Full path of executable file in Windows, c++ [duplicate] - c++

Question

This question already has answers here:
Wide character output result [closed]
(2 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
I just want to get full path of my executable file written on console, but the variable path just stores numbers how can i convert it to string (I know this code only outputs memory location of path)?
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main() {
WCHAR path[MAX_PATH];
GetModuleFileName(NULL, path, 500);
cout << "File path is: " << path << endl;
}

Answer 1

There are a couple of problems with your code:
You're passing the wrong size parameter to GetModuleFilename - the buffer size is supposed to be the size in TCHARs, which would be MAX_PATH in your case, not 500. That's a buffer overflow waiting to happen as 500 > MAX_PATH
You're using the narrow stream for your output, that can't print a wide string so you're seeing the address instead. To print wide characters, you need to use std::wcout instead.

Answer 2

As already noted in the comments, you may want to use wcout to print a WCHAR string.
You may want to consider a function like this to wrap the GetModuleFileName() call in a convenient C++ way:
#include <stdexcept> // For std::runtime_error
#include <string> // For std::wstring
#include <Windows.h> // For Win32 API
// Represents an error in a call to a Win32 API.
class win32_error : public std::runtime_error
{
public:
win32_error(const char * msg, DWORD error)
: std::runtime_error(msg)
, _error(error)
{ }
DWORD error() const
{
return _error;
}
private:
DWORD _error;
};
// Returns the full path of current EXE
std::wstring GetPathOfExe()
{
// Get filename with full path for current process EXE
wchar_t filename[MAX_PATH];
DWORD result = ::GetModuleFileName(
nullptr, // retrieve path of current process .EXE
filename,
_countof(filename)
);
if (result == 0)
{
// Error
const DWORD error = ::GetLastError();
throw win32_error("Error in getting module filename.",
error);
}
return filename;
}
Note that if you want the size in WCHARs of a raw string buffer, you may want to use _countof().

Answer 3

wchar are 16bit and you are using cout and that output stream expect 8bit char that's why you get weird number on the output
when you have to use wchar use wcout and take care of the kind of string you use!

Answer 4

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <windows.h>
std::wstring app_path() {
std::wstring path;
path.resize(MAX_PATH, 0);
auto path_size(GetModuleFileName(nullptr, &path.front(), MAX_PATH));
path.resize(path_size);
return path;
}
int main() {
auto path(app_path());
std::wcout << L"File path is: " << path << std::endl;
}
Try this one!