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PathMatchSpec function

Applies to: desktop apps only

Searches a string using a Microsoft MS-DOS wildcard match type.

Syntax

Copy 
BOOL PathMatchSpec(
  __in  LPCSTR pszFile,
  __in  LPCSTR pszSpec
);

Parameters

pszFile [in]

Type: LPCSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated string of maximum length MAX_PATH that contains the path to be searched.

pszSpec [in]

Type: LPCSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated string of maximum length MAX_PATH that contains the file type for which to search. For example, to test whether pszFile is a .doc file, pszSpec should be set to "*.doc".

Return value

Type: BOOL

Returns TRUE if the string matches, or FALSE otherwise.

Examples

Copy 

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include "Shlwapi.h"
using namespace std;
#pragma comment(lib,"shlwapi.lib");

void main(void)
{
// String path name 1.
char buffer_1[ ] = "C:\\Test\\File.txt";
char *lpStr1;
lpStr1 = buffer_1;

// String path name 2.
char buffer_2[ ] = "C:\\Test\\File.bmp";
char *lpStr2;
lpStr2 = buffer_2;

// String path name 3.
char buffer_3[ ] = "*.txt";
char *lpStr3;
lpStr3 = buffer_3;

// String path name 4.
char buffer_4[ ] = "C:\\Test\\File";
char *lpStr4;
lpStr4 = buffer_4;

// Variable to get the return. 
// from "PathMatchSpec"
int retval;

// Test path name 1.
retval = PathMatchSpec(lpStr1,lpStr3);
cout << "The contents of String 1: " << lpStr1
     << "\nThe return value from the function is " << retval << " = TRUE" << endl;

// Test path name 2.
retval = PathMatchSpec(lpStr2,"*.bmp");
cout << "The contents of String 2: " << lpStr2
     << "\nThe return value from the function is " << retval << " = TRUE" << endl;

// Test path name 4.
retval = PathMatchSpec(lpStr4,lpStr2);
cout << "The contents of String 4: " << lpStr4
     << "\nThe return value from the function is " << retval << " = FALSE"<< endl;
}

OUTPUT:
==========
The contents of String 1: C:\Test\File.txt
The return value from the function is 1 = TRUE
The contents of String 2: C:\Test\File.bmp
The return value from the function is 1 = TRUE
The contents of String 4: C:\Test\File
The return value from the function is 0 = FALSE

Requirements

Minimum supported client

Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP

Minimum supported server

Windows 2000 Server

Header
Shlwapi.h

Library
Shlwapi.lib

DLL
Shlwapi.dll (version 4.71 or later)

Unicode and ANSI names

PathMatchSpecW (Unicode) and PathMatchSpecA (ANSI)

 

 

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Build date: 3/7/2012

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Annotations FAQ
Does not properly handle many cases
Do not expect this function to work like the command interpreter Cmd.exe. This function does not handle many boundary conditions, nor does it properly handle empty extensions.

The simplest example is this command, which correctly finds the Windows directory on all versions of Windows and MS-DOS 6.x:

dir c:\windows.*

However, this API call returns false on Vista:

BOOL b = ::PathMatchSpec("C:\\Windows", "C:\\Windows.*");

Because I could not paste a table into this page, I've documented other inconsistencies in my blog at http://qualapps.blogspot.com/2009/08/pathmatchspec-problems.html .

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