Run a system command from C++ 1

[MCSGraham]

I'm asking a user what filename they're wanting to work with then wanting C++ to issue a system command like it was being run from the command prompt.

This should be simple enough but can't seem to get it right. Here's some code I have:

string FileName;

cout<<"What is the file you want to work with?: "<<endl<<endl;
cin>>FileName;

system("ren FileName test.txt");


Doing this tells me the file is not specified but the file is there so I don't know why it won't work.

Not sure if I'm doing the 'system' command correctly?

Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

thanks in advance!

 

[Salem]

Well if you're using strings, it would be something like

cout<<"What is the file you want to work with?: "<<endl<<endl;
cin>>FileName;
string command = "ren " + Filename + " test.txt";
system( command.c_str() );

--

 

[Cagliostro]

ren FileName test.txt" mean the same as you see between quotes. So if value of FileName will be xxx.txt the string will remain "ren FileName test.txt". In C++ you can not use variables in the same way as in PHP or PERL.
You should build a string like this pseudocode:
command = "ren " + FileName + " test.txt";
system(command);

Ion Filipski

 

[MCSGraham]

Thanks a lot for your help! Your suggestion worked!