_splitpath, _wsplitpath

Break a path into components. For 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 don't need the drive letter.

dir
Directory path, including trailing slash. Forward slashes ( / ), backslashes ( \ ), or both may be used. Pass NULL for this parameter if you don't need the directory path.

fname
Base filename (no extension). Pass NULL for this parameter if you don't need the filename.

ext
Filename extension, including leading period (.). Pass NULL for this parameter if you don't 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 are subject to buffer overrun. 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.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Generic-text routine mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE and _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 doesn't 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 don't 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.

Requirements

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

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

See the example for _makepath.

See also

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