IncludeWebPathDelimeter

Function IncludeWebPathDelimeter( const S : string) : string

Example

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

Usage

IncludeWebPathDelimeter ensures a non-empty web-path string has a trailing slash and either a leading slash or an http-style prefix.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
S	string, const	Web-path-like text whose boundary slashes are to be ensured. Existing separators within the path are not converted.

Returns

'' for empty input. Otherwise a string ending / and beginning / unless it is treated as an http... string.

Behaviour

• 'api/orders' becomes '/api/orders/'.
• '/api/orders' becomes '/api/orders/'.
• 'https://example.test/api' becomes 'https://example.test/api/' without an extra leading slash.
• 'api\orders' becomes '/api\orders/'; backslashes within the path remain unchanged.
• Empty input remains empty.

Important usage notes

• Relative text becomes root-style text because a leading slash is inserted.
• Any case-insensitive prefix 'http' suppresses the leading slash, even when the input is not a valid URL.
• A trailing slash is appended after any query string or fragment because no URL components are parsed.
• Duplicate slashes at the start, end or within the path are not collapsed.
• No backslash conversion, URL encoding, validation, canonicalisation or network/file-system access occurs.

Usage notes

Use EnsureWebPathDelimiter when backslashes within the path must be converted. Parse complete URLs rather than passing queries/fragments through this whole-string helper.

Additional Technical Info

IncludeWebPathDelimeter ensures / at the end of a non-empty string, then prepends / unless the result already begins / or begins case-insensitive 'http'.

The public identifier is historically misspelled Delimeter and must be used exactly in scripts. The example is source-reviewed and was not executed by the documentation workflow.

Implementation

The function first appends / if S[Length(S)] <> '/'. It then calls Delphi TStringHelper.StartsWith to test / case-sensitively and 'http' case-insensitively; when neither matches, it prefixes /.

Side effects

None.

Errors

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

Performance and concurrency

Linear in result-copy length, with no mutable shared state.

Related entries

• EnsureWebPathDelimiter converts internal backslashes before using these boundary rules.
• IncludeCorrectPathDelimeter selects web or Windows trailing style but does not add a leading delimiter.

External references

• Embarcadero TStringHelper.StartsWith - exact core prefix testing beneath the Velox-owned boundary rules.

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

Created 2026-07-15