Access of file on desktop using C++

Question

I am using Windows 7 and I have created on the desktop a file named test.txt. How can I access this file using C++? For example, consider following code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{

  fstream inout("test.txt", ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary);

  if(!inout) {
    cout << "Cannot open input file.\n";
    return 1;
  }

  long e, i, j;
  char c1, c2;
  e = 5;

  for(i=0, j=e; i<j; i++, j--) {
    inout.seekg(i, ios::beg);
    inout.get(c1);
    inout.seekg(j, ios::beg);
    inout.get(c2);

    inout.seekp(i, ios::beg);
    inout.put(c2);
    inout.seekp(j, ios::beg);
    inout.put(c1);
  }

  inout.close();
  return 0;
}

In the fragment fstream inout("test.txt", ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary), what should I change to access my test.txt on desktop?

Answer 1

Easiest way is to use ifstream, that is ifstream inputfile("\path\to\input\file); What path it is is easiest seen using your explorer or whatever it is called these days.

Answer 2

You need to provide the full path to the file. Determine what the absolute path is for the file and use that in the first argument:

fstream inout("c:\\some\\whole\\path\\to\\docmument\\test.txt", ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary);

Answer 3

I would try to provide the abosolute path to test.text, which can be something like (I'm not sure):

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\test.txt

Answer 4

Are you asking how to access that file location from your program? If so, you need to put the file and the executable in the same directory, or include a full path to the file's location:

"%USERPROFILE%\\Desktop\\test.txt"

Unless there is a full file path starting from a drive letter (the variable %USERPROFILE% evaluates to C:\Users\ {your username} in your case) the executable will look for the file relative to its own location. Since your string contains only the file name, it will look in its own directory.