Question

In the .NET API for Windows Store Apps the Path class does not have the GetFullPath method. I need to normalize a path though, which was easy using GetFullPath. Does anyone know another method or external code that normalizes a path? What I mean with that is for example:

• add the application’s path if the path does not start with a drive
• handle ..\ and .\ correctly

GetFullPath is pretty complex and mimicking the functionality is not easy.

Answer 1

I did not find any replacement for GetFullPath, but developed a method that handles parent directory tokens (..\) like GetFullPath.

Here it is:

public static string NormalizePath(string path)
{
   if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(path) == false)
   {
      // Correct multiple backslashes
      path = Regex.Replace(path, @"\\+", @"\");

      // Correct parent directory tokens with too many points in it
      path = Regex.Replace(path, @"\\\.\.+", @"\..");

      // Split the path into tokens
      List<string> resultingPathTokens = new List<string>();
      var pathTokens = path.Split('\\');

      // Iterate through the tokens to process parent directory tokens
      foreach (var pathToken in pathTokens)
      {
         if (pathToken == "..")
         {
            if (resultingPathTokens.Count > 1)
            {
               resultingPathTokens.RemoveAt(resultingPathTokens.Count - 1);
            }
         }
         else
         {
            resultingPathTokens.Add(pathToken);
         }
      }

      // Get the resulting path
      string resultingPath = String.Join("\\", resultingPathTokens);

      // Check if the path contains only two chars with a colon as the second
      if (resultingPath.Length == 2 && resultingPath[1] == ':')
      {
         // Add a backslash in this case
         resultingPath += "\\";
      }

      return resultingPath;
   }
   return path;
}