Question

I have a path in short version or in DOS format (“C:/DOCUME~1” e.g) and want to get the full path/long path of it (“C:/Documents And Settings” e.g).

I tried GetLongPathName api. It WORKED. But when deal with unicode filename it turns out failure.

Private Declare Function GetLongPathName Lib "kernel32" Alias _
    "GetLongPathNameA" (ByVal lpszShortPath As String, _
    ByVal lpszLongPath As String, ByVal cchBuffer As Long) As Long

I tried to alias GetLongPathNameW instead but it seems do nothing, for BOTH Unicode and non-Unicode filename, always return 0. In MSDN there’s only article about GetLongPathNameW for C/C++, not any for VB/VBA. May I do something wrong?

Is there any solution for this case? I spend hours on Google and StackOverflow but can’t find out.

Regards,

Answer 1

Does this work for you? I’ve converted the file path to short path name then converted it back again which gives the correct string even when unicode (eg C:/Tö+)

Private Declare Function GetShortPathName Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetShortPathNameA" _
    (ByVal lpszLongPath As String, ByVal lpszShortPath As String, ByVal lBuffer As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetLongPathName Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetLongPathNameA" _
    (ByVal lpszShortPath As String, ByVal lpszLongPath As String, ByVal cchBuffer As Long) As Long

Public Function GetShortPath(ByVal strFileName As String) As String
    'KPD-Team 1999
    'URL: [url]http://www.allapi.net/[/url]
    'E-Mail: [email][e-mail][/email]
    Dim lngRes As Long, strPath As String
    'Create a buffer
    strPath = String$(165, 0)
    'retrieve the short pathname
    lngRes = GetShortPathName(strFileName, strPath, 164)
    'remove all unnecessary chr$(0)'s
    GetShortPath = Left$(strPath, lngRes)
End Function

Public Function GetLongPath(ByVal strFileName As String) As String
    Dim lngRes As Long, strPath As String
    'Create a buffer
    strPath = String$(165, 0)
    'retrieve the long pathname
    lngRes = GetLongPathName(strFileName, strPath, 164)
    'remove all unnecessary chr$(0)'s
    GetLongPath = Left$(strPath, lngRes)
End Function

Private Sub Test()
    shortpath = GetShortPath("C:/Documents And Settings")

    Longpath = GetLongPath(shortpath)
End Sub