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

Question

How can I determine the list of files in a directory from inside my C or C++ code?

I\'m not allowed to execute the ls command and parse the results from

Answer 1

Why not use glob()?

#include <glob.h>

glob_t glob_result;
glob("/your_directory/*",GLOB_TILDE,NULL,&glob_result);
for(unsigned int i=0; i<glob_result.gl_pathc; ++i){
  cout << glob_result.gl_pathv[i] << endl;
}

Answer 2

I think, below snippet can be used to list all the files.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

static void list_dir(const char *path)
{
    struct dirent *entry;
    DIR *dir = opendir(path);
    if (dir == NULL) {
        return;
    }

    while ((entry = readdir(dir)) != NULL) {
        printf("%s\n",entry->d_name);
    }

    closedir(dir);
}

Following is the structure of the struct dirent

struct dirent {
    ino_t d_ino; /* inode number */
    off_t d_off; /* offset to the next dirent */
    unsigned short d_reclen; /* length of this record */
    unsigned char d_type; /* type of file */
    char d_name[256]; /* filename */
};

Answer 3

I hope this code help you.

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

string wchar_t2string(const wchar_t *wchar)
{
    string str = "";
    int index = 0;
    while(wchar[index] != 0)
    {
        str += (char)wchar[index];
        ++index;
    }
    return str;
}

wchar_t *string2wchar_t(const string &str)
{
    wchar_t wchar[260];
    int index = 0;
    while(index < str.size())
    {
        wchar[index] = (wchar_t)str[index];
        ++index;
    }
    wchar[index] = 0;
    return wchar;
}

vector<string> listFilesInDirectory(string directoryName)
{
    WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;
    wchar_t * FileName = string2wchar_t(directoryName);
    HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile(FileName, &FindFileData);

    vector<string> listFileNames;
    listFileNames.push_back(wchar_t2string(FindFileData.cFileName));

    while (FindNextFile(hFind, &FindFileData))
        listFileNames.push_back(wchar_t2string(FindFileData.cFileName));

    return listFileNames;
}

void main()
{
    vector<string> listFiles;
    listFiles = listFilesInDirectory("C:\\*.txt");
    for each (string str in listFiles)
        cout << str << endl;
}

Answer 4

I recommend using glob with this reusable wrapper. It generates a vector<string> corresponding to file paths that fit the glob pattern:

#include <glob.h>
#include <vector>
using std::vector;

vector<string> globVector(const string& pattern){
    glob_t glob_result;
    glob(pattern.c_str(),GLOB_TILDE,NULL,&glob_result);
    vector<string> files;
    for(unsigned int i=0;i<glob_result.gl_pathc;++i){
        files.push_back(string(glob_result.gl_pathv[i]));
    }
    globfree(&glob_result);
    return files;
}

Which can then be called with a normal system wildcard pattern such as:

vector<string> files = globVector("./*");

Answer 5

Here is a very simple code in C++11 using boost::filesystem library to get file names in a directory (excluding folder names):

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
using namespace std;
using namespace boost::filesystem;

int main()
{
    path p("D:/AnyFolder");
    for (auto i = directory_iterator(p); i != directory_iterator(); i++)
    {
        if (!is_directory(i->path())) //we eliminate directories
        {
            cout << i->path().filename().string() << endl;
        }
        else
            continue;
    }
}

Output is like:

file1.txt
file2.dat

Answer 6

I tried to follow the example given in both answers and it might be worth noting that it appears as though std::filesystem::directory_entry has been changed to not have an overload of the << operator. Instead of std::cout << p << std::endl; I had to use the following to be able to compile and get it working:

#include <iostream>
#include <filesystem>
#include <string>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;

int main() {
    std::string path = "/path/to/directory";
    for(const auto& p : fs::directory_iterator(path))
        std::cout << p.path() << std::endl;
}

trying to pass p on its own to std::cout << resulted in a missing overload error.