System.windows.forms.openfiledialog

Although the class is declared public, you cannot inherit from it, as it contains internal abstract methods.

FileDialog is a modal dialog box; therefore, when shown, it blocks the rest of the application until the user has chosen a file. When a dialog box is displayed modally, no input keyboard or mouse click can occur except to objects on the dialog box.

The program must hide or close the dialog box usually in response to some user action before input to the calling program can occur. Instead, dynamically obtain the path using one or more of the techniques described in the following table. If you want to enable users to select a folder instead of a file, use the FolderBrowserDialog.

Depending upon the type of application, how data associated with the application is stored, and the reason for accessing the file system, there are many possible ways in which you can create a directory path. The following table shows the techniques for creating paths dynamically. Notice that a full path may be built up using one or more of the described techniques. For example, the GetFolderPath method might be used to obtain the path to the MyDocuments folder, then an application setting may be used to add a relative subdirectory portion.

The System. Path class contains static members to assist in manipulating absolute and relative path strings, whereas the System. File and System.

Directory classes have static members that actually manipulate files and directories, respectively. If the user of your application changes the folder in the FileDialog , then the current working directory for your application is set to the location specified in the FileDialog.

To prevent this, set the RestoreDirectory property to true. Owns the FileOk event. Gets or sets a value indicating whether the dialog box automatically adds an extension to a file name if the user omits the extension. Gets or sets a value indicating whether this FileDialog instance should automatically upgrade appearance and behavior when running on Windows Vista.

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the dialog box displays a warning if the user specifies a file name that does not exist. Gets or sets a value indicating whether the dialog box displays a warning if the user specifies a path that does not exist.

Gets or sets the GUID to associate with this dialog state. Typically, state such as the last visited folder and the position and size of the dialog is persisted based on the name of the executable file. By specifying a GUID, an application can have different persisted states for different versions of the dialog within the same application for example, an import dialog and an open dialog.

This functionality is not available if an application is not using visual styles or if AutoUpgradeEnabled is set to false. Gets the IContainer that contains the Component.

Gets the custom places collection for this FileDialog instance. Gets or sets a value indicating whether the dialog box returns the location of the file referenced by the shortcut or whether it returns the location of the shortcut. Gets a value that indicates whether the Component is currently in design mode. Gets the list of event handlers that are attached to this Component. Gets or sets the current file name filter string, which determines the choices that appear in the "Save as file type" or "Files of type" box in the dialog box.

Gets values to initialize the FileDialog. Gets or sets a value indicating whether the dialog box restores the directory to the previously selected directory before closing. Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Help button is displayed in the file dialog box. Gets or sets the ISite of the Component. Gets or sets whether the dialog box supports displaying and saving files that have multiple file name extensions. For more information, see Code access security basics. You can build and run these examples as.

For more information, see Command-line building with csc. Starting with. NET Core 3. NET Core apps from a folder that has a. After the user chooses a file and selects OK , an instance of the StreamReader class reads the file and displays its contents in the form's text box.

For more information about reading from file streams, see FileStream. BeginRead and FileStream. The following example uses the Button control's Click event handler to open the OpenFileDialog with a filter that shows only text files. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode.

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