How to disable the escape sequence in C++

Question

I use C++ to process many files, and I have to write the file name in source code like this: "F:\\somepath\\subpath\\myfile", I wonder that if there's any way to get rid of typing "\\" to get a character '\' in string literal context, i.e, I hope I can just write "F:\somepath\subpath\myfile" instead the boring one.

Answer 1

Solutions:

1. use C++11 string literals: R"(F:\somepath\subpath\myfile)"

2. Use boost::path with forward slashes: They will validate your path and raise exceptions for problems.

   boost::filesystem::path p = "f:/somepath/subpath";
   p /= "myfile";
   

3. just use forward slashes; Windows should understand them.

Answer 2

Two obvious options:

1. Windows understands forward slashes (or rather, it translates them to backslashes); use those instead.

2. C++11 has raw string literals. Stuff inside them doesn't need to be escaped.

   R"(F:\somepath\subpath\myfile)"
   

Answer 3

If you have C++11, you can use raw string literals:

std::string s = R"F:\somepath\subpath\myfile";

On the other hand, you can just use forward slashes for filesystem paths:

std::string s = "F:/somepath/subpath/myfile";