finding specific files in a file in c++ - c++

Question

I have a file named mama. This file contains 3 files named child1 child2 and child3. child1 contains 5 txts,child2 contains 7 txts and child3 contains 4 txts. The path of mama is C:\Users\John\Desktop\mama .Sorry for my way of writing but i am trying to explain exactly my case. My goal is to find the paths of all these txts(16 in number) so i can do things with them. So i think a function that finds this paths and put them in a linked list
struct paths
{
string pathName;
paths *next;
};
would be exactly what i need to use them one by one. I found some examples about FindFirstFile() and FindNextFile(), i also tried to run some code so i could understand with some testing how it works but erros keep apeared forbiding the oportunity for testing and understanding. By the way i use visual Studio 2008(it's the one they said we should use so i guess i can't change it). If someone can help me understand or got any link that would have some good and somehow easy to understand examples i would be really thankfull.
Edit:
For example with this code
#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
WIN32_FIND_DATA fData;
void * handle = FindFirstFile( "C:/Users/John/Desktop/*", &fData );//<~~~error
cout << fData.cFileName;
system("pause");
}
There is 1 error: Error 1 error C2664: 'FindFirstFileW' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'const char [24]' to 'LPCWSTR'

Answer 1

first, you should declare a WIN32_FIND_DATA structure
then find the first file in a directory ( ie C:/Users/John/Desktop/* )
paths * head;
WIN32_FIND_DATA fData;
void * handle = FindFirstFile( "C:/Users/John/Desktop/*", &fData );
check to see if it's the file you want using:
fData.cFileName // the file name is stored here ( ie C:/Users/John/Desktop/child2.txt )
you can do this in a loop:
while( !CheckFileNameHere( fData.cFileName, head->pathname ) ) FindNextFile( handle, &fData );
increment the list:
head = head->next;
or finish:
CloseHandle( handle );
How you obtain the paths is up to you. If you have stored them in a file, use and of the
functions from stdio.h, iostream, or windows.h. If you write this as a function, you can reuse it for any file name you have.
If you are getting runtime errors using these methods, you should post the exact errors so that we can figure out why they aren't working. Same goes for compilation errors.