CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++winapi
Rob
Rob

Reputation: 172

C++ get full path to file in directory

I have a program to set the wallpaper of the user to a file. I need to get the full path to the image file

Here is my code

#include <windows.h>
int main()
{
    FreeConsole();
    const wchar_t *filenm = L"hay.jpg"; //Get path to hay.jpg
    bool isWallSet = SystemParametersInfoW(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, 
    (void*)filenm, SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE);
    return 0;
}

Upvotes: 3

Views: 22587

Answers (2)

cf-
cf-

Reputation: 8866

Assuming the file in question is within your current working directory, GetFullPathName sounds like a good idea. It takes a filename and converts it into a full path by prepending the current working directory.

Pay careful attention to the warning in the docs: you can't safely use this API in a multithreaded program, because the current working directory is saved as a process-wide global variable which isn't thread-safe to access.

Also be aware the API will return a path whether the file exists within the working directory or not; it just takes the filename you give it and prepends the current working directory.

#include <windows.h>

int main()
{
  char filename[] = "test.txt";
  char fullFilename[MAX_PATH];

  GetFullPathName(filename, MAX_PATH, fullFilename, nullptr);

  MessageBox(NULL, fullFilename, "DEBUG", MB_OK);
}

Upvotes: 7

Marcel Kr&#252;ger
Marcel Kr&#252;ger

Reputation: 909

If you use Viual Studio 2015, you can use the new filesystem library for this.

#include <filesystem>
using filesystem = std::experimental::filesystem::v1;
  ...
  const wchar_t *filename = filesystem::canonical(L"hay.jpg").c_str();
  ...

Upvotes: 6

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