Get full path with Unicode file name

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\"

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]KPDTeam@Allapi.net[/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

Answer 2

To use W-functions from vb6/vba, you declare all string parameters as long:

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

and pass StrPtr(a_string) instead of just a_string.

So if you had:

dim s_path as string
dim l_path as string

s_path = "C:\DOCUME~1"
l_path = string$(1024, vbnullchar)

GetLongPathNameA s_path, l_path, len(l_path)

it would become

dim s_path as string
dim l_path as string

s_path = "C:\DOCUME~1"
l_path = string$(1024, vbnullchar)

GetLongPathNameW strptr(s_path), strptr(l_path), len(l_path)