If you have a sp url , how do you know what is sites,subsites and directories?

…short answer seems to be : you don’t

Longer answer:

Split the url up in parts, try the url piece by piece until you know what is what…

private void ResolveUrlStringToServiceReferenceAndListNameAndDocName(string s, out string serviceadress, out string listname, out string docname)
 {
   serviceadress = "";
   listname = "";
   docname = "";
   string[] ss = s.Split('/');
   if (ss.Length < 4)
     return;
   string sitesandsubsites = "";
   string list = "";
   string server = ss[0] + "//" + ss[2];
   for (int i = 3; i < ss.Length - 1; i++)
   {
     string sitepart = ss[i];
     list = ss[i + 1].Replace("%20", " ");
     sitesandsubsites += "/" + sitepart;
     SharepointListReference.ListsSoapClient listProxy = new SharepointListReference.ListsSoapClient();
     listProxy.Endpoint.Address = new System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress(server + sitesandsubsites + "/_vti_bin/lists.asmx");
     try
     {
       listProxy.GetList(list);
       serviceadress = listProxy.Endpoint.Address.Uri.AbsoluteUri;
       listname = list;
       listProxy.Close();
       docname = ss[ss.Length - 1].Replace("%20", " ");
       return;
     }
     catch
     {
       // continue
     }
   }
 }