_splitpath, _wsplitpath

Break a path name into components.

void_splitpath(constchar*path,char*drive,char*dir,char*fname,char*ext);

void_wsplitpath(constwchar_t*path,wchar_t*drive,wchar_t*dir,wchar_t*fname,wchar_t*ext);

Routine Required Header Compatibility
_splitpath <stdlib.h> Win 95, Win NT
_wsplitpath <stdlib.h> or <wchar.h> Win 95, Win NT

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Libraries

LIBC.LIB Single thread static library, retail version
LIBCMT.LIB Multithread static library, retail version
MSVCRT.LIB Import library for MSVCRT.DLL, retail version

Return Value

None

Parameters

path

Full path

drive

Optional drive letter, followed by a colon (:)

dir

Optional directory path, including trailing slash. Forward slashes ( / ), backslashes ( \ ), or both may be used.

fname

Base filename (no extension)

ext

Optional filename extension, including leading period (.)

Remarks

The _splitpath function breaks a path into its four components. _splitpath automatically handles multibyte-character string arguments as appropriate, recognizing multibyte-character sequences according to the multibyte code page currently in use. _wsplitpath is a wide-character version of _splitpath; the arguments to _wsplitpath are wide-character strings. These functions behave identically otherwise.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H Routine _UNICODE & _MBCS Not Defined _MBCS Defined _UNICODE Defined
_tsplitpath _splitpath _splitpath _wsplitpath

Each argument is stored in a buffer; the manifest constants _MAX_DRIVE, _MAX_DIR, _MAX_FNAME, and _MAX_EXT (defined in STDLIB.H) specify the maximum size necessary for each buffer. The other arguments point to buffers used to store the path elements. After a call to _splitpath is executed, these arguments contain empty strings for components not found in path. You can pass a NULL pointer to _splitpath for any component you don’t need.

Example

/* MAKEPATH.C */

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void main( void )
{
   char path_buffer[_MAX_PATH];
   char drive[_MAX_DRIVE];
   char dir[_MAX_DIR];
   char fname[_MAX_FNAME];
   char ext[_MAX_EXT];

   _makepath( path_buffer, "c", "\\sample\\crt\\", "makepath", "c" );
   printf( "Path created with _makepath: %s\n\n", path_buffer );
   _splitpath( path_buffer, drive, dir, fname, ext );
   printf( "Path extracted with _splitpath:\n" );
   printf( "  Drive: %s\n", drive );
   printf( "  Dir: %s\n", dir );
   printf( "  Filename: %s\n", fname );
   printf( "  Ext: %s\n", ext );
}

Output

Path created with _makepath: c:\sample\crt\makepath.c

Path extracted with _splitpath:
  Drive: c:
  Dir: \sample\crt\
  Filename: makepath
  Ext: .c

File Handling Routines

See Also   _fullpath, _getmbcp, _makepath, _setmbcp