How can I extract the path of a file without arguments from a string?

Question

I have a string containing a path to an executable file that also may or may not have command line arguments in it.

For example:

"C:\Foo\Bar.exe"
"C:\Foo\Bar.exe /test"
"C:\Foo\Bar.exe {0}"
"C:\Foo\Bar.exe -snafu"

I'm trying to break the string up into path part and the arguments part. The arguments part may be in pretty much any format. But the IO.Path functions assume that the string is a path without arguements. For example, if I call:

IO.Path.GetFileName(path)

It returns Bar.exe /test, Bar.exe {0} or Bar.exe -snafu

Windows can obviously tell the difference when I run this at a command prompt so there must be some way to leverage an existing function.

I can surround the path part of the string in quotes if I need to. But then the IO.Path calls fail. For example:

? IO.Path.GetFileName("""C:\Windows\write.exe"" {0}")

Throws an Arguement Exception: Illegal characters in path.

The path is always an unbroken string of characters, no? Can't we just split it by spaces and take the first token? — jimSampica
– jimSampica, Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 23:15
Some paths may include spaces. e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE — Derek Tomes
– Derek Tomes, Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 23:19
I was also hoping that the .Net framework had something that does this, so it'll work for all circumstances. — Derek Tomes
– Derek Tomes, Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 23:19
@DerekTomes in that case the string would be "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE" /test What happens if you call GetFileName on that string? — Scott Chamberlain
– Scott Chamberlain, Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 23:22

Sorceri · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-26 23:34:52Z

2

Take a look at CommandLineToArgvW

answered Aug 26, 2013 at 23:34

Sorceri

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1 Comment

Scott Chamberlain Over a year ago

Show the PInvoke that you used to invoke it as a edit to your original question.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:49:51Z

CommandLineToArgvW would be the best approach as Sorceri mentioned (you can see example code here), but here's a naive implementation that might suffice for you. This assumes that a file extension will always be present.

string input = @"C:\Foo\Bar test\hello.exe {0}";
string[] split = input.Split(' ');

int index = 0;
string ext = String.Empty;
string path = "";
string arguments = "";

while (true)
{
    string testPath = String.Join(" ", split, 0, index);
    ext = Path.GetExtension(testPath);
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(ext))
    {
        path = Path.GetFullPath(testPath);
        arguments = input.Replace(path, "").Trim();
        break;
    }

    index++;
}

Console.WriteLine(path + " " + arguments);

You can add handling such that the while loop doesn't run forever in the event of an extension not being found. I've only tested it with the three URLs in your post so you may want to test other scenarios.

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