Break a path name into components.
void _splitpath( const char *path, char *drive, char *dir, char *fname, char *ext );
void _wsplitpath( const wchar_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