Q47226: _makepath() and _splitpath Examples Are Incomplete

Article: Q47226
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 5.00 5.10 | 5.00 5.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | docerr S_QuickC | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 17-AUG-1989

In the C 5.x "Microsoft C for the MS-DOS Operating System: Run-Time
Library Reference" documentation for _makepath (Page 407) and
_splitpath (Page 559), the examples do not compile without generating
an indirection error. This is due to the variables being declared as
pointers. Also, the file should include <stdlib.h>, not <dos.h>. Below
is an example of how the file should read to compile on warning level
3 without errors.

In the QuickC Versions 1.00 and 1.01 "Microsoft QuickC Run-Time
Library Reference," the documentation for _makepath (Page 407) and
_splitpath (Page 559) also contain an error. The example program
declares the ext variable as a 4-byte character array. This should be
changed to a 5-byte array as shown below. This second problem appears
when the file extension has a three-character extension such as
".doc".

The following code should be used in place of the examples for
_makepath and _splitpath in the QuickC 1.x run-time documentation as
well.

#include <dos.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void main( void )
{
    char path_buffer [40];
    char drive [3];
    char dir [30];
    char fname [9];
    char ext [5];

    _makepath (path_buffer, "d:", "\\src\\test\\", "new","dat");
    printf("path created with _makepath: %s\n\n", path_buffer);

    _splitpath (path_buffer, drive, dir, fname, ext);
    printf("path extracted with _splitpath\n");
    printf("drive: %s\n", drive);
    printf("dir: %s\n", dir);
    printf("fname: %s\n", fname);
    printf("ext: %s\n", ext);
}

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