file management

[drewdaman]

hi there..

first time on this forum! was wondering if it is possible to get the names of all the files in a directory from your code. i don't have a problem dealing with a file (ie opneing, reading etc) but i dont' know how to say go to a particular directory and give me a list of all the files in that directory. can anyone help me out? thanks!

 

[ArkM]

It seems it's the most popular question about Windows API in this forum...
Use FindFirstFile() et al:

#include <windows.h>
...
const char dirpat = "C:\\mydir\\*.*"; // or what else...
WIN32_FIND_DATA filedata;
HANDLE hdir = FindFirstFile(dirpat,&filedata);
if (hdir != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
  do // scan dir with this pattern (*.* - all files)
  if (filedata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY 
      == 0)
  {  // Use file info
     // filedata.cFileName etc... See MSDN this struct info
  } while (FindNextFile(hdir,&filedata));
  FindClose(hdir);
}

Be careful: you will get subdirs too (with ., .. entries).
There are no such portable equivs in C/C++ libraries...

 

[teriviret]

Sounds like a good topic for a FAQ