C# ZipFile

last modified July 5, 2023

In this article we use ZipFile to create, read, and extract ZIP files in C#.

ZIP

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed.

ZipFile provides static methods for creating, extracting, and opening zip archives. It is part of the System.IO.Compression package.

C# ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory

The ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory creates a zip archive that contains files and directories from the specified directory.

using System.IO.Compression;

string dirName = "data";
string zipName = "archive.zip";

if (File.Exists(zipName))
{
    File.Delete(zipName);
}

ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(dirName, zipName);

In the example, we create a new ZIP file from a directory.

string dirName = "data";
string zipName = "archive.zip";

We define the name of the directory and the ZIP archive.

if (File.Exists(zipName))
{
    File.Delete(zipName);
}

We check if the archive already exists with File.Exists. If it exists, we delete it with File.Delete.

ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(dirName, zipName);

The parameters of ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory are the directory name and the name of the ZIP file.

C# ZipFile include specified files

In the next example, we choose which files we include in the archive.

using System.IO.Compression;

string zipName = "archive.zip";

if (File.Exists(zipName))
{
    File.Delete(zipName);
}

var files = Directory.GetFiles(@"data", "*.jpg");

using var archive = ZipFile.Open(zipName, ZipArchiveMode.Create);

foreach (var file in files)
{
    archive.CreateEntryFromFile(file, Path.GetFileName(file));
}

The program takes all JPG images from the specified directory and creates an archive from them.

var files = Directory.GetFiles(@"data", "*.jpg");

With Directory.GetFiles, we find all files that match the given pattern.

using var archive = ZipFile.Open(zipName, ZipArchiveMode.Create);

We open the ZIP archive in the ZipArchiveMode.Create with ZipFile.Open.

foreach (var file in files)
{
    archive.CreateEntryFromFile(file, Path.GetFileName(file));
}

We add files to the archive with CreateEntryFromFile.

C# ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory

The ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory extracts all the files in the specified zip archive to the given directory.

using System.IO.Compression;

string dirName = "data2";
string zipName = "archive.zip";

if (Directory.Exists(dirName))
{
    Directory.Delete(dirName, true);
}

ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(zipName, dirName);

In the example, we extract the contents of a ZIP file to a directory.

if (Directory.Exists(dirName))
{
    Directory.Delete(dirName, true);
}

First, we check if the directory already exists with Directory.Exists and delete it if it does with Directory.Delete.

ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(zipName, dirName);

We extract the archive to the directory with ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory.

---

The ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory has an overload which takes the overwriteFiles parameter. It overwrite files destination files if set to true.

using System.IO.Compression;

string dirName = "data2";
string zipName = "archive.zip";

ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(zipName, dirName, true);

In this example, instead of checking and deleting a directory, we use the overwriteFiles parameter.

C# ZipFile read contents

In the next example, we read the contents of a ZIP file.

using System.IO.Compression;

string zipFile = "data.zip";

using var archive = ZipFile.OpenRead(zipFile);

foreach (var entry in archive.Entries)
{
    Console.WriteLine(entry.Name);
}

With ZipFile.Open, we open a zip archive for reading.

foreach (var entry in archive.Entries)
{
    Console.WriteLine(entry.Name);
}

Via the Entries attribute, we retrieve all of the files in a ZIP archive.

Source

ZipFile class - language reference

In this article we have worked with ZIP files in C#.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar and I am a passionate programmer with many years of programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. So far, I have written over 1400 articles and 8 e-books. I have over eight years of experience in teaching programming.

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