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

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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 within my program

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GNU Manual FTW  http   www gnu org software libc manual html node Simple-Directory-Lister html Simple-Directory-Lister  Also  sometimes it s good to go right to the source  pun intended   You can learn a lot by looking at the innards of some of the most common commands in Linux  I ve set up a simple mirror of GNU s coreutils on github  for reading    https   github com homer6 gnu coreutils blob master src ls c  Maybe this doesn t address Windows  but a number of cases of using Unix variants can be had by using these methods   Hope that helps

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This implementation realizes your purpose  dynamically filling an array of strings with the content of the specified directory   int exploreDirectory const char  dirpath  char    list  int  numItems        struct dirent   direntList      int i      errno   0       if    numItems   scandir dirpath   amp direntList  NULL  alphasort      -1          return errno       if      list    malloc sizeof char        numItems               fprintf stderr   Error in list allocation for file list  dirpath  s  n   dirpath           exit EXIT FAILURE              for  i   0  i  lt   numItems  i                list  i    stringDuplication direntList i - gt d name              for  i   0  i  lt   numItems  i              free direntList i               free direntList        return 0

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This answer should work for Windows users that have had trouble getting this working with Visual Studio with any of the other answers    Download the dirent h file from the github page  But is better to just use the Raw dirent h file and follow my steps below  it is how I got it to work    Github page for dirent h for Windows  Github page for dirent h  Raw Dirent File  Raw dirent h File Go to your project and Add a new Item  Ctrl Shift A   Add a header file   h  and name it dirent h  Paste the Raw dirent h File code into your header  Include  dirent h  in your code  Put the below void filefinder   method in your code and call it from your main function or edit the function how you want to use it    include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt string h gt   include  dirent h   string path    C  folder     Put a valid path here for folder  void filefinder         DIR  directory   opendir path c str         struct dirent  direntStruct       if  directory    NULL            while  direntStruct   readdir directory                 printf  File Name   s n   direntStruct- gt d name     If you are using  lt stdio h gt                std  cout  lt  lt  direntStruct- gt d name  lt  lt  std  endl    If you are using  lt iostream gt                      closedir directory

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System call it   system   dir  b  s  a-d    gt  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

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This worked for me  It writes a file with just the names  no path  of all the files  Then it reads that txt file and prints it for you   void DisplayFolderContent                  system  dir  n  b    gt  file names txt            char ch          std  fstream myStream  file names txt   std  fstream  in           while  myStream get ch                         std  cout  lt  lt  ch

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Based on the answers above  include  lt vector gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt algorithm gt    ifdef  WIN32  include  lt windows h gt  std  vector lt std  string gt  files in directory std  string path        std  vector lt std  string gt  files          check directory exists     char fullpath MAX PATH       GetFullPathName path c str    MAX PATH  fullpath  0       std  string fp fullpath       if  GetFileAttributes fp c str       FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY          return files          get file names     WIN32 FIND DATA findfiledata      HANDLE hFind   FindFirstFile  LPCSTR  fp    quot     quot   c str     amp findfiledata       if  hFind    INVALID HANDLE VALUE                do                        files push back findfiledata cFileName                      while  FindNextFile hFind   amp findfiledata            FindClose hFind                 delete current and parent directories     files erase std  find files begin    files end     quot   quot         files erase std  find files begin    files end     quot    quot             sort in alphabetical order     std  sort files begin    files end          return files     else  include  lt dirent h gt  std  vector lt std  string gt  files in directory std  string directory        std  vector lt std  string gt  files          open directory     DIR  dir      dir   opendir directory c str         if  dir    NULL          return files          get file names     struct dirent  ent      while   ent   readdir dir      NULL          files push back ent- gt d name       closedir dir           delete current and parent directories     files erase std  find files begin    files end     quot   quot         files erase std  find files begin    files end     quot    quot             sort in alphabetical order     std  sort files begin    files end          return files     endif      WIN32

