regex - Elegant way to distinct Path or Entry key -

I have an application to load CAD data (custom format), either from the local file system, Or specifies a precise path to a database.

Database access is realized through a library function, which leads to the image identifier as a parameter.

The identifier's format ABC 01234T56-T while my path is a specific Windows path (like x: \ data \ cadfiles \ cadfile001.bin ).

I would like to take a string as an argument to write a cover function which can be either a path or an identifier which calls appropriate functions to load my data.

Like this:

  function codLoader (name or pash: string): tcdata;  

My question: How can I decode your string beautifully is the path of an idnetifier or a file? Use a regexp? Or search for '\' and ':', which are not visible in identifiers?

Try this one

  function codLoader (name or path: string) : Tcdata; If FileExists (nameOrPath) then & lt; Load from file & gt; Second & lt; Load from database & gt; End;