Thread: How to check if a file exists

I only need a bool to check if file exists, while i'm giving the file location, depending on current directory.

you mean with <fstream>
i tryed that, and it doesn't work for reason unknown.

Code:

ifstream fin;
fin.open("sdfsdfsdf");
if(fin.fail) // doesn't work

Originally Posted by Wraithan

Code:

ifstream file;
file.open("TehLeetFile");
if(!file.is_open())
    cout<<"Tehleetness is busted!";
else
    cout<<"it work!!!!11!!!11!one!";

that is how I always check

that worked, thanks.

Originally Posted by 7stud

You should be trying to call the fail() function, like this:

Code:

if(fin.fail() )

I was using that all the time, just that i didn't wrote it 'cause i was tired!

I use the win32 API call FindFirstFile and determine if the file is found by the returned WIN32_FIND_DATA; check out the first tutorial(s) here: http://www.adrianxw.dk/SoftwareSite/index.html

Note that opening the file only indicates whether you can open the file. This may be due to it not existing, but it may also be due to you not having read access to it.

On a further note, NTFS has a weird feature called offline files that would cause serious delay if you touched a file this way. (On the other hand, that feature is practically never used.)

if you want to use win32 API you could use PathFileExists.

simple, but only works on drive letters (i.e. no unc paths)