Creating a folder with today's date using c++

Question

I am new to c++ programing and working with visual Studio 2015. I want to create a Folder with a Name of current date in a particular path. I searched on the Internet but I was not able to find the satisfactory solution. Moreover I tried by my own but unfortunately the result is not successful. I used _mkdir() and CreateFolder().

For example, if i compile the program today (07.07.2017) then it should create a Folder with a Name: "07072017" and if i compile it again then it should Show the message: "Folder already exists".

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could try using WINDOWS API CreateDirectory function if we are talking about windows. More information : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363855(v=vs.85).aspx

Use argv[0] to get your .exe current directory from main(int argc, char argv[]) and remember to do #include <windows.h>. You could also try to execute shell or cmd.exe with arguments mkdir folderName to make it.

As for retrieving current date i would recommend reading How to get current time and date in C++?

Answer 2

As mentioned by @user8210143 you can use the c++ standard library experimental bits.

If the date format isn't critical for your purpose, you could just use the __DATE__ compiler define:

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#include <experimental/filesystem>
#include <iostream>

namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

int main() {
    auto dirname = fs::current_path() / __DATE__;

    std::cout << "creating directory " << dirname << "\n";
    if (create_directories(dirname)) {
        std::cout << "directory didn't exist yet\n";
    }
}

Which prints something like

creating directory "/home/sehe/Projects/stackoverflow/Jul  7 2017"
directory didn't exist yet

On my system

Answer 3

Here is an example using <experimental/filesystem> and visual studio.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <experimental\filesystem>

using namespace std;

int main() {
int sizeofdate = strlen(__DATE__);
char* dirname = new char[4 + sizeofdate];
memcpy(dirname, "C:/", 3);
memcpy(dirname + 4, __DATE__, sizeofdate);

cout << "creating directory" << endl;
if (!experimental::filesystem::exists(dirname)) {
    experimental::filesystem::create_directory(dirname);
}
else {
    cout << "directory already exists!" << endl;
}

delete[] dirname;

int thing;
cin >> thing;

return 0;
}