ASP.NET in a Nutshell

Name

MapPath

Synopsis

PhysicalPath = Server.MapPath(Path)

Returns a string containing the physical path in the server’s filesystem that corresponds to the virtual or relative path specified by the Path argument.

Parameters

PhysicalPath

A String variable to receive the physical path from the method.

Path

A String variable containing the virtual or relative path to be mapped.

Example

The code example declares two string variables, sets the value of RelativePath, assigns the return value of the Server.MapPath call to PhysicalPath, and then writes the value to the browser by using the Message label control:

Sub Page_Load(  )
   Dim RelativePath As String
   Dim PhysicalPath As String
   RelativePath = "HtmlEncode.aspx"
   PhysicalPath = Server.MapPath(RelativePath)
   Message.Text = PhysicalPath
End Sub

Notes

You can use this method to determine the physical location for creating a new file in response to a user action or code event.

In classic ASP, attempting to use this method with the MS-DOS (.) and (..) relative directory syntax would result in an error. In ASP.NET, no error occurs. In the previous example, using "../HtmlEncode.aspx" for the Path returns a physical path mapping the file HtmlEncode.aspx to the parent folder of its physical location. Using "./HtmlEncode.aspx" for the Path returns the same physical path mapping as in the original example.

The MapPath method dynamically determines whether the provided path is a relative or virtual path based on whether the leading character is a slash (/) ...