Question

I have a useful macro here:

#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
#include <Windows.h>

namespace Path {

bool Exists(const std::wstring& path)
{
    DWORD result = GetFileAttributesW(path.c_str());
    return result != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES;
}

// THIS IS THE MACRO IN QUESTION!
#define PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, prefix, environment) \
if (boost::algorithm::istarts_with(path, prefix)) { \
    ExpandEnvironmentStringsW(environment, buffer, MAX_PATH); \
    path.replace(0, (sizeof(prefix)/sizeof(wchar_t)) - 1, buffer); \
    if (Exists(path)) return path; \
}

std::wstring Resolve(std::wstring path)
{
    using namespace boost::algorithm;
    wchar_t buffer[MAX_PATH];
    trim(path);
    if (path.empty() || Exists(path)) return path;

    //Start by trying to see if we have a quoted path
    if (path[0] == L'"') {
        return std::wstring(path.begin() + 1, std::find(path.begin() + 1, path.end(), L'"'));
    }

    //Check for those nasty cases where the beginning of the path has no root
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"\\", L"");
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"?\?\\", L"");
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"\\?\\", L"");
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"globalroot\\", L"");
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"system32\\", L"%systemroot%\\System32\\");
    PATH_PREFIX_RESOLVE(path, L"systemroot\\", L"%systemroot%\\");

    static std::vector<std::wstring> pathExts;
    if (pathExts.empty()) {
        #define MAX_ENVVAR 32767
        wchar_t pathext[MAX_ENVVAR];
        DWORD length = GetEnvironmentVariableW(L"PATHEXT", pathext, MAX_ENVVAR);
        if (!length) WindowsApiException::ThrowFromLastError();
        split(pathExts, pathext, std::bind2nd(std::equal_to<wchar_t>(), L';'));
        pathExts.insert(pathExts.begin(), std::wstring());
    }
    std::wstring::iterator currentSpace = path.begin();
    do {
        currentSpace = std::find(currentSpace, path.end(), L' ');
        std::wstring currentPath(path.begin(), currentSpace);
        std::wstring::size_type currentPathLength = currentPath.size();
        typedef std::vector<std::wstring>::const_iterator ExtIteratorType;
        for(ExtIteratorType it = pathExts.begin(); it != pathExts.end(); it++) {
            currentPath.replace(currentPathLength, currentPath.size() - currentPathLength, *it);
            if (Exists(currentPath)) return currentPath;
        }
        if (currentSpace != path.end())
            currentSpace++;
    } while (currentSpace != path.end());

    return path;
}

}

It’s used about 6 times within the scope of a single function (that’s it), but macros seem to have “bad karma” 😛

Anyway, the problem here is the sizeof(prefix) part of the macro. If I just replace this with a function taking a const wchar_t[], then the sizeof() will fail to deliver expected results.

Simply adding a size member doesn’t really solve the problem either. Making the user supply the size of the constant literal also results in a mess of duplicated constants at the call site.

Any ideas on this one?

Answer 1

Pass the array by reference, using a template to infer the length. I’ll go looking for an example, but basically:

template<size_t N>
bool func(const char (&a)[N], blah, blah) { ... }

EDIT: Someone explained it here:
http://heifner.blogspot.com/2008/04/c-array-size-determination.html