Put differently:

Certain values are difficult or impossible to place inside strings.

Some examples:

You cannot use a text file to store the backspace character directly. Attempting to enter a backspace will erase the character before it. Instead use the sequence \b

You cannot directly store a quotation mark because that is the mark that indicates the end of a string. Instead use the sequence \"

You legally cannot end a line inside a string in C++. To make a multi-line string you can use the sequence \n

Since the backslash character is used as an escape sequence, it needs to also be escaped. To represent a backslash use the sequence \\

Any time you have a backslash in a string or character block, the backslash must be followed by another value.

C++ specifies the following escape codes:

Looking over your line that uses "\\\"), 1, "\\"); when the compiler examines it, it interprets the string as: Start of string, special character backslash, special character quote symbol, parenthesis, comma, space, one, comma, space, end of string.

Obviously that is not what you intended.

Thanks. Still no luck replacing \\ with \ in my path.

Thanks. Still no luck replacing \\ with \ in my path.

And because this is For Beginners, we try again...

Assuming you want help, please provide EXACT error messages. Without them we can only guess at the true error.

What is the value returned by the function?

For the windows variant, after it fails, what is the return value of GetLastError()?

For the unix variant, after it fails, what is the output of perror()?

What are the exact contents of the string?

Show each in a debugger screenshot if you are not 100% certain about the results, or the contents and escaped values.

Your code should be checking those error values. The fact that it does not is a defect in your code.

For example:

BOOL status = DeleteFile(InFileLocHw.c_str());

if(status) {

DWORD weNeedThisValue = GetLastError();

}

Or if you are doing the other one:

int status = remove(InFileLocHw.c_str());

if(status) {

perror(InFileLocHw.c_str()); /* Look in your output window, copy/paste the message it spits out */

}

Well I don't need that anymore, so just out of curiosity. It doesn't compile:

#if IBM
InFileLocHw.replace(InFileLocHw.find("\\\"), 1, "\\");

...

error output:

../main.cpp:1257:3: error: stray ‘\’ in program
InFileLocHw.replace(InFileLocHw.find("\\\"), 1, "\\");
^
../main.cpp:1257:3: error: stray ‘\’ in program
../main.cpp:1257:54: warning: missing terminating " character
InFileLocHw.replace(InFileLocHw.find("\\\"), 1, "\\");
^
../main.cpp:1257:3: error: missing terminating " character
InFileLocHw.replace(InFileLocHw.find("\\\"), 1, "\\");

Thanks

If you want a string containing "\\" you need to use "\\\\" in the source. If you want a string containing "\" you need to use "\\" in the source.

Thanks Nypyren, you're right. This compiles:

InFileLocHw.replace(InFileLocHw.find("\\\\"), 1, "\\");

I'm currently on Eclipse/Ubuntu but I try next time I boot Windows.