PathMatchSpecExA function (shlwapi.h)

Article
02/22/2024

Matches a file name from a path against one or more file name patterns.

Syntax

LWSTDAPI PathMatchSpecExA(
  [in] LPCSTR pszFile,
  [in] LPCSTR pszSpec,
  [in] DWORD  dwFlags
);

Parameters

[in] pszFile

Type: LPCTSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated string that contains the path from which the file name to be matched is taken.

[in] pszSpec

Type: LPCTSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated string that contains the file name pattern for which to search. This can be the exact name, or it can contain wildcard characters. If exactly one pattern is specified, set the PMSF_NORMAL flag in dwFlags. If more than one pattern is specified, separate them with semicolons and set the PMSF_MULTIPLE flag.

[in] dwFlags

Type: DWORD

Modifies the search condition. The following are valid flags.

PMSF_NORMAL (0x00000000)

The pszSpec parameter points to a single file name pattern to be matched.

PMSF_MULTIPLE (0x00000001)

The pszSpec parameter points to a semicolon-delimited list of file name patterns to be matched.

PMSF_DONT_STRIP_SPACES (0x00010000)

If PMSF_NORMAL is used, don't ignore leading spaces in the string pointed to by pszSpec. If PMSF_MULTIPLE is used, don't ignore leading spaces in each file type contained in the string pointed to by pszSpec. This flag can be combined with PMSF_NORMAL and PMSF_MULTIPLE.

Return value

Type: HRESULT

Returns one of the following values.

Return code	Description
S_OK	A file name pattern specified in pszSpec matched the file name found in the string pointed to by pszFile.
S_FALSE	No file name pattern specified in pszSpec matched the file name found in the string pointed to by pszFile.

Remarks

Note

The shlwapi.h header defines PathMatchSpecEx as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows Vista [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	shlwapi.h
Library	Shlwapi.lib
DLL	Shlwapi.dll (version 7.0 or later)

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