Passing filepath into Main(string[] args) not working

Question

I am trying to pass a file path into a C# Console Application but am having problems with the string being incorrect by the time it reaches the console application.

If I run my application from the command line, with a file path parameter:

MyApp "C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject\"

A windows dialogue pops up and informs me that my application has stopped working, and when I click the Debug option, I can see that the result of args[0] is:

C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject"

Note there is still a trailing quote at the end.

If I pass a second argument:

MyApp "C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject\" "any old string"

I get an error again, and after viewing in debug I see that args[0] is:

C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject" any

I am baffled as to why this is happening. My only guess is that the backslashes in the string are causing some kind of escape sequence from the string? Edit: I notice that the same is happening in the string example above! It seems \" is causing problems here.

I just want to pass in the file path of the current solution directory and am calling my app from a pre-build event using $(SolutionDir), and know that I can get the path of the current solution in other ways. But this is simplest and I am curious as to why it does not work as expected.

Answer 1

Yes, the rules for commandline arguments are a little murky.

The \ is the escape char and you can use it to escape quotes ("). You'll have to escape a backslash but only when it is preceding a quote. So use (note the '\\' at the end):

MyApp "C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject\\" 

or, simpler but you'll have to deal with it in C# somehow:

MyApp "C:\Users\DevDave\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MyProject" 

Also see this question