Which characters will never appear in a file path?

The following characters are invalid as file or folder names on Windows using NTFS:
/ ? < > \ : * | ” and any character you can type with the Ctrl key

In addition to the above illegal characters the caret ^ is also not permitted under Windows Operating Systems using the FAT file system.

backslash (\) can't appear in a (terminal) filename - but it can be part of a Windows pathname (similarly for forward slash (/) in *n*x systems).  

It wouild also be unwise (and probably not possible) to include any of the 'control code' characters in the pathname, since these usually have no graphic representation.
Control code characters are those with code-points in the range 0-31 (decimal) or 0x00-0x1f (hexadecimal)

antony_kibble<!-8D58D5C3656518... :

Is there are similar function under Visual C++ 6.0 like GetInvalidPathChars?

To All:

So even for Unicode characters, the following characters will also not be permitted?

•< > : " / \ | ? *
•Characters whose integer representations are 0-31 (less than ASCII space)

Thanks

Thanks for all your replys.

I just want to confirm that for Unicode path, the following byte will also appear in NEITHER the first byte of the Unicode character, NOR the second byte of the Unicode character, is that correct?

The following reserved characters:

< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
" (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)
Integer value zero, sometimes referred to as the ASCII NUL character.
Characters whose integer representations are in the range from 1 through 31.

Thanks

Thanks