Checking if a file exists

[november1992]

If my program asks a user to input a file name and then check if that file exists, would I have to use an if statement to see if that file is able to open?


Something like this:

if(FILE_1 = fopen(nameoffile,"r") == NULL){
            FILE_1= fopen(nameoffile, "w");    
}

When I tried this, it resulted in a warning
C4047: '=' : FILE * differs in levels of indirection from 'int'

My program still works. I've used a similar line of code in other programs without having this warning.

[std10093]

I would say yes,because there the file may can not be accessed due to restricted rights or something else .
Check here for ref of fopen fopen - C++ Reference

[whiteflags]

The way you have that written certainly should not work.
= and == differ on precedence.

What happens in the if statement is
if (FILE_1 = (fopen(nameoffile, "r") == NULL))

Not the correct
if ((FILE_1 = fopen(nameoffile, "r")) == NULL)
Yes, the parentheses are required.

The comparison has to reduce down to a 0/1 (they introduced true/false in C99 with the bool type) which is where the conversion to int, and the warning, comes from.

[grumpy]

Yet another case of the question asked (can I check if a file exists using fopen()?) being completely unrelated to the actual problem (I think the code works but why doesn't it compile?).

So I'll address the actual problem in the code, not the question asked.

You probably have more brackets in the working version. Assignment is lower precedence than a comparison, so your code is actually equivalent to

if (FILE_1 = [color="RED"](fopennameoffile, "r") == NULL)){
        FILE_1= fopen(nameoffile, "w");   
}

The if() statement will only compile without error/warning if FILE_1 is an integral type. The body of the if() block will only compile without warniong if FILE_1 is of type FILE * (or a void pointer). Those two conditions for your code to compile are mutually exclusive.

You presumably intended something like

if ((FILE_1 = fopennameoffile, "r")) == NULL){
        FILE_1= fopen(nameoffile, "w");   
}

Notice how the brackets I have highlighted in red are in different places.