How can I tell if a given path is a directory or a file? (C/C++)

Question

I\'m using C and sometimes I have to handle paths like

• C:\\Whatever
• C:\\Whatever\\
• C:\\Whatever\\Somefile

Is there a way to ch

Answer 1

With C++14/C++17 you can use the platform independent is_directory() and is_regular_file() from the filesystem library.

#include  // C++17
#include 
namespace fs = std::filesystem;

int main()
{
    const std::string pathString = "/my/path";
    const fs::path path(pathString); // Constructing the path from a string is possible.
    std::error_code ec; // For using the non-throwing overloads of functions below.
    if (fs::is_directory(path, ec))
    { 
        // Process a directory.
    }
    if (ec) // Optional handling of possible errors.
    {
        std::cerr << "Error in is_directory: " << ec.message();
    }
    if (fs::is_regular_file(path, ec))
    {
        // Process a regular file.
    }
    if (ec) // Optional handling of possible errors. Usage of the same ec object works since fs functions are calling ec.clear() if no errors occur.
    {
        std::cerr << "Error in is_regular_file: " << ec.message();
    }
}

In C++14 use std::experimental::filesystem.

#include  // C++14
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

Additional implemented checks are listed in section "File types".