeRelativeUri(toUri);
    string relativePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(relativeUri.ToString());

    if (string.Equals(toUri.Scheme, Uri.UriSchemeFile, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
    {
        relativePath = relativePath.Replace(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
    }

    return relativePath;
}

private static string AppendDirectorySeparatorChar(string path)
{
    // Append a slash only if the path is a directory and does not have a slash.
    if (!Path.HasExtension(path) &&
        !path.EndsWith(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar.ToString()))
    {
        return path + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar;
    }

    return path;
}

Windows Interop Answer

There is a Windows API called PathRelativePathToA that can be used to find a relative path. Please note that the file or directory paths that you pass to the function must exist for it to work.

var relativePath = PathExtended.GetRelativePath(
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram",
    @"C:\Program Files\Dummy Folder\MyProgram\Data\datafile1.dat");

public static class PathExtended
{
    private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = 0x10;
    private const int FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;
    private const int MaximumPath = 260;

    public static string GetRelativePath(string fromPath, string toPath)
    {
        var fromAttribute = GetPathAttribute(fromPath);
        var toAttribute = GetPathAttribute(toPath);

        var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(MaximumPath);
        if (PathRelativePathTo(
            stringBuilder,
            fromPath,
            fromAttribute,
            toPath,
            toAttribute) == 0)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Paths must have a common prefix.");
        }

        return stringBuilder.ToString();
    }

    private static int GetPathAttribute(string path)
    {
        var directory = new DirectoryInfo(path);
        if (directory.Exists)
        {
            return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY;
        }

        var file = new FileInfo(path);
        if (file.Exists)
        {
            return FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL;
        }

        throw new FileNotFoundException(
            "A file or directory with the specified path was not found.",
            path);
    }

    [DllImport("shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern int PathRelativePathTo(
        StringBuilder pszPath,
        string pszFrom,
        int dwAttrFrom,
        string pszTo,
        int dwAttrTo);
}

There is a Win32 (C++) function in shlwapi.dll that does exactly what you want: PathRelativePathTo()

I'm not aware of any way to access this from .NET other than to P/Invoke it, though.