_makepath, _wmakepath

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

Syntax

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.

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's missing. If drive is NULL or points to an empty string, no drive letter appears 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 no trailing slash (/ or \) is specified, it's inserted automatically. If dir is NULL or points to an empty string, no directory path 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 filename 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 doesn't appear in ext. If ext is NULL or points to an empty string, no extension is inserted in the composite path string.

Remarks

The _makepath function creates a composite path string from individual components, storing the result in path. The path might include a drive letter, directory path, filename, and filename 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. To avoid buffer overrun, the null-terminated string must not exceed the size of the path buffer. _makepath doesn't ensure that the length of the composite path string doesn't exceed _MAX_PATH. For more information, see Avoiding buffer overruns.

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
_tmakepath	_makepath	_makepath	_wmakepath

The path argument must point to an empty buffer large enough to hold the complete path. The composite path must be no larger than the _MAX_PATH constant, defined in Stdlib.h.

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 all other parameters.

Requirements

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

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// crt_makepath.c
#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

See also

File handling
_fullpath, _wfullpath
_splitpath, _wsplitpath
_makepath_s, _wmakepath_s