How can I get the list of files in a directory using C or C++?

UPDATE 2017:

In C++17 there is now an official way to list files of your file system: std::filesystem. There is an excellent answer from Shreevardhan below with this source code (This code may throw):

#include <string>#include <iostream>#include <filesystem>namespace fs = std::filesystem;int main(){    std::string path = "/path/to/directory";    for (const auto & entry : fs::directory_iterator(path))        std::cout << entry.path() << std::endl;}

Old Answer:

In small and simple tasks I do not use boost, I use dirent.h. It is available as a standard header in UNIX, and also available for Windows via a compatibility layer created by Toni Ronkko.

DIR *dir;struct dirent *ent;if ((dir = opendir ("c:\\src\\")) != NULL) {  /* print all the files and directories within directory */  while ((ent = readdir (dir)) != NULL) {    printf ("%s\n", ent->d_name);  }  closedir (dir);} else {  /* could not open directory */  perror ("");  return EXIT_FAILURE;}

It is just a small header file and does most of the simple stuff you need without using a big template-based approach like boost(no offence, I like boost!).

C++17 now has a std::filesystem::directory_iterator, which can be used as

#include <string>#include <iostream>#include <filesystem>namespace fs = std::filesystem;int main() {    std::string path = "/path/to/directory";    for (const auto & entry : fs::directory_iterator(path))        std::cout << entry.path() << std::endl;}

Also, std::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator can iterate the subdirectories as well.

Unfortunately the C++ standard does not define a standard way of working with files and folders in this way.

Since there is no cross platform way, the best cross platform way is to use a library such as the boost filesystem module.

Cross platform boost method:

The following function, given a directory path and a file name, recursively searches the directory and its sub-directories for the file name, returning a bool, and if successful, the path to the file that was found.

bool find_file(const path & dir_path,         // in this directory,               const std::string & file_name, // search for this name,               path & path_found)             // placing path here if found{    if (!exists(dir_path))         return false;    directory_iterator end_itr; // default construction yields past-the-end    for (directory_iterator itr(dir_path); itr != end_itr; ++itr)    {        if (is_directory(itr->status()))        {            if (find_file(itr->path(), file_name, path_found))                 return true;        }        else if (itr->leaf() == file_name) // see below        {            path_found = itr->path();            return true;        }    }    return false;}

Source from the boost page mentioned above.

For Unix/Linux based systems:

You can use opendir / readdir / closedir.

Sample code which searches a directory for entry ``name'' is:

len = strlen(name);dirp = opendir(".");while ((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL)        if (dp->d_namlen == len && !strcmp(dp->d_name, name)) {                (void)closedir(dirp);                return FOUND;        }(void)closedir(dirp);return NOT_FOUND;

Source code from the above man pages.

For a windows based systems:

You can use the Win32 API FindFirstFile / FindNextFile / FindClose functions.

The following C++ example shows you a minimal use of FindFirstFile.

#include <windows.h>#include <tchar.h>#include <stdio.h>void _tmain(int argc, TCHAR *argv[]){   WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;   HANDLE hFind;   if( argc != 2 )   {      _tprintf(TEXT("Usage: %s [target_file]\n"), argv[0]);      return;   }   _tprintf (TEXT("Target file is %s\n"), argv[1]);   hFind = FindFirstFile(argv[1], &FindFileData);   if (hFind == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)    {      printf ("FindFirstFile failed (%d)\n", GetLastError());      return;   }    else    {      _tprintf (TEXT("The first file found is %s\n"),                 FindFileData.cFileName);      FindClose(hFind);   }}

Source code from the above msdn pages.