Question

This seems like such an obscure question, but here it goes:

Is there a way to concatenate String Literals with a DirectoryInfo enumeration (which contains a file path) while adding quotations around the file path? Further, how can I prevent backslashes from being doubled when converting a DirectoryInfo enumeration to a string? My situation is as follows:

DirectoryInfo filePathDirectory = new DirectoryInfo(filePath);
Process a = new Process();

a.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\Windows\\system32\\lpr.exe";
a.StartInfo.Arguments = "-SServername.Domain.net -Plp " + "\"" + filePathDirectory + "\"";
a.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
a.Start();
a.WaitForExit();

filePathDirectory starts with a value of:

{\\ServerName\Share\Folder\Folder\FileName.xls}

Which I think is converted into a string once concatenated into a.StartInfo.Arguments which is assigned the value of:

-SServername.Domain.net -Plp \"\\\\ServerName\\Share\\Folder\\Folder\\FileName.xls\"

This is bad because, the number of backslashes in the path doubled. How can I ensure no backslashes are added to the path?

On top of that, to add a quotation marks, I’ve used the backslash escape sequence; But the backslash from this escape sequence is inadvertently added to my string. How can I add quotation marks around the file path which is contained in a.StartInfo.Arguments?

P.S. I hope this makes sense, please ask questions if you need clarification.

Answer 1

The backslashes are not doubled and the backslash of the quotes also “isn’t there”. You can verify it by Console.WriteLine(a.StartInfo.Arguments) or MessageBox.Show(a.StartInfo.Arguments).

What you are seeing – in the debugger I assume – is the representation of the string with the escape characters not translated – just as you would need to enter it in the IDE.

Example:

string s = "\"";

This will show in the debugger as "\"" but it will display on screen as ":