_makepath, _wmakepath

Create a path name from components. more secure versions of these functions are available; see _makepath_s, _wmakepath_s.

void _makepath(
   char *path,
   const char *drive,
   const char *dir,
   const char *fname,
   const char *ext 
);
void _wmakepath(
   wchar_t *path,
   const wchar_t *drive,
   const wchar_t *dir,
   const wchar_t *fname,
   const wchar_t *ext 
);

Parameters

• path
  Full path buffer. _makepath does not check that path does not exceed _MAX_PATH.

• drive
  Drive letter.

• dir
  Directory path.

• fname
  File name.

• ext
  File name extension.

Remarks

The _makepath function creates a single path and stores it in path. The path might include a drive letter, directory path, file name, and file name extension. _wmakepath is a wide-character version of _makepath; the arguments to _wmakepath are wide-character strings. _wmakepath and _makepath behave identically otherwise.

Security Note:
Use a null-terminated string. The null-terminated string must not exceed the size of the destination buffer. For more information, see Avoiding Buffer Overruns.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

Tchar.h routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tmakepath	_makepath	_makepath	_wmakepath

The following arguments point to buffers containing the path elements.

• drive
  Contains a letter (A, B, and so on) corresponding to the desired drive and an optional trailing colon. _makepath inserts the colon automatically in the composite path if it is missing. If drive is a null character or an empty string, no drive letter and colon appear in the composite path string.

• dir
  Contains the path of directories, not including the drive designator or the actual file name. The trailing slash is optional, and either a forward slash (/) or a backslash (\) or both might be used in a single dir argument. If a trailing slash (/ or \) is not specified, it is inserted automatically. If dir is a null character or an empty string, no slash is inserted in the composite path string.

• fname
  Contains the base file name without any file name extensions. If fname is NULL or points to an empty string, no file name is inserted in the composite path string.

• ext
  Contains the actual file name extension, with or without a leading period (.). _makepath inserts the period automatically if it does not appear in ext. If ext is a null character or an empty string, no period is inserted in the composite path string.

The path argument must point to an empty buffer large enough to hold the complete path. Although there are no size limits on any of the fields that constitute path, the composite path must be no larger than the _MAX_PATH constant, defined in Stdlib.h. _MAX_PATH might be larger than the current operating-system version can handle.

In Visual C++ 2005, these functions validate the path parameters. If path is NULL, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter Validation. In addition, errno is set to EINVAL. NULL values are allowed for the other parameters.

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_makepath	<stdlib.h>
_wmakepath	<stdlib.h> or <wchar.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

// crt_makepath.c
// compile with: /W3
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int 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" ); // C4996
   // Note: _makepath is deprecated; consider using _makepath_s instead
   printf( "Path created with _makepath: %s\n\n", path_buffer );
   _splitpath( path_buffer, drive, dir, fname, ext ); // C4996
   // Note: _splitpath is deprecated; consider using _splitpath_s instead
   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 );
}

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

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

.NET Framework Equivalent

System::IO::File::Create

See Also

Concepts

File Handling

_fullpath, _wfullpath

_splitpath, _wsplitpath