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EnsureWebPathDelimiter

Function EnsureWebPathDelimiter( const S : string) : string

Example​

procedure ScriptEvent(var Value: variant);
begin
  Value := EnsureWebPathDelimiter('api\orders');
  // /api/orders/
end;

Usage​

EnsureWebPathDelimiter converts backslashes to forward slashes and ensures leading and trailing web delimiters.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
Sstring, constWhole path-like or URL-like text to transform.

Returns

'' for empty input. Otherwise, forward-slash text ending in / and beginning in / unless it is classified as an http... string.

Behaviour

  • 'api\orders' becomes '/api/orders/'.
  • '/api/orders' becomes '/api/orders/'.
  • 'https:\\example.test\api' becomes 'https://example.test/api/'.
  • Existing repeated forward slashes are retained.
  • Empty input stays empty rather than becoming '/'.

Errors

There is no normal content-dependent exception. Conversion/allocation failures can propagate.

Additional Technical Info​

EnsureWebPathDelimiter replaces every backslash with /, adds a trailing /, and adds a leading / unless the resulting text already begins with / or case-insensitive 'http'. It operates on text and does not parse or request a URL.

The example is source-reviewed and was not executed by the documentation workflow.

Implementation

The function calls Delphi StringReplace(S, '\', '/', [rfReplaceAll]), then IncludeWebPathDelimeter. That helper appends / when needed and prepends / unless StartsWith('/') or case-insensitive StartsWith('http', True) succeeds.

Edge cases and quirks

  • Ordinary relative text is changed into leading-slash/root-style text. Use EnsureCorrectPathDelimiter if a Windows-relative result is intended.
  • Any case-insensitive string beginning 'http' avoids the added leading slash, even when it is not a valid HTTP URL.
  • Query strings and fragments are not parsed. The trailing slash is appended to the end of the complete input, potentially after ?query or #fragment.
  • The function does not encode spaces/reserved URL characters, validate percent escapes, resolve dot segments or separate scheme/authority/path.
  • Backslashes are replaced everywhere, including query/fragment data where that might not be intended.

Side effects

None.

Performance and concurrency

Linear in input length with result allocation; no mutable shared state.

Remarks

This helper is suitable for Velox web-path conventions, not general URL canonicalisation. Parse a structured URL before changing its path, query or fragment independently.

Related entries

External references

Created 2026-07-15