How can i tell if a given path is a directory or a file? (C/C++)

Question

I'm using C and sometimes i have to handle paths like C:\Whatever, C:\Whatever\ or C:\Whatever\Somefile

Is there a way to check if a given path is a directory or a given path is a file? :O

Answer 1

On Windows you can use GetFileAttributes on an open handle.

Answer 2

Call GetFileAttributes, and check for the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY attribute.

Answer 3

stat() will tell you this.

struct stat s;
if( stat(path,&s) == 0 )
{
    if( s.st_mode & S_IFDIR )
    {
        //it's a directory
    }
    else if( s.st_mode & S_ISREG )
    {
        //it's a file
    }
    else
    {
        //something else
    }
}
else
{
    //error
}

Answer 4

In Win32, I usually use PathIsDirectory and its sister functions. This works in Windows 98, which GetFileAttributes does not (according to the MSDN documentation.)