.\ versus hard file location

[brsawvel]

Hello,

I've been using C:\Program Files\... in my codes to tell the database to locate a file, image, etc.

Someone told me recently that there was a way to use ".\" instead of a hard location in my code to tell the program to look in a folder using the .exe as the starting reference point.

Does anyone know if this works on .mdb or .mde? Does anyone know how it works?

 

[Rabbie]

This is standard terminology dating from DOS days.

. is your curent directory so .\subdirectory points to a directory based in the current directory.

It should work fine in your database.

 

[brsawvel]

so how would you go back a folder (directory?)? Is that "..\"?

 

[Rabbie]

so how would you go back a folder (directory?)? Is that "..\"?

Thats correct. ..\ is the parent directory.

 

[brsawvel]

I made those changes in my db, but it didn't recognize the file locations. An example of how I used it was -

Original:

IF image1.Picture = "C:\Program Files\Database\photos\1.bmp" THEN image1.Picture = "C:\Program Files\Database\photos\1Highlight.bmp"

Replaced With:

IF image1.Picture = ".\photos\1.bmp" THEN image1.Picture = ".\photos\1Highlight.bmp"

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Doesn't work that way, probably. Those are shortcuts. But when Access evaluates them, it might expand them to the full reference. I.e. that leading dot MIGHT be replaced by the C:\... string that normally would take the place of the leading dot.

I prefer to do something early in database startup to locate myself. For instance, if I have a "splash" form or switchboard form, the OnLoad code will do something like

MyDBLoc = CurrentDb.Name

where MyDBLoc is a public string in a general module's declaration area. Once that is loaded, I can parse it a bit more to isolate the device name, path string, DB name, and (of course) .MDB as the file type. Once that is in my public, general declaration area, I can use it to build partial paths as needed. This way, you don't really care that much if you get DOS-like strings or URL-like strings.