How to get relative path from absolute path

Solution 1:

.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;
}

Solution 2:

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);