C++ Looping Through Files In Directory and Writing to a Different Directory

Question

I am attempting to modify some existing C++ code to work with my needs, but having never used C++ before, I am having some difficulties. My goal is: ``` --> time and memory-intensive processes for preparation for each file in directory: open file; generate a tagged representation; //the current code just does this write file; //different directory but same filename ``` The reason I do not want to just call the C++ program for each file (with, for instance, a shell script) is that prior to the below code running, time and memory-intensive pre-processing steps are performed. (These take about 45-60sec. while the code only takes about 2-5sec. to run.) I have pasted the section of the code below. I want to read the arguments from the command line. ``` int main(int argc, char** argv) { /* pre-processing stuff */ /* for each file */ HANDLE hFind = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE; string path = argv[1]; string outpath = argv[2]; WIN32_FIND_DATA ffd; //EDIT 2: cout << "Path: " << path << '
'; cout << "…

Accepted Answer

Make sure you're passing the right `path` format to `FindFirstFile`.

From the documentation:

To examine a directory that is not a root directory, use the path to that directory, without a trailing backslash. For example, an argument of "C:\Windows" returns information about the directory "C:\Windows", not about a directory or file in "C:\Windows". To examine the files and directories in "C:\Windows", use an lpFileName of "C:\Windows\*".

Edit:

I'm not near a windows box right now (so this may not compile!) but I imagine that "loop over each file in a directory" would look something like this:

```
// argv[1] is the input path with no trailing characters, e.g. "c:\indir"

// add a wildcard because FindFirstFile expects e.g. "c:\indir\*"
TCHAR wildcard_path[MAX_PATH];
PathCombine(wildcard_path, argv[1], "*");

// iterate over each file
WIN32_FIND_DATA ffd;
HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile(wildcard_path, &ffd);
if (hFind == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) { } // error

do {
   // ignore directories
   if (!(ffd.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)) {

// create a full path for each file we find, e.g. "c:\indir\foo.txt"
      TCHAR file_path[MAX_PATH];
      PathCombine(file_path, argv[1], ffd.cFileName);

// ...and do something with file_path.
   }
} while (FindNextFile(hFind, &ffd) != 0);

FindClose(hFind);
```

C++ Looping Through Files In Directory and Writing to a Different Directory

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