Shortened pathname with \...\

How about something similar to this.,.....

var
  Path : string;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if Length(path) > 10 then
    Path := Copy(path, 1, 10) + '\...\';
  Caption := Path;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  Path := 'C:\windows\desktop\Viktor\Delphi';
  Caption := Path;
end;

Hope it helps! There are other ways to do that with the API, but it's not exactly what you are looking for     it does like this  C:\windows\desktop\vik...  and not C:\windows\desktop\vik\...\...\and so on.....

Regards,
Viktor Ivanov

If you want to do it the "Windows Way", let me know and I'll show you how to do it..

Viktornet: What I'm looking for is a function or procedure that shortens the path by omitting its middle part, substituting an ellipsis. But it would break the pathname at a '\', not at some arbitrary point such as at the 10th character. Also the total length of the resulting pathname should be adjustable at design- or run-time by the programmer.

Blackman: Yes, I would like to know how to do it the windows way.

Hi

The DrawTextEx API function will fill in the ellipsis for you.  You give the function a string (PChar), a rectangle and a canvas, and if the text doesn't fit into the rectangle then it uses ellipsis.

E.g.
DrawTextEx(Canvas.Handle, PChar(SomeStr), Length(SomeStr), SomeRect, DT_PATH_ELLIPSIS or DT_MODIFYSTRING, nil);

Unfortunately you don't get the result string (with ellipsis) back.

JB

Thanks for the input Viktornet, JimBob, and BlackMan!