Reputation: 841

Visual Studio can't 'see' my included header files

I created an empty 'Demo' project in Visual Studio 2008 and added some existing projects to my solution. Included "MyHeader.h" (other project's header) in main.cpp file which is in 'Demo'. Also added header files' path in "Tools/Option/VC++ Directories/Include files" section. But intellisense says: "File MyHeader.h not found in current source file's directory or in build system paths..."

How the problem can be fixed?

Upvotes: 56

Answers (18)

Jakub Kania

Reputation: 1

After doing a lot of digging, i found a solution

first, right click on your main project directory , and click properties https://i.sstatic.net/jymk7xmF.png

then, you want to go into - Configuration properties > c/c++ > general https://i.sstatic.net/nuxGOd4P.png

after that, go into additional include directories and click "edit" https://i.sstatic.net/E45T38EZ.png

last, you want to add a new line and enter the directory of the folder containing your header file, first we use $(SolutionDir) which is an automatic path to the main folder (example - C:\Users\Name\OneDrive\Desktop\folder\engine , where engine is the main directory containing all the project files) and then we path to the folder containing the header (example - Dependencies\GLEW\src) which would look something like this ($(SolutionDir)Dependencies\GLEW\src) https://i.sstatic.net/O9crjAl1.png

after that, the project should recognize the header files contained (in this case) in the src directory, hope this helps

Upvotes: 0

FireCode

Reputation: 1

this is work for me, just copy the new file.h ton inner folder project. Yes you wil be ha two files.h , but its works for me.

pd: is a dump solution but is a fast works solution

Upvotes: -2

FractalSpace

Reputation: 5685

None of the solutions worked for me. Here is what was the issue for me: (Note discrepancy in build configuration and VC++ Directories (x86 vs x64)

To fix, just changed the build configuration to 'x86':

Upvotes: -1

Srinivas Batchu

Reputation: 902

In Visual Studio, click on Project > Rescan Solution as shown below to rebuild the project database.

Upvotes: 1

Christoph

Reputation: 31

Had the same problem. Double check if you added the include files to Debug or Release Version of your project. If you only added it for one of them and compile for the other VS will just play dumb and not find them.

Upvotes: 3

Zoso

Reputation: 3465

If some soul has scrolled down to this bottom, what worked for me was disabling the Disable Database option i.e. set it to False under Tools|Options|Text Editor|C/C++|Advanced. For some reason, it was set to True for me.

As per docs, if it's set to True

All use of the code browsing database (SDF), all other Browsing/Navigation options, and all IntelliSense features except for #include Auto Complete are disabled.

Upvotes: 0

Dave Poston

Reputation: 107

I had this issue after upgrading to Visual Studio 2019 from 2015. It would compile the project fine but Intellisense and the IDE couldn't find any header files.

The project only had valid configuration for Win32/Debug. Include paths were not setup correctly for other environments. Even though Visual Studio displayed the current environment as Win32/Debug, Intellisense must have been using something else.

Changing the current environment to x64/Release, and then back to Win32/Debug fixed it.

Upvotes: 1

mireazma

Reputation: 546

In Visual Studio 2019 in my case I copied a header file into the project directory, just near the other files. Intellisense could see it, but the build failed. Fair enough, it wasn't actually added to the project. I added it as existing item but this is the point that Visual Studio still didn't account for it.
Solution:

Close the project.
Delete the .vs directory.
Reopen the project. Now Visual Studio recreates the directory with everything in it and it can now see the included file.

Upvotes: 6

Darren

Reputation: 11

I encountered this issue, but the solutions provided didn't directly help me, so I'm sharing how I got myself into a similar situation and temporarily resolved it.

I created a new project within an existing solution and copy & pasted the Header and CPP file from another project within that solution that I needed to include in my new project through the IDE. Intellisense displayed an error suggesting it could not resolve the reference to the header file and compiling the code failed with the same error too.

After reading the posts here, I checked the project folder with Windows File Explorer and only the main.cpp file was found. For some reason, my copy and paste of the header file and CPP file were just a reference? (I assume) and did not physically copy the file into the new project file.

I deleted the files from the Project view within Visual Studio and I used File Explorer to copy the files that I needed to the project folder/directory. I then referenced the other solutions posted here to "include files in project" by showing all files and this resolved the problem.

It boiled down to the files not being physically in the Project folder/directory even though they were shown correctly within the IDE.

Please Note I understand duplicating code is not best practice and my situation is purely a learning/hobby project. It's probably in my best interest and anyone else who ended up in a similar situation to use the IDE/project/Solution setup correctly when reusing code from other projects - I'm still learning and I'll figure this out one day!

Upvotes: 0

Elliot

Reputation: 2033

This happened to me just now, after shutting down and restarting the computer. Eventually I realised that the architecture had somehow been changed to ARM from x64.

Upvotes: 8

Sam Liu

Reputation: 51

If the visual studio says that you miss some file in the current source file folder, there is one solution that i used. Just right click the file you want to add and choose Open Document, if it really doesn't exist, then you should see something like cannot find file in the source file path = "somewhere in your computer", then what you could do is the add your source file into that path first and see if it works.

Upvotes: 1

abe312

Reputation: 2635

Here's how I solved this problem.

Go to Project --> Show All Files.

Right click all the files in Solutions Explorer and Click on Include in Project in all the files you want to include.

Done :)

Upvotes: 0

goug

Reputation: 2444

I know this is an older question, but none of the above answers worked for me. In my case, the issue turned out to be that I had absolute include paths but without drive letters. Compilation was fine, but Visual Studio couldn't find an include file when I right-clicked and tried to open it. Adding the drive letters to my include paths corrected the problem.

I would never recommend hard-coding drive letters in any aspect of your project files; either use relative paths, macros, environment variables, or some mix of the tree for any permanent situation. However, in this case, I'm working in some temporary projects where absolute paths were necessary in the short term. Not being able to right-click to open the files was extremely frustrating, and hopefully this will help others.

Upvotes: 3

TimothyHeyden

Reputation: 1038

If you choose Project and then All Files in the menu, all files should be displayed in the Solution Explorer that are physically in your project map, but not (yet) included in your project. If you right click on the file you want to add in the Solution Explorer, you can include it.

Upvotes: 26

MultiVAC

Reputation: 354

If it is the case that only the IDE indicates that it cannot find included files, but compiling is successful, the issue is simply that IntelliSense is not fully up to date with recent changes. This can happen specifically when including existing projects, in my own experience. Deleting the .sdf file (= IntelliSense database) that is generated in your solution directory forces Visual Studio to regenerate it, so that it is up to date again. Just doing a "clean" will probably do the same thing, but takes more time since everything will be generated again then.

Upvotes: 3

jake

Reputation: 1691

Delete the .sdf file that is in your solution directory. It's just the Intellisense database, and Visual Studio will recreate it the next time you open that solution. This db can get corrupted and cause the IDE to not be able to find things, and since the compiler generates this information for itself on the fly, it wouldn't be affected.

Upvotes: 34

john elemans

Reputation: 2666

In my experience, with VS2010, when include files can't be found at compile time, doing a clean, then build usually fixes the problem. It's not that rare for the editor to be able to open an include file and then the compiler to announce that it can't find that very file, even when it is open on the screen!

Upvotes: 1

Ivaylo Strandjev

Reputation: 70931

Try adding the header file to your project's files. (right click on project -> add existing file).

Upvotes: 1

Visual Studio can&#39;t &#39;see&#39; my included header files

Answers (18)

Related Questions

Visual Studio can't 'see' my included header files