splitpath-wsplitpath.md

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_splitpath, _wsplitpath | Microsoft Docs		11/04/2016			cpp-standard-libraries		reference	_wsplitpath _splitpath	msvcrt.dll msvcr80.dll msvcr90.dll msvcr100.dll msvcr100_clr0400.dll msvcr110.dll msvcr110_clr0400.dll msvcr120.dll msvcr120_clr0400.dll ucrtbase.dll api-ms-win-crt-filesystem-l1-1-0.dll	DLLExport	wsplitpath _splitpath splitpath _wsplitpath _tsplitpath	C++	_splitpath function pathnames wsplitpath function splitpath function _wsplitpath function tsplitpath function path names _tsplitpath function	32bd76b5-1385-4ee8-a64c-abcb541cd2e4	18	corob-msft	corob	ghogen	cplusplus

_splitpath, _wsplitpath

Break a path name into components. More secure versions of these functions are available, see _splitpath_s, _wsplitpath_s.

Syntax

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   
);  

Parameters

path
Full path.

drive
Drive letter, followed by a colon (:). You can pass NULL for this parameter if you do not need the drive letter.

dir
Directory path, including trailing slash. Forward slashes ( / ), backslashes ( \ ), or both may be used. You can pass NULL for this parameter if you do not need the directory path.

fname
Base filename (no extension). You can pass NULL for this parameter if you do not need the filename.

ext
Filename extension, including leading period (.). You can pass NULL for this parameter if you do not need the filename extension.

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.

Security Note These functions incur a potential threat brought about by a buffer overrun problem. Buffer overrun problems are a frequent method of system attack, resulting in an unwarranted elevation of privilege. For more information, see Avoiding Buffer Overruns. More secure versions of these functions are available; see _splitpath_s, _wsplitpath_s.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tsplitpath	_splitpath	_splitpath	_wsplitpath

Each component of the full path is stored in a separate buffer; the manifest constants _MAX_DRIVE, _MAX_DIR, _MAX_FNAME, and _MAX_EXT (defined in STDLIB.H) specify the maximum size for each file component. File components that are larger than the corresponding manifest constants cause heap corruption.

Each buffer must be as large as its corresponding manifest constant to avoid potential buffer overrun.

The following table lists the values of the manifest constants.

Name	Value
_MAX_DRIVE	3
_MAX_DIR	256
_MAX_FNAME	256
_MAX_EXT	256

If the full path does not contain a component (for example, a filename), _splitpath assigns empty strings to the corresponding buffers.

You can pass NULL to _splitpath for any parameter other than path that you do not need.

If path is NULL, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, errno is set to EINVAL and the function returns EINVAL.

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_splitpath	<stdlib.h>
_wsplitpath	<stdlib.h> or <wchar.h>

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

See the example for _makepath.

See Also

File Handling
_fullpath, _wfullpath
_getmbcp
_makepath, _wmakepath
_setmbcp
_splitpath_s, _wsplitpath_s