Server.MapPath Method

  • Article

The MapPath method maps the specified relative or virtual path to the corresponding physical directory on the server.

MapPath(
      Path
)

Parameters

  • Path
    Specifies the relative or virtual path to map to a physical directory. If Path starts with either a forward (/) or backward slash (\), the MapPath method returns a path as if Path were a full, virtual path. If Path doesn't start with a slash, the MapPath method returns a path relative to the directory of the .asp file being processed.

Return Values

This method has no return values.

Applies To

Server Object

Remarks

The MapPath method returns the ASP 0173 error, "Invalid Path Character", if the Path parameter contains any of the following characters:

  • Asterisk (*)

  • Question mark (?)

  • Angle brackets (< or >)

  • Comma (,)

  • Colon or semi-colon (: or ;)

  • Single-quote or double-quote (' or ")

  • Right square bracket (])

  • Double slashes (// or \\)

This method does not check whether the path it returns is valid or exists on the server. MapPath is not available to the Session_OnEnd and the Application_OnEnd events.

Because the MapPath method maps a path regardless of whether the specified directories currently exist, you can use the MapPath method to map a path to a physical directory structure, and then pass that path to a component that creates the specified directory or file on the server.

Caution

For security reasons, the AspEnableParentPaths property has a default value set to FALSE. Scripts will not have access to the physical directory structure unless AspEnableParentPaths is set to TRUE.

Example Code

The following example uses the server variable PATH_INFO to map the physical path of the current file.

<%= Server.MapPath(Request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO"))%><BR>

Because the path parameters in the following examples do not start with a slash character, they are mapped relative to the directory that contains the example file.

<%= Server.MapPath("data.txt")%>
<%= Server.MapPath("script/data.txt")%>

Requirements

Client: Requires Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

Server: Requires Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows NT Server 4.0.

Product: IIS

See Also