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Since files and sub directories of a directory are generally stored in a tree structure  an intuitive way is to use DFS algorithm to recursively traverse each of them   Here is an example in windows operating system by using basic file functions in io h  You can replace these functions in other platform  What I want to express is that the basic idea of DFS perfectly meets this problem      include lt io h gt   include lt iostream h gt   include lt string gt  using namespace std   void TraverseFilesUsingDFS const string amp  folder path       finddata t file info     string any file pattern   folder path             intptr t handle    findfirst any file pattern c str    amp file info        If folder path exsist  using any file pattern will find at least two files     and             of which     means current dir and      means parent dir    if  handle    -1          cerr  lt  lt   folder path not exist     lt  lt  folder path  lt  lt  endl         exit -1             iteratively check each file or sub directory in current folder    do         string file name file info name    from char array to string          check whtether it is a sub direcotry or a file        if  file info attrib  amp   A SUBDIR               if  file name         amp  amp  file name                          string sub folder path   folder path          file name                                 TraverseFilesUsingDFS sub folder path                  cout  lt  lt   a sub folder path     lt  lt  sub folder path  lt  lt  endl                                else             cout  lt  lt   file name     lt  lt  file name  lt  lt  endl        while   findnext handle   amp file info     0               findclose handle

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One function is enough  you don t need to use any 3rd-party library  for Windows     include  lt Windows h gt   vector lt string gt  get all files names within folder string folder        vector lt string gt  names      string search path   folder               WIN32 FIND DATA fd       HANDLE hFind     FindFirstFile search path c str     amp fd        if hFind    INVALID HANDLE VALUE             do                   read all  real  files in current folder                  delete     read other 2 default folder   and                if    fd dwFileAttributes  amp  FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY                      names push back fd cFileName                          while   FindNextFile hFind   amp fd               FindClose hFind               return names      PS  as mentioned by  Sebastian  you could change     to   ext in order to  get only the EXT-files  i e  of a specific type  in that directory

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I recommend using glob with this reusable wrapper  It generates a vector lt string gt  corresponding to file paths that fit the glob pattern    include  lt glob h gt   include  lt vector gt  using std  vector   vector lt string gt  globVector const string amp  pattern       glob t glob result      glob pattern c str   GLOB TILDE NULL  amp glob result       vector lt string gt  files      for unsigned int i 0 i lt glob result gl pathc   i           files push back string glob result gl pathv i               globfree  amp glob result       return files      Which can then be called with a normal system wildcard pattern such as   vector lt string gt  files   globVector

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Try boost for x-platform method  http   www boost org doc libs 1 38 0 libs filesystem doc index htm  or just use your OS specific file stuff

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C  17 now has a std  filesystem  directory iterator  which can be used as   include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt  namespace fs   std  filesystem   int main         std  string path     path to directory       for  const auto  amp  entry   fs  directory iterator path           std  cout  lt  lt  entry path    lt  lt  std  endl      Also  std  filesystem  recursive directory iterator can iterate the subdirectories as well

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include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt  namespace fs   std  filesystem   int main         std  string path    quot  path to directory quot       for  const auto  amp  entry   fs  directory iterator path           std  cout  lt  lt  entry path    lt  lt  std  endl

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For a C only solution  please check this out  It only requires an extra header   https   github com cxong tinydir  tinydir dir dir  tinydir open  amp dir    path to dir     while  dir has next        tinydir file file      tinydir readfile  amp dir   amp file        printf   s   file name       if  file is dir                printf                 printf   n         tinydir next  amp dir      tinydir close  amp dir     Some advantages over other options    It s portable - wraps POSIX dirent and Windows FindFirstFile It uses readdir r where available  which means it s  usually  threadsafe Supports Windows UTF-16 via the same UNICODE macros It is C90 so even very ancient compilers can use it

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Here is a very simple code in C  11 using boost  filesystem library to get file names in a directory  excluding folder names     include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt boost filesystem hpp gt  using namespace std  using namespace boost  filesystem   int main         path p  D  AnyFolder        for  auto i   directory iterator p   i    directory iterator    i                  if   is directory i- gt path       we eliminate directories                       cout  lt  lt  i- gt path   filename   string    lt  lt  endl                    else             continue            Output is like   file1 txt file2 dat

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Check out this class which uses the win32 api  Just construct an instance by providing the foldername from which you want the listing then call the getNextFile method to get the next filename from the directory  I think it needs windows h and stdio h   class FileGetter      WIN32 FIND DATAA found       HANDLE hfind      char folderstar 255              int chk   public      FileGetter char  folder                  sprintf folderstar   s       folder           hfind   FindFirstFileA folderstar  amp found             skip           FindNextFileA hfind  amp found                      int getNextFile char  fname             skips    when called for the first time         chk FindNextFileA hfind  amp found           if  chk              strcpy fname  found cFileName                return chk

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Try scandir   from dirent h man scandir

