Unrecognized escape sequence when using a path as a SQL parameter - c#

I am trying to store a string or nvarchar(500) in SQL. When I pass a full file path as a string parameter, there is an error unrecognized escape sequence.
Since path is not an usual param that this stored procedure expects, how can I open this possibility so it can accept string such as c:\foldername\subfoldername. Am I suppose to add # at the begging of a string or use a StringBuilder?
Thanks

Since backslash is considered as a special character(escape), it's causing the issue. Use / or \\ in the path as:
c:/foldername/subfoldername
c:\\foldername\\subfoldername
OR as you said, use # in the front as :
#"c:\foldername\subfoldername"
EDIT: For Javascript, I will simply replace the \ to / as below:
path = path.split("\\").join("/");

You can also escape the backslash() by adding the # to the front of the string for example
#"This\Is\Some\Path"

Related

c# problem with a specific CMD Command Line

I'm having a hard time with executing a CMD command line in C#
(when I copy the command to CMD it works).
The command(the quotation marks is part of the command):
"C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Dameware Remote Support\dwrcc.exe" -c: -h: -m:10.10.41.82 -a:1
How I wrote it C#:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\SolarWinds\\Dameware Remote Support\\dwrcc.exe\" -c: -h: -m:10.10.41.82 -a:1");
The Error I get is that the location has not been found.
there is some issue with the brackets or quotation marks I think, but I don't know what.
Try writing it with # instead
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(#"C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Dameware Remote Support\dwrcc.exe", "-c: -h: -m:10.10.41.82 -a:1");
Prefixing the string with # indicates that it should be treated as a literal, i.e. no escaping.
So, you can for example if your string contains a path you would typically do this:
string path = "c:\\path\\to\\file.txt";
Writing it with # allows you to write it clearer without needing the double slashes
string path = #"c:\path\to\file.txt";
You can escape Unicode characters by preceding the hexadecimal value with "\u". The hexadecimal value of a double quote is 0022, so you can include this in your string.
For example:
quote = "\u0022Alive\u0022, she cried!";

Using The # symbol for a Directory so two backslashes aren't needed

this seems very simple but upon research I cannot find out how to use the # sign in a directory to prevent it from having to be to backslashes.
An example is of
DirectoryInfo folderInfo = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\");
But In my Application The directory will be dynamic so I cannot do this:
DirectoryInfo folderInfo = new DirectoryInfo(#Globals.directoryRoute);
So I was wondering what is the correct way to put the # symbol before the string.
Globals.directoryRoute is set as C:\ but the user can change this input so I was hoping instead of having to parse out every double backslash I can use this to make it so only one backslash is needed.
Would this be an effective way of doing it or should I just parse out every second backslash?
The # prefix is a tool to tell the compiler to not take the backslash as an escape character within the following string. If the string is entered at runtime, you don't need to worry about that. So you can just use the content of Globals.directoryRoute as it is.
The double backslashes are only needed for string literals in your code. In memory, only a single backslash is stored in the string, so no # symbol is needed when dealing with strings that are already in memory. Similarly, user input does not need the double backslashes, since it is not interpreted in the same manner as source code. For instance, if you have a text box called txtPath, the user can simply type C:\some\path, not C:\\some\\path as you would normally need to do in source code. When you read the value of that text box in code, you can just use:
string path = txtPath.Text;
This will be the same as if you had the following code:
string path = #"C:\some\path";
or, equivalently:
string path = "C:\\some\\path";

System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path. error

I`m getting an ArgumentException from the following code:
string strPath="C:\somename.xls";
startPath=System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);
filePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(startPath, strPath);
I found this code on Stack Overflow.
Link:
C#:Copy protected worksheet to another excel file
I don't exactly know what it is. Please tell me what it is. This code I'm building into an exe.
Lastly, I need to Copy one worksheet to another file.
What`s wrong am I doing? I deploy this in server.
what that code appears to do, is it gets your working directory(wherever the exe associated with your code is), and combines it with "C:\\somename.xls"(which doesn't make sense.)
I think you might have intended something like
string strPath=#"somename.xls";
so assume you're running your application from
"C:\Users\owner\documents\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug"
what that code would do is set filePath to
"C:\Users\owner\documents\visual studio 2012\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\somename.xls"
the first thing I saw was
string filePath="C:\somename.xls";
\ is a special character, for determining other characters. for instance '\n' is a newline. '\\' is the actual backslash.
so, you want to escape your \ with another \
string filePath="C:\\somename.xls";
or make it a literal string by putting a # in front of it.
string filePath=#"C:\somename.xls";
Your code should be:
string filePath = "C:\\somename.xls"
You need double backslashes.
Two problems with the code,
First
string filePath="C:\somename.xls";
\ is a special character, for determining other characters. for instance '\n' is a newline. '\\' is the actual backslash.
Second
filePath contains a root path, C:\\. Path.Combine will just return filePath then, it cannot be combined.
Your main problem is in startPath parameter.
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName
If you trace your code, in FileName you will see a bad symbol character witch is illegal

