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I want to extract a const char* filename from a const char* filepath. I tried with regex but failed:
const char* currentLoadedFile = "D:\files\file.lua";
char fileName[256];
if (sscanf(currentLoadedFile, "%*[^\\]\\%[^.].lua", fileName)) {
return (const char*)fileName; // WILL RETURN "D:\files\file!!
The issue is that "D:\files\file" will be returned and not the wanted "file"(note: without ".lua")
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size_t pos = path.find_last_of("\\");
if(pos != std::string::npos)
filename.assign(path.begin() + pos + 1, path.end());
filename = path;
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std::string filename_noext;
filename_noext = boost::filesystem::path("D:\\files\\file.lua").stem().string().
const char* result_as_const_char = filename_noext.c_str();
or alternatively, if you want to introduce bugs yourself :
// have fun defining that to the separator of the target OS.
#define PLATFORM_DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR '\\'
// the following code is guaranteed to have bugs.
std::string input = "D:\\files\\file.lua";
std::string::size_type filename_begin = input.find_last_of(PLATFORM_DIRECTORY_SEPERATOR);
if (filename_begin == std::string::npos)
filename_begin = 0;
filename_begin++;
std::string::size_type filename_length = input.find_last_of('.');
if (filename_length != std::string::npos)
filename_length = filename_length - filename_begin;
std::string result = input.substr(filename_begin, filename_length);
const char* bugy_result_as_const_char = result.c_str();
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You can do this portably and easily using the new filesystem library in C++17.
#include <cstdint>
#include <cstdio>
#include <filesystem>
int main()
std::filesystem::path my_path("D:/files/file.lua");
std::printf("filename: %s\n", my_path.filename().u8string().c_str());
std::printf("stem: %s\n", my_path.stem().u8string().c_str());
std::printf("extension: %s\n", my_path.extension().u8string().c_str());
Output:
filename: file.lua
stem: file
extension: .lua
Do note that for the time being you may need to use #include <experimental/fileystem> along with std::experimental::filesystem instead until standard libraries are fully conforming.
For more documentation on std::filesystem check out the filesystem library reference.
char pscL_Dir[]="/home/srfuser/kush/folder/kushvendra.txt";
char pscL_FileName[50];
char pscL_FilePath[100];
char *pscL;
pscL=strrchr(pscL_Dir,'/');
if(pscL==NULL)
printf("\n ERROR :INvalid DIr");
strncpy(pscL_FilePath,pscL_Dir,(pscL-pscL_Dir));
strcpy(pscL_FileName,pscL+1);
printf("LENTH [%d}\n pscL_FilePath[%s]\n pscL_FileName[%s]",(pscL-pscL_Dir),pscL_FilePath,pscL_FileName);
return 0;
output:
LENTH [25}
pscL_FilePath[/home/srfuser/kush/folder]
pscL_FileName[kushvendra.txt
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Here you can find an example. I'm not saying it's the best and I'm sure you could improve on that but it uses only standard C++ (anyway at least what's now considered standard).
Of course you won't have the features of the boost::filesystem (those functions in the example play along with plain strings and do not guarantee/check you'll actually working with a real filesystem path).
You could use the _splitpath_s function to break a path name into its components. I don't know if this is standard C or is Windows specific. Anyway this is the function:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string>
using std::string;
bool splitPath(string const &path, string &drive, string &directory, string &filename, string &extension) {
// validate path
drive.resize(_MAX_DRIVE);
directory.resize(_MAX_DIR);
filename.resize(_MAX_FNAME);
extension.resize(_MAX_EXT);
errno_t result;
result = _splitpath_s(path.c_str(), &drive[0], drive.size(), &directory[0], directory.size(), &filename[0], filename.size(), &extension[0], extension.size());
//_splitpath(path.c_str(), &drive[0], &directory[0], &filename[0], &extension[0]); //WindowsXp compatibility
_get_errno(&result);
if (result != 0) {
return false;
} else {
//delete the blank spaces at the end
drive = drive.c_str();
directory = directory.c_str();
filename = filename.c_str();
extension = extension.c_str();
return true;
It is a lot easier and safe to use std::string but you could modify this to use TCHAR* (wchar, char)...
For your specific case:
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
string path = argv[0];
string drive, directory, filename, extension;
splitPath(path, drive, directory, filename, extension);
printf("FILE = %s%s", filename.c_str(), extension.c_str());
return 0;
If you are going to display a filename to the user on Windows you should respect their shell settings (show/hide extension etc).
You can get a filename in the correct format by calling SHGetFileInfo with the SHGFI_DISPLAYNAME flag.
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