C# illegal characters in the path - c#

I am getting illegal characters in the path by using the below codes:
string fileNameExisting = Application.StartupPath + "\\CodesLocation\\Template.pdf";
PdfReader templateFile = new PdfReader(fileNameExisting);
I tested a few variations:
string fileNameExisting = #Application.StartupPath + "\CodesLocation\Template.pdf";
PdfReader templateFile = new PdfReader(fileNameExisting);
But it is still getting the same illegal error.
Can anyone help me see if my code if wrong?
Thanks.

I suggest using the appropriate way to join paths in .net:
Path.Combine
So
Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "CodesLocation","Template.pdf");

An at in front of a string literal turns off \ escaping (in front of a variable it explicitly marks a variable as not a keyword):
Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, #"CodesLocation\Template.pdf");
And Path.Combine is the state of the art way to concatenate paths (platform independent, takes care of additional slashed).

You should best use
Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "CodesLocation\\Template.pdf").
Other than that check if Application.StartupPath ends with \.

Related

unable to remove backslash delimiter from svg file [duplicate]

I have string in which some xml resides.
The string is:
string xmlRead = "<ns0:RequestedAmount xmlns:ns0=\"http://tempuri.org/XMLSchema.xsd\"> <ns0:RequestedAmount></ns0:RequestedAmount> </ns0:RequestedAmount>" +
"<ns0:Response xmlns:ns0=\"http://tempuri.org/XMLSchema.xsd\"> <ns0:Response/> </ns0:Response>" +
"<ns0:isValid xmlns:ns0=\"http://tempuri.org/XMLSchema.xsd\"> <ns0:isValid/> </ns0:isValid>";
I have tried this:
string s=xmlRead.Replace(#"\","");
string s=xmlRead.Replace("\"","");
string s=xmlRead.Replace(#"\",string.Empty);
Nothing is working kindly help me out what I am doing wrong here.
Those backslashes won't actually appear in the final string. They are just escape sequences for the quotes "".
MSDN Escape Sequences
My guess is that you're viewing the string in the debugger which will still show them as unescaped.
Use following code this will help you.
string x=#"ABCD\EFG";
string y=x.Replace(#"\","");

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..?

Open folder which contains comma in its path

I need to open folder through windows explorer using C#.
It is working fine untill there is comma in folder path. Here is an example:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "C:\\folder\\another-folder\\123,456");
The error is: The path '456' does not exist or it is not a directory.
Any solution please :)
Try adding double quotes around your path:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "\"C:\\folder\\another-folder\\123,456\"");
Side-note: you might find it easier to write paths using a verbatim string literal, to avoid having to escape the slashes:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", #"""C:\folder\another-folder\123,456""");
Try to surround the path with double-quotes:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "\"C:\\folder\\another-folder\\123,456\"");
Try escaping the file name:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "\"C:\\folder\\another-folder\\123,456\"");
Use the # operator before the path string ...and then simply write down the path without any escape characters like backslashes etc. It makes the string verbatim.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(#"C:\myapp.exe"); // should work

Creating a file path in C#

So I'm trying to create a path in C#. I use Environment.Machinename and store it a variable serverName. Then I create another string variable and have some other path extension in there. Here is my code so far:
string serverName = Environment.MachineName;
string folderName = "\\AlarmLogger";
No matter what I do I can't seem to obtain only one backslash prior to AlarmLogger. Any ideas how I can specify a path in C#?
Edit: I'm wondering if my code doesn't seem to want to paste correctly. Anyways when i paste it I only see one backslash but my code has two. Because of the escape character sequence. But something like
string test = #"\\" + serverName + folderName
doesn't seem to want to work for me.
Use Path.Combine(serverName, folderName). Path.Combine is always a better solution than concating it on your own.
You cannot use Path.Combine for this as suggested. The reason is that it ignores static variables if the first entry is static, e.g. Environment.MachineName (see MSDN docs for details). If you use Path.Combine(servername, foldername) you will get "\AlarmLogger". Plus, it parses double slashs to single slashes.
That being said, you can do something like the following (among other ways):
string serverName = Environment.MachineName;
string folderName = "\\\\AlarmLogger"; //this gives alarmlogger two leading slashes
string test = #"\\" + serverName + folderName.Substring(1,folderName.Length-1); //this removes one of the two leading slashes
You could use a slew of ways to remove the leading slash besides substring.
It's not clear what you are trying to do or what is going wrong.
If you are having trouble including backslashes in your strings, they need to be escaped with an extra backslash:
string twoBackslashes = "\\\\";
Or you can do it like this:
string twoBackslashes = #"\\";
If you are trying to manipulate paths, look at the System.IO.Path class. In particular, Path.Combine can be useful.

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