Escaping directory chars in C#

I need to escape chars in a string I have, which content is C:\\blablabla\blabla\\bla\\SQL.exe to C:\blablabla\blabla\bla\SQL.exe so I could throw a process based on this SQL.exe file.
I tried with Mystring.Replace("\\", #"\"); and Mystring.Replace(#"\\", #"\"); but none worked.
How could I do this?
EDITED: Corrected type in string.
I very strongly suspect that you are looking this input string in the Visual Studio debugger and fooling yourself that there are actually 2 \ whereas in reality there aren't. That's the reason why attempting to replace \\ with \ doesn't do anything because in the original string there is no occurrence of \\. And since you are looking the output once again in the debugger, you are once again fooling yourself that there are 2 \.
Visual Studio debugger has this tendency to escape strings. Log it to a file or print to the console and you will see that there is a single \ in your input string and you don't need to replace anything.
It looks like you're trying to replace double backslash (#"\\") in a string with single backslash (#"\"). If so try the following
Mystring = Mystring.Replace(#"\\", #"\");
Note: Are you sure that the string even contains double backslashes? Certain environments will print out a single backslash as a double (debugger for example). Your comment mentioned my approach didn't work. That's a flag that there's not actually a double backslash in your string (else it would work).
The # character specifies a string as a verbatim literal string, but that is when constructing a string. If you use Mystring.Replace("\\", #"\") then nothing will be replaced, essentially, as the two strings are the same.
If you want a string without the escape characters, then either define it with:
string path = #"C:\Some\Directory\And\File.txt";
Or you can replace the \\ with / like so:
path = path.Replace('\\', '/');
It is worth noting, as mentioned by Darin Dimitrov, that the string containing two \ characters is likely just the display of the string (i.e. when using the debugger) and not the actual value of the string.
i think OP is asking how to escape \\ in File Path, if that in the case, as OP is not mentioning where he's trying to use this. so i'm putting a guess.
Then You use Path.Combine() method to get the FileName path.
Path.Combine() Documentation
where are you looking at this output? because it could be the string is what you expect, but viewing the value through the debugger, output window, etc. is escaping the slash
Use something like:
myStr = myStr.Replace(#"\\", #"\");
Make sure you assign the result of Replace method to myStr. Otherwise it goes into void ;)
Try adding "|DataDirectory|\MyFile.xyz" where you need it. It works with connection strings it might work with something else (I haven't really tried to apply it to something else).
I didn't understand what you want, if you just want do get the file name (escape directory chars) you can try:
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(YourString)
Noloman.... when you concatenate are you perhaps missing a "\" when concatenating the directory.. I am assuming that you are trying to join directory + some sub directory.. #noloman keep in mind that in C# "c:\Temp" is written like this "c:\Temp" or #"c:\Temp" one is Literal the other is how to represent a "\" in the legacy way of coding because the "\" is an escape Char and when dealing with directorys we represent all paths and sub paths with "\"
so perhaps by you replacing the "\" you are truly messing up your own expected process
Mystring = Mystring.Replace(#"\\", #"\");
should work for you unless you are truly meaning to do
Mystring = Mystring.Replace(#"\", "\"); which if you believe that you are expecting a "\" to be used to build the directory.. then of course it will not work.. because you have just in essense replaced the backslash with a return char.. I hope that this makes sense to you..
System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(); you are using is also an Issue.. SQL Server is not that application thats running the code.. it's your .NET application so you need to either put the location of the SQL Server into a variable, app.config, web.config ect... please edit your question and paste the code that you are using to do what it is that you want to do inregards to the SQL Server Code.. you would probably want to look at the Are you wanting to do something like Process.Start(....) meaning the file name..?

How to return a verbatim string from ConfigurationManager.AppSetting["settingname"].ToString()

I am using the ConfigurationManager.AppSetting["blah"].ToString() method to get the path to the folder that contains the files I'm needing. But I'm throwing an UnsupportedFormatException on the path when it tries to use Directory.GetFiles(path).
The returning value has the escape characters included and I'm not sure how to keep it from returning the extra characters. This is what the path looks like after it is returned:
\\\\\\\\C:\\\\folder1\\\\folder2
I needed to remove the first four "\" to give it a correct path.
you have extra back-slash \ at the beginning of your path.
try putting "C:\folder1\folder2" instead of "\\C:\folder1\folder2" in your config file, and it will work.

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