IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter

Function IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter( const S : string) : string

Example

procedure ScriptEvent(var Value: variant);
begin
  Value := IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter('C:\Fictional\Inbound');
  // C:\Fictional\Inbound\
end;

Usage

IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter appends a forward or backslash selected from the input's leading web-path heuristic.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
S	string, const	Path-like text whose final delimiter is to be ensured.

Returns

'' for empty input. Otherwise S unchanged when it already ends in the selected delimiter, or S followed by that delimiter.

Behaviour

• 'C:\Folder' becomes 'C:\Folder\'.
• '/api/orders' becomes '/api/orders/'.
• 'https://example.test/api' becomes 'https://example.test/api/'.
• 'relative/path' selects backslash and becomes 'relative/path\'; existing separators are not converted.
• Empty input remains empty.

Errors

No normal content-dependent exception; conversion/allocation failures can propagate.

Usage notes

Use EnsureCorrectPathDelimiter when existing separators must also be normalised. Preserve the misspelled identifier in code for compatibility.

Additional Technical Info

IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter appends one selected trailing delimiter to a non-empty string when it does not already end in that delimiter. The selected delimiter is / when the input begins / or case-insensitive 'http'; otherwise it is \.

The callable's public name is historically misspelled Delimeter. Scripts must use that exact identifier. The example is source-reviewed and was not executed by the documentation workflow.

Implementation

The Velox function selects / when S.StartsWith('/') or S.StartsWith('http', True); all other strings select \. It compares only the final character and appends the selected value when different.

Edge cases and quirks

• Any case-insensitive 'http...' prefix is treated as web-style without validating a scheme.
• Mixed separators are preserved, so the helper can deliberately produce a mixed final delimiter.
• A slash can be appended after a URL query or fragment because the whole string is treated as a path.
• No leading delimiter, path normalisation, traversal resolution, URL encoding, existence check or filesystem action occurs.
• The corrected-spelling IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter is a different platform-RTL function and is not a rename of this heuristic.

Side effects

None.

Performance and concurrency

Linear result copy with constant-time boundary tests and no shared state.

Related entries

• EnsureCorrectPathDelimiter normalises separators before calling this helper.
• IncludeWebPathDelimeter additionally enforces a leading / for non-HTTP text.
• IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter uses only the current platform delimiter.

External references

• Embarcadero TStringHelper.StartsWith - the exact core prefix helper used beneath Velox; delimiter selection itself is Velox-owned.

No applicable same-symbol Free Pascal function exists for this Velox-specific, historically misspelled heuristic.

Created 2026-07-15