how to get filenames from folder in C++

Question

suppose I want to write ls or dir. how do I get the list of files in a given directory? something equivalent of .NET's Directory.GetFiles, and additional information.

not sure about the string syntax, but:

string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(@"c:\MyDir\");

Answer 1

Look at the FindFirstFile and FindNextFile APIs

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa364418.aspx

Answer 2

Check out boost::filesystem, an portable and excellent library.

Edit: An example from the library:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  std::string p(argc <= 1 ? "." : argv[1]);

  if (is_directory(p))
  {
     for (directory_iterator itr(p); itr!=directory_iterator(); ++itr)
     {
       cout << itr->path().filename() << ' '; // display filename only
       if (is_regular_file(itr->status())) cout << " [" << file_size(itr->path()) << ']';
       cout << '\n';
      }
  }
  else cout << (exists(p) : "Found: " : "Not found: ") << p << '\n';

  return 0;
}

Answer 3

This is totally platform depeanded.
If on windows you should use WINAPI as suggested.

Answer 4

In Windows: FindFirstFile, FindNextFile, and FindClose can be used to list files in a specified directory.

Pseudo code:

 Find the first file in the directory.
 do
   { 
   //

   }while(NextFile);

Close

Answer 5

Poco::DirectoryIterator is an alternative