How to check if file exists in directory?

Question

I am a novice in c++ and I am a little confused/overwhelmed by all the different ways there are to check if a text file exists.

I have created a text file:

ofstream myfile;
myfile.open("actFile.txt");

Which I can see in the directory. But how would I use that to see if it already exists?

Would this work?

ofstream myfile;
if (myfile.good())
{
  // read, write
} else
{
  myfile.open("actFile.txt");
}

Look at this thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3365182/how-to-search-the-computer-for-files-and-folders — macroland, Feb 09 '14 at 04:38

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 09 '14 at 04:27

Use the is_open() method:

std::string filename = "myfile";
std::ifstream ifile(filename.c_str());

if (!ifile.is_open()) {
    std::cerr << "There was a problem opening the input file" << std::endl;
}

REFERENCE: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/fstream/fstream/is_open/

How to check if file exists in directory?

1 Answers1