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Unfortunately the C   standard does not define a standard way of working with files and folders in this way    Since there is no cross platform way  the best cross platform way is to use a library such as the boost filesystem module   Cross platform boost method      The following function  given a directory path and a file name  recursively searches the directory and its sub-directories for the file name  returning a bool  and if successful  the path to the file that was found    bool find file const path  amp  dir path             in this directory                 const std  string  amp  file name     search for this name                 path  amp  path found                 placing path here if found       if   exists dir path            return false       directory iterator end itr     default construction yields past-the-end      for  directory iterator itr dir path   itr    end itr    itr                if  is directory itr- gt status                           if  find file itr- gt path    file name  path found                    return true                    else if  itr- gt leaf      file name     see below                       path found   itr- gt path                return true                      return false       Source from the boost page mentioned above   For Unix Linux based systems    You can use opendir   readdir   closedir       Sample code which searches a directory for entry   name   is   len   strlen name   dirp   opendir       while   dp   readdir dirp      NULL          if  dp- gt d namlen    len  amp  amp   strcmp dp- gt d name  name                      void closedir dirp                   return FOUND             void closedir dirp   return NOT FOUND     Source code from the above man pages   For a windows based systems    You can use the Win32 API FindFirstFile   FindNextFile   FindClose functions      The following C   example shows you a minimal use of FindFirstFile    include  lt windows h gt   include  lt tchar h gt   include  lt stdio h gt   void  tmain int argc  TCHAR  argv         WIN32 FIND DATA FindFileData     HANDLE hFind      if  argc    2               tprintf TEXT  Usage   s  target file  n    argv 0          return            tprintf  TEXT  Target file is  s n    argv 1       hFind   FindFirstFile argv 1    amp FindFileData      if  hFind    INVALID HANDLE VALUE              printf   FindFirstFile failed   d  n   GetLastError           return           else              tprintf  TEXT  The first file found is  s n                     FindFileData cFileName         FindClose hFind             Source code from the above msdn pages

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Why not use glob      include  lt glob h gt   glob t glob result  glob   your directory    GLOB TILDE NULL  amp glob result   for unsigned int i 0  i lt glob result gl pathc    i     cout  lt  lt  glob result gl pathv i   lt  lt  endl

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Just something that I want to share and thank you for the reading material  Play around with the function for a bit to understand it  You may like it  e stood for extension  p is for path  and s is for path separator    If the path is passed without ending separator  a separator will be appended to the path  For the extension  if an empty string is inputted then the function will return any file that does not have an extension in its name  If a single star was inputted than all files in the directory will be returned  If e length is greater than 0 but is not a single   then a dot will be prepended to e if e had not contained a dot at the zero position   For a returning value  If a zero-length map is returned then nothing was found but the directory was open okay  If index 999 is available from the return value but the map size is only 1 then that meant there was a problem with opening the directory path   Note that for efficiency  this function can be split into 3 smaller functions  On top of that  you can create a caller function that will detect which function it is going to call based on the input  Why is that more efficient  Said if you are going to grab everything that is a file  doing that method the subfunction that built for grabbing all the files will just grab all that are files and does not need to evaluate any other unnecessary condition everytime it found a file    That would also apply to when you grab files that do not have an extension  A specific built function for that purpose would only evaluate for weather if the object found is a file and then whether or not if the name of the file has a dot in it   The saving may not be much if you only read directories with not so much files  But if you are reading a mass amount of directory or if the directory has couple hundred thousands of files  it could be a huge saving    include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt sys stat h gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt dirent h gt   include  lt map gt   std  map lt int  std  string gt  getFile std  string p  std  string e       unsigned char s             if   p size    gt  0            if  p back      s  p    s            if   e size    gt  0            if   e at 0          amp  amp    e size      1  amp  amp  e at 0            e         e             DIR  dir      struct dirent  ent      struct stat sb      std  map lt int  std  string gt  r     999   FAILED         std  string temp      int f   0      bool fd       if    dir   opendir p c str        NULL            r erase  999           while   ent   readdir  dir      NULL               temp   ent- gt d name              fd   temp find         std  string  npos  true   false              temp   p   temp               if  stat temp c str     amp sb     0  amp  amp  S ISREG sb st mode                    if   e size      1  amp  amp  e at 0                                r f    temp                      f                      else                       if  e size      0                           if   fd    false                                r f    temp                              f                                                      continue                                             if  e size    gt  temp size    continue                       if   temp substr temp size   - e size       e                            r f    temp                          f                                                                             closedir dir           return r        else           return r           void printMap auto  amp m       for  const auto  amp p   m            std  cout  lt  lt   m    lt  lt  p first  lt  lt          lt  lt  p second  lt  lt  std  endl           int main        std  map lt int  std  string gt  k   getFile                printMap k       return 0

