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| Prerequisites | 
| Version 4.71 and later of Shlwapi.dll. | 
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|  Windows
         Shlwapi.dll exposes a  great number of path-oriented functions designed for use by the Windows shell. For more information on the shell
         APIs please see PathFileExists: A Local/Network File/Folder/Drive Exists Routine. This page shows how to call the PathStripToRoot API. The target path does not have to exist for this function. The call removes all parts of the path except for the root information, and returns True if a valid drive was found. In order to show a complete demo using a combination of path and file strings representing typical application needs, each demo uses the same 26 strings as its test bed. This provides the opportunity to see exactly how each category of path information is handled by a specific call, as well as provide a single test bed upon which you can reuse the form while building a BAS module that contains just the functions you need. As the illustration shows, this call is only effective when passed specific types of path strings. For this API, those paths that contained a server, share or IP address are ignored. To create the environment to test these routines, I created a folder on C:\ called 'coolfocus', which contained a subfolder named javatools. In the javatools folder I placed a file named 'somefile.txt'. I also placed a copy of the somefile.txt in the c:\ root folder. I shared the coolfocus folder, and mapped a drive to it (drive m). The form code below creates and labels the controls appropriate for this demo by just placing a single text box and label on the form, and setting the index of each to 0 in order to create a control array. | 
| BAS Module Code | 
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| Place the following code into the general declarations area of a bas module: | 
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| Option Explicit '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ' Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet/Randy Birch, All Rights Reserved. ' Some pages may also contain other copyrights by the author. '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ' Distribution: You can freely use this code in your own ' applications, but you may not reproduce ' or publish this code on any web site, ' online service, or distribute as source ' on any media without express permission. '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Private Declare Function PathStripToRoot Lib "shlwapi" _
   Alias "PathStripToRootA" _
  (ByVal pPath As String) As Long
       
 
Public Function StripPathToRoot(ByVal sPath As String) As String
  'Removes all parts of the path
  'except for the root information.
   Call PathStripToRoot(sPath)
   StripPathToRoot = TrimNull(sPath)
      
End Function
Private Function TrimNull(item As String)
   Dim pos As Integer
   
   pos = InStr(item, Chr$(0))
   
   If pos Then
      TrimNull = Left$(item, pos - 1)
   Else
      TrimNull = item
   End If
   
End Function | 
| Form Code | 
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| Add one label (Label1), one text box (Text1) to a form. Set the index property of each to 0 to create control arrays; the demo load event code will create and label the needed controls. Add a command button (Command1), along with the following code: | 
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| Option Explicit
Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim cnt As Long
   
   For cnt = 0 To 25
   
      If cnt > 0 Then
         Load Label1(cnt)
         Load Text1(cnt)
      End If
      
      With Label1(cnt)
         .Left = 120
         .Top = 200 + (300 * cnt)
         .Visible = True
      End With
      
      With Text1(cnt)
         .Left = 3200
         .Top = 160 + (300 * cnt)
         .Width = 2300
         .Visible = True
      End With
            
   Next
   
   With Command1
      .Left = 120
      .Top = Text1(25).Top + (Text1(18).Height * 1.5)
      .Width = 1935
      .Caption = "StripPathToRoot"
   End With
   
  'display the strings that will be used in the call
  
  'file only
   Label1(0).Caption = "somefile.txt"
  
  'absolute paths
   Label1(1).Caption = "c:\"
   Label1(2).Caption = "c:\somefile.txt"
   Label1(3).Caption = "c:\javatools\"
   Label1(4).Caption = "c:\javatools\somefile.txt"
   
  'relative paths
   Label1(5).Caption = "..\..\"
   Label1(6).Caption = "..\..\somefile.txt"
   Label1(7).Caption = "..\..\javatools\"
   Label1(8).Caption = "..\..\javatools\somefile.txt"
   
  'mapped drive
   Label1(9).Caption = "m:\"
   Label1(10).Caption = "m:\somefile.txt"
   Label1(11).Caption = "m:\coolfocus\"
   Label1(12).Caption = "m:\coolfocus\somefile.txt"
   
  'UNC
   Label1(13).Caption = "\\workstation"
   Label1(14).Caption = "\\workstation\somefile.txt"
   Label1(15).Caption = "\\workstation\javatools"
   Label1(16).Caption = "\\workstation\javatools\somefile.txt"
   
  'IP address
   Label1(17).Caption = "\\192.168.1.100"
   Label1(18).Caption = "\\192.168.1.100\somefile.txt"
   Label1(19).Caption = "\\192.168.1.100\d$"
   Label1(20).Caption = "\\192.168.1.100\d$\javatools\"
   Label1(21).Caption = "\\192.168.1.100\d$\javatools\somefile.txt"
   
  'URL
   Label1(22).Caption = "ms.htm"
   Label1(23).Caption = "www.microsoft.com"
   Label1(24).Caption = "http://www.microsoft.com"
   Label1(25).Caption = "http://www.microsoft.com/ms.htm"
   
End Sub
Private Sub Command1_Click()
  'Parses a path to determine if it
  'is a directory root. The path does
  'not have to exist.
   
  'as filename alone
   Text1(0).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(0).Caption)
  
  'via absolute path
   Text1(1).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(1).Caption)
   Text1(2).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(2).Caption)
   Text1(3).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(3).Caption)
   Text1(4).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(4).Caption)
  
  'via relative path
   Text1(5).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(5).Caption)
   Text1(6).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(6).Caption)
   Text1(7).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(7).Caption)
   Text1(8).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(8).Caption)
      
  'via mapped drive
   Text1(9).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(9).Caption)
   Text1(10).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(10).Caption)
   Text1(11).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(11).Caption)
   Text1(12).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(12).Caption)
  
  'via UNC
   Text1(13).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(13).Caption)
   Text1(14).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(14).Caption)
   Text1(15).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(15).Caption)
   Text1(16).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(16).Caption)
   
  'via IP address
   Text1(17).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(17).Caption)
   Text1(18).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(18).Caption)
   Text1(19).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(19).Caption)
   Text1(20).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(20).Caption)
   Text1(21).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(21).Caption)
   
  'via URL
   Text1(22).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(22).Caption)
   Text1(23).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(23).Caption)
   Text1(24).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(24).Caption)
   Text1(25).Text = StripPathToRoot(Label1(25).Caption)
End Sub | 
| Comments | 
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            	Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet and Randy Birch. All Rights Reserved. | 
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