Delphi ActiveX

Extract ZIP Files Without Preserving Directory Paths Using DiscardPaths

See more Zip Examples

This example demonstrates how to use the DiscardPaths property to extract files from a ZIP archive without recreating the stored directory structure.

When DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, all extracted files are written directly into the target extraction directory, and any stored ZIP path information is ignored.

This is useful when:

• Flattening ZIP contents into a single directory
• Ignoring stored subdirectory structures during extraction
• Extracting only the files themselves without recreating folders

Suppose the ZIP archive contains:

docs/readme.txt
docs/manual.pdf
images/logo.png

Normally, extracting the ZIP would create:

output/docs/readme.txt
output/docs/manual.pdf
output/images/logo.png

But when DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, the extracted files become:

output/readme.txt
output/manual.pdf
output/logo.png

The stored ZIP directory paths are discarded during extraction.

Delphi ActiveX

uses
    Winapi.Windows, Winapi.Messages, System.SysUtils, System.Variants, System.Classes, Vcl.Graphics,
    Vcl.Controls, Vcl.Forms, Vcl.Dialogs, Vcl.StdCtrls, Chilkat_TLB;

...

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
success: Integer;
zip: TChilkatZip;
numFilesUnzipped: Integer;

begin
success := 0;

success := 0;

zip := TChilkatZip.Create(Self);

// Open an existing ZIP archive.
success := zip.OpenZip('example.zip');
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(zip.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

// Discard stored ZIP paths during extraction.
// 
// When DiscardPaths = 1, all files are extracted
// directly into the target directory without recreating
// the ZIP directory structure.
zip.DiscardPaths := 1;

// Extract all files to the output directory.
// 
// Even if the ZIP contains:
// 
//     docs/readme.txt
//     docs/manual.pdf
//     images/logo.png
// 
// The extracted files become:
// 
//     c:/output/readme.txt
//     c:/output/manual.pdf
//     c:/output/logo.png
// 
numFilesUnzipped := zip.Unzip('c:/output');

if (numFilesUnzipped < 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(zip.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

Memo1.Lines.Add('Number of files extracted = ' + IntToStr(numFilesUnzipped));

zip.CloseZip();

Memo1.Lines.Add('Files extracted successfully.');
end;