I am a new to programming in C++, it has been 1 month since I started. I use VSCode has my main IDE and made many projects with it. But each time I move a project in a different folder or pull one from a Github repository, the intellisense tells me that it cannot open source files in every header file or source file.
example of highlighting issue
Compiling is fine, the issue is I cannot see any basic writing mistakes and correct them directly.
(Using Windows 10, Mingw32, Makefile or CMake to compile)
I tried to add the path of library include folders in the c_cpp_properties.json (as seen in many tutorials) but it doesn't work. I also tried to change the intellisense mode in the settings but with no results.
Include path example
Several solutions from other forums have been tried but nothing works.
Do you have any idea how I can solve this ?
I have been programming a game in c++ using the sfml library. However, I would like to adjust some of the code of that library, and use that altered code in my project.
So instead of linking the dll I would like to add the source code and then play with that source code. (e.g. for speed optimization).
I know that doing something like that is generally speaking a bad idea. Howeover, I want to learn by playing around a bit and trying different things.
So how would I add the sfml source code to my c++ project in MS visual studio. Note that I am a total noob. I already tried adding the sfml folder that I downloaded from git in the project properties page called "Additional Include Directories", but i am getting errors, of the form "Cannot open include file: 'SFML/Graphics/GLCheck.hpp': No such file or directory" so I guess that i have not yet done enough.
If you want to modify the source code in the library, all you'd have to do is just navigate to where you have SFML installed and go into the code files with a text editor and edit them.
Then, you could link the library to your VS project the same way you would normally but that library is now modified by you.
Seeing as you have a search directory issue already in VS, you must fix that first. Fix that and then go and modify the library's .hpp, .h, .cpp, whatever files in-place.
To fix the search issue.... I don't use VS for graphics, I use CodeBlocks so I am not sure about their GUI to link libraries and change search directories... but, find out where you installed SFML. Check your /usr/include/, it's probably there. Specify that path in the search directories. Just go and find where that GLCheck.hpp file is located. For Example: Say it's full path is /usr/include/SFML/Graphics/GLCheck.hpp... then /usr/include/SFML/Graphics/ or just /usr/include/ (VS might handle it recursively) needs to be in the list of SEARCH DIRECTORIES.
I started working as a research fellow at my university and was instructed to develop a component for an already existing application written in C++ using an in-house framework, also developed in C++.
Currently I am struggling with properly setting up the project in Visual Studio 2017.
Whenever I try to include a file from the framework, IntelliSense complains about not being able to open the file.
However, following things add to the oddness of the problem:
The solutions properties are set correctly; the project DOES build without any complaints.
Writing the '#include'-directive, IntelliSense DOES suggest the correct relative path to the header files (i.e. #include <framework/class.h>).
I can open the header file from within the source file referencing it, using the 'Open Document "class.h"' dialog.
I have already came across this:
IntelliSense: Cannot open source file in include path
Intellisense cannot open source file "*.h"
So far, nothing solved my issue. Did someone come across this issue yet?
TL;DR
Everything compiles fine.
"C/C++ -> General -> Additional Include Directories" is set properly.
"VC++ Directories -> Include Directories" is set as well.
IntelliSense properly suggests header file, when writing include directive.
BUT IntelliSense reportedly fails to open the file, thus not indexing it.
I am stuck with a fancy but resource hungry text editor.
EDIT:
I am working on a MacBook "13 2016; installed Windows 10 Pro 64-bit via Bootcamp.
This issue occurs because Windows now has the option for making folders case-sensitive and intellisense has a habit of changing the case of files that it tries to open.
Intellisense tries to use a path like C:\WORKSPACEPATH\PROJECTDIR\MYFILE.cpp (i.e. all uppercase), but if C:\workspace (or any of the other directories in the path) are set to be case-sensitive and don't exactly match, it won't be found.
In my case it was because I created the folder via WSL which enables case sensitivity by default on any new directories it creates (including via things like git clone). See here
Easy Fix
This can be fixed by running the following:
fsutil file setCaseSensitiveInfo <directory> disable
More Commands
You can check whether a folder has case sensitivity enabled by running
fsutil file queryCaseSensitiveInfo <directory>
and Finally, a handy one-liner to disable this recursively:
for /r /d %f in (.) do (fsutil file setCaseSensitiveInfo %f disable)
(This info was originally posted as a comment to the original question, before it turned out it was in fact the same problem. See the comments for input from a couple of other people)
For a Linux project open in Visual Studio 2022, I tried the accepted answer from #yothsoggoth, , which makes sense to me, but unfortunately didn't work.
I realized that visual studio couldn't even open the C++ file from the standard library using F12 but it could open others from other libraries.
So in my case the solution was to close visual studio, backup the folder working as a cache.
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Linux to C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Linux.bak
Then I reopened Visual Studio and let CMake to regenerate the cache.
The errors now are gone and I can now even open <string> and others from the C++ std library with F12.
I hope this workaround helps others
So I am creating an app in VS2012 in MFC using an old Microsoft SDK (called VisSDK for machine vision) which worked fine with VS6. The problem is, I get this LNK1104 error, Cannot open file VisImSrcLibDB.lib.
I have done a search through the project for VisImSrcLibDB...but nothing came up. I have checked all the header files (external) and tried to see where is this being called.
I can presume (based on the name) that it seems to be part of the SDK, but cannot for the love of god figure out where is this being called from.
Any Help would be appreciated in this. Here is a screenshot:
PS: yes I have mapped the lib folder of the SDK under LINKER properties. and the corresponding include folder in the Additional Include directory.
If you haven't already, you should turn on the VS flags for verbose output. That should give some indication as to why things are being pulled into the build.
The VisImSrcLibDB.lib must exist some where in your VisSDK directory.
Use the PROJECT-Properties command, All configurations from the Configuration drop down list and add the directory containing the VisImSrcLibDB.lib file to the Library Directories in the VC++ Directories section.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Try adding the header file to your project's files. (right click on project -> add existing file).
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!
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.
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.
In Visual Studio, click on Project > Rescan Solution as shown below to rebuild the project database.
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 :)
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!
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.
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':