NAME

std::filesystem::path::make_preferred - std::filesystem::path::make_preferred

Synopsis

path& make_preferred(); (since C++17)

Converts all directory separators in the generic-format view of the path to the
preferred directory separator.

For example, on Windows, where \ is the preferred separator, the path foo/bar will
be converted to foo\bar.

Parameters

(none)

Return value

*this

Exceptions

May throw implementation-defined exceptions.

Example

Windows can use / as a separator, but prefers \, so make_preferred converts the
forward slashes to backslashes. On the other hand, POSIX does not use \ as a
separator, because backslashes are valid filename characters — the Windows path on
POSIX actually refers to a file with the name "a\\b\\c". For this reason the
"separators" are not converted.

// Run this code

#include <filesystem>
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

int main()
{
std::filesystem::path windows_path{"a\\b\\c"};
std::filesystem::path posix_path{"a/b/c"};
std::cout << "Windows path: "
<< std::quoted(windows_path.string()) << " -> "
<< std::quoted(windows_path.make_preferred().string()) << '\n'
<< "POSIX path: "
<< std::quoted(posix_path.string()) << " -> "
<< std::quoted(posix_path.make_preferred().string()) << '\n';
}

Output:

# on Windows
Windows path: "a\\b\\c" -> "a\\b\\c"
POSIX path: "a/b/c" -> "a\\b\\c"
# on POSIX
Windows path: "a\\b\\c" -> "a\\b\\c"
POSIX path: "a/b/c" -> "a/b/c"