Name

ChDir Procedure

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileSystem

Syntax

ChDir(path)
path

Use: Required

Data Type: String

The path of the directory to set as the new default directory

Description

Changes the current working (default) directory.

Rules at a Glance

  • path can be an absolute or relative reference.

  • Changing the default directory does not change the default drive; it only changes a particular drive’s default directory.

Example

ChDir("c:\program files\my folder\")
ChDir("..") 'c:\program files is now the default directory.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

  • The single dot (".") represents the current directory and the double dot ("..") represents the parent of the current directory. If the root directory is the current directory, the statement:

    ChDir("..")
  • does not change the current directory and does not produce a syntax error.

  • If path is not found, or a FileNotFoundExeception exception, 76, “Path not found,” is generated. However, if path refers to another machine on the network, error 75, “Path/File access error,” is generated.

  • Although you can use a network path such as \\NTSERV1\d$\TestDir\ to change the current directory on the network admin share \\NTSERV1\d$, you can’t access this drive using ChDrive without having the drive mapped to a drive letter, which makes using network paths with ChDir a little pointless!

  • Use CurDir to determine the current directory for a particular drive.

VB .NET/VB 6 Differences

In VB .NET, ChDir is implemented as a procedure (a method of the FileSystem class). ...

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