Problems with Visual C++: Reading all files in a directory - c++

Question

I'm trying to read all files in a directory. I have the following code:
void scanDirectory(char* dir)
{
WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;
HANDLE hFind = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
char DirSpec[MAX_PATH]; // directory specification
strcpy(DirSpec, dir);
strcat(DirSpec, "\\*");
hFind = FindFirstFile(DirSpec, &FindFileData);
int i = 0;
do {
i++;
printf("%d \n", i);
if (FindFileData.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
{
printf(" %s <DIR>\n", FindFileData.cFileName);
}
else
{
printf("File %s\n", FindFileData.cFileName);
}
} while(!FindNextFile(hFind, &FindFileData));
FindClose(hFind);
}
The problem is that when I execute the code it results in an infinite loop. Also the output characters are strange, like "File ".

Answer 1

I think you are not using chars and wide chars in a consequent way. You should either use functions with wide char and wchar_t type or vice versa. (But it was a compile error for me so it may depend on some kind of project settings as well.)
And your exit condition in the while loop is also wrong it should test for FindNextFile and not !FindNextFile. The infinite loop may be because of this condition as if it doesn't find any files it will run forever.
Also you should test for the return value of FindFirstFile and not go into the loop if it doesn't find any files.

Answer 2

You are calling !FindNextFile instead of FindNextFile, also you are not checking why
the FindNextFile fails, so you can't be sure if all the files were processed.
Use something like this.
WIN32_FIND_DATA stFindData;
HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile(cSearchPattern, &stFindData);
if(hFind != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
do
{
// Process File
}
while (FindNextFile(hFind, &stFindData) != 0);
DWORD dwError = GetLastError();
if (dwError != ERROR_NO_MORE_FILES)
{
// Not All Files processed, deal with Error
}
FindClose(hFind);
}

Answer 3

Can't you just use .Net like below:
System.IO.DirectoryInfo dir = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(Path);
System.IO.FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
foreach (System.IO.FileInfo file in files)
{
// Do whatever you need with the file info...
string filename = file.Name;
string fullFilename = file.FullName;
}
This is a c# example but you can use for each in C++ the same. Hope this helps.