How can I get the list of files in a directory using C or C++?

Question

How can I determine the list of files in a directory from inside my C or C++ code?

I\'m not allowed to execute the ls command and parse the results from

Answer 1

System call it!

system( "dir /b /s /a-d * > file_names.txt" );

Then just read the file.

EDIT: This answer should be considered a hack, but it really does work (albeit in a platform specific way) if you don't have access to more elegant solutions.