Tom’s Blog

Recently, on microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb group, help was asked in getting the code snip-it found here to work in VB2008.  Here is a conversion of the step-by-step for use in VB.NET (this should work in all versions of VB.NET)

1. Start a new Windows Forms project
2. Add a button control to the default Form1
3. Add a OpenFileDialog to the default Form1
4. From the Project Menu, select Add Module
5. Add the following code to the new module:

   Option Explicit On

   Option Strict On

   Imports System.Text

   Module Module1

       Private Declare Auto Function GetShortPathName Lib "kernel32" ( _

           ByVal lpszLongPath As String, _

           ByVal lpszShortPath As StringBuilder, _

           ByVal cchBuffer As Integer) As Integer

       Public Function GetShortPath(ByVal longPath As String) As String

           Dim requiredSize As Integer = GetShortPathName(longPath, Nothing, 0)

           Dim buffer As New StringBuilder(requiredSize)

           GetShortPathName(longPath, buffer, buffer.Capacity)

           Return buffer.ToString()

       End Function

   End Module

6. Add the following code to Form1:

   Option Strict On

   Option Explicit On

   Imports System

   Imports System.Text

   Public Class Form1

       Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

           If OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog(Me) = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then

               Dim msg As New StringBuilder()

               msg.AppendFormat("Long File Name: {0}", OpenFileDialog1.FileName)

               msg.AppendLine()

               msg.AppendFormat("Short File Name: {0}", GetShortPath(OpenFileDialog1.FileName))

               MessageBox.Show(msg.ToString())

           End If

       End Sub

   End Class

7. Run the project using Ctrl+F5 and click the button.
8. Navigate to a file with  a long path and select ok.
9. The message box with both the long and short versions of the file name should appear.