PureBasic

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.

PureBasic

IncludeFile "CkZip.pb"

Procedure ChilkatExample()

    success.i = 0

    success = 0

    zip.i = CkZip::ckCreate()
    If zip.i = 0
        Debug "Failed to create object."
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    ; Open an existing ZIP archive.
    success = CkZip::ckOpenZip(zip,"example.zip")
    If success = 0
        Debug CkZip::ckLastErrorText(zip)
        CkZip::ckDispose(zip)
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    ; Discard stored ZIP paths during extraction.
    ; 
    ; When DiscardPaths = 1, all files are extracted
    ; directly into the target directory without recreating
    ; the ZIP directory structure.
    CkZip::setCkDiscardPaths(zip, 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.i = CkZip::ckUnzip(zip,"c:/output")

    If numFilesUnzipped < 0
        Debug CkZip::ckLastErrorText(zip)
        CkZip::ckDispose(zip)
        ProcedureReturn
    EndIf

    Debug "Number of files extracted = " + Str(numFilesUnzipped)

    CkZip::ckCloseZip(zip)

    Debug "Files extracted successfully."


    CkZip::ckDispose(zip)


    ProcedureReturn
EndProcedure