working_directory

working_directory can actually return two different values depending on what you are using it for: 

• If you are writing a file to disk, working_directory points to the area of local storage that is reserved for your game on the target device (in Windows this is "%LOCALAPPDATA%/gamedir/" where the "gamedir" is the directory with the name of your game).
• However, when reading from disk, working_directory can be either the local storage (game_save_id) or the area where the Included Files are stored.

For example, if you have a default *.txt file included with your game and read it into memory using working_directory, then that file will be taken from the area where the Included Files are stored. If you then choose to write that information to a text file using working_directory, this will write the file to the target platform's local storage, where it will be read from the next time unless you instruct GameMaker to delete the file, in which case working_directory will once more point to the area where the Included Files are stored.

It is worth noting that in general you do not need to use this and simply specify the file name itself (plus any additional path information), which is sufficient. For example, this:

file_text_open_read(working_directory + "my_file.txt");

would be better done as this:

file_text_open_read("my_file.txt");

Syntax:

working_directory

Returns:

String

Example:

ini_open(working_directory + "temp_ini.ini");

This will open an INI file from the working directory of the game (creating it if it does not already exist). This could be the local storage, or the area where the included files are depending on whether the file being looked for exists in either place.