CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++filewinapidelete-file
Vince
Vince

Reputation: 2646

How to delete all text files from given directory in c++

I'm trying to figure out how to delete all text files from a given directory. I'm using Visual c++ 2010 express, using winapi. I'm aware of how to delete a file if you know the exact name of that file, but I would like to delete all text files within that directory. This is my latest attempt:

void deleteFiles( WCHAR file[] )
{
  // WCHAR file[] is actually the directory path. i.e C:\Users\TheUser\Desktop\Folder\

  // Convert from WCHAR to char for future functions
  char filePath[ MAX_PATH ];
  int i;
  for( int i = 0; file[ i ] != '\0'; i++ )
  {
    // Cycle through each character from the array and place it in the new array
    filePath[ i ] = file[ i ];
  }
  // Place the null character at the end
  filePath[ i ] = '\0';

  // Generate WIN32_FIND_DATA struct and FindFirstFile()
  WIN32_FIND_DATA fileData;
  FindFirstFile( file, &fileData );

  // Display the filename
  MessageBox( NULL, fileData.cFileName, L"Check", MB_OK );
}

The message box only displays the folder that was selected, not the filename. Why is that happening?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1240

Answers (2)

Unknown
Unknown

Reputation: 5772

First of all, converting WCHARs to char is not a good idea, since the paths can contain Unicode characters and you'll get errors.

The second thing is that for FindFirstFile to work, you need to add wildcards, e.g. C:\Path\*.

Here's an example on MSDN which enumerates files in a directory: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365200%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Upvotes: 2

Some programmer dude
Some programmer dude

Reputation: 409146

A subtle problem is that you have two variables with the same name and different scope: One defined outside the loop and which is uninitialized; The other declared inside the loop.

The variables I'm referring to are the ones named i.

Because the one defined outside the loop is uninitialized, when you use it as an index to terminate the path its value is indeterminate and you have undefined behavior.

Upvotes: 2

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