LabVIEW
What is the use of the build path function ?
It works as described in the help: you can add names to a path.
Example:
path "C:\" and name "temp" will get added to "C:\temp"...
Using another BuildPath with "test.txt" as 2nd input results in "C:\temp\test.txt"
Hi,
Welcome to the forums and to LabVIEW!
The Build Path is quite useful. I use it a lot, here's an example:
I have a file path for a folder on my computer where I want to save some generated reports. Lets say C:\Reports. I create a report, but for my software to be able to save the report it needs a whole file path like C:\Reports\Report1.txt. I also want to change the name of my reports, before I save, like Report1, Report2 and so on. Instead of hardcode a full path each time I can just use the Build Path and use C:\Reports an constant. The report name becomes the variable I can just add to the Build Path which then creates the whole path for my save function.
The Build Path and Strip Path are very useful functions for creating file/folder paths that are relative to something else in your code. Relative paths are very useful just in case somebody decides to move your project directory.
For example, you put a configuration file in the same folder as your executable. Let's call it foo.txt. So you can use the Application Directory to get the folder of your executable (or project file), then use Build Path with "foo.txt" to create the path of your configuration file. So now if somebody moves your application from C:\blah to C:\temp, your code will not throw an error because it can still find the file. Hard coding paths in any application will often lead to issues.
One main advantage using path datatype and "build|strip path" functions is the fact that they are OS independent. While you could do the same with string functions (e.g. concatenate strings "c:\abd\def\", "ghi\" and "jkl.txt" to form c:\abc\def\ghi\jkl.txt), you will immediately break the code on all other platforms, because the path format (delimiters, etc) are different on different OSs. The path datatype protects you from these OS differences.
