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ASP Server Object MapPath Method

The MapPath method maps the specified relative or virtual path to the corresponding physical directory on the server.

Syntax: ASP Server Object MapPath Method

Server.MapPath( path )

Parameters: ASP Server Object MapPath Method

path

Specifies the relative or virtual path to map to a physical directory. If path starts with either a forward or backward slash, either (/) or (\), the MapPath method returns a path as if path is a full virtual path. If path doesn't start with a slash, the MapPath method returns a path relative to the directory of the .ASP file being processed.

Note

The path parameter can contain relative paths (../../Scripts/, for example).

Remarks: ASP Server Object MapPath Method

The MapPath method does not check whether the path it returns is valid or exists on the server. Because the MapPath method maps a path regardless of whether the specified directories currently exist, you can use the MapPath method to map a path to a physical directory structure, and then pass that path to a component that creates the specified directory or file on the server.

Examples: ASP Server Object MapPath Method

For the examples below, the DATA.TXT and TEST.ASP files are located in the C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot\Script directory. The TEST.ASP file contains scripts. The C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot directory is set as the server's home directory.

The following example uses the server variable PATH_INFO to map the physical path to the current file:

<%= server.mappath(Request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO"))%>

<BR>

This script produces the following:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\script\test.asp<BR>

Because the path parameters in the following examples do not start with a slash character, they are mapped relative to the current directory, in this case C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot\Script.

<%= server.mappath("data.txt")%><BR>

<%= server.mappath("script/data.txt")%><BR>

This script outputs the following:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\script\data.txt<BR>

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\script\script\data.txt<BR>

The next two scripts use the slash characters to specify that the paths returned should be looked up as complete virtual paths on the server:

<%= server.mappath("/script/data.txt")%><BR>

<%= server.mappath("\script")%><BR>

This script outputs the following:

c:\inetpub\script\data.txt<BR>

c:\inetpub\script<BR>

The following examples demonstrate how you can use either a forward slash (/) or a backslash (\) to return the physical path to the home directory. The following script:

<%= server.mappath("/")%><BR>

<%= server.mappath("\")%><BR>

produces the following output:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot<BR>

c:\inetpub\wwwroot<BR>

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