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you can get all  direct of files in your root directory by using std  experimental   filesystem  directory iterator    Then  read the name of these pathfiles    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt direct h gt  using namespace std  namespace fs   std  experimental  filesystem  void ShowListFile string path    for auto  amp p  fs  directory iterator path      get directory         cout lt  lt p path   filename   lt  lt endl       get file name    int main      ShowListFile  C  Users dell Pictures Camera Roll     getchar    return 0

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Shreevardhan answer works great  But if you want to use it in c  14 just make a change namespace fs   experimental  filesystem   i e     include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt   using namespace std  namespace fs   experimental  filesystem   int main         string path    C   splits         for  auto  amp  p   fs  directory iterator path           cout  lt  lt  p  lt  lt  endl      int n      cin  gt  gt  n

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include lt iostream gt   include  lt dirent h gt  using namespace std  char ROOT           void listfiles char  path       DIR   dirp   opendir path       dirent   dp      while    dp   readdir dirp     NULL              cout  lt  lt  dp- gt d name  lt  lt    size    lt  lt  dp- gt d reclen lt  lt std  endl             void closedir dirp      int main int argc  char   argv        char  path      if  argc gt 1  path argv 1   else path ROOT       cout lt  lt  list files in    lt  lt path lt  lt     lt  lt std  endl      listfiles path        return 0

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char   getKeys char  data dir  char  tablename  int  num keys        char   arr   malloc MAX RECORDS PER TABLE sizeof char     int i   0  for   i  lt  MAX RECORDS PER TABLE  i        arr i    malloc   MAX KEY LEN 1    sizeof char         char  buf    char   malloc   MAX KEY LEN 1  sizeof char     snprintf buf  MAX KEY LEN 1    s  s   data dir  tablename    DIR  tableDir   opendir buf   struct dirent  getInfo   readdir tableDir      ignore     readdir tableDir      ignore       i   0  while 1          getInfo   readdir tableDir       if  getInfo    0          break      strcpy arr i     getInfo- gt d name       num keys    i  return arr

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I hope this code help you    include  lt windows h gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt vector gt  using namespace std   string wchar t2string const wchar t  wchar        string str           int index   0      while wchar index     0                str     char wchar index             index            return str     wchar t  string2wchar t const string  amp str        wchar t wchar 260       int index   0      while index  lt  str size                  wchar index     wchar t str index             index            wchar index    0      return wchar     vector lt string gt  listFilesInDirectory string directoryName        WIN32 FIND DATA FindFileData      wchar t   FileName   string2wchar t directoryName       HANDLE hFind   FindFirstFile FileName   amp FindFileData        vector lt string gt  listFileNames      listFileNames push back wchar t2string FindFileData cFileName         while  FindNextFile hFind   amp FindFileData           listFileNames push back wchar t2string FindFileData cFileName         return listFileNames     void main         vector lt string gt  listFiles      listFiles   listFilesInDirectory  C     txt        for each  string str in listFiles          cout  lt  lt  str  lt  lt  endl

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I think  below snippet can be used to list all the files   include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt dirent h gt   include  lt sys types h gt   int main int argc  char   argv         list dir  quot myFolderName quot        return EXIT SUCCESS       static void list dir const char  path        struct dirent  entry      DIR  dir   opendir path       if  dir    NULL            return             while   entry   readdir dir      NULL            printf  quot  s n quot  entry- gt d name              closedir dir      This is the structure used  present in dirent h   struct dirent       ino t d ino     inode number        off t d off     offset to the next dirent        unsigned short d reclen     length of this record        unsigned char d type     type of file        char d name 256      filename

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UPDATE 2017  In C  17 there is now an official way to list files of your file system  std  filesystem  There is an excellent answer from Shreevardhan below with this source code   include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt  namespace fs   std  filesystem   int main         std  string path    quot  path to directory quot       for  const auto  amp  entry   fs  directory iterator path           std  cout  lt  lt  entry path    lt  lt  std  endl     Old Answer  In small and simple tasks I do not use boost  I use dirent h which is also available for windows  DIR  dir  struct dirent  ent  if   dir   opendir   quot c   src   quot       NULL         print all the files and directories within directory      while   ent   readdir  dir      NULL        printf   quot  s n quot   ent- gt d name         closedir  dir     else        could not open directory      perror   quot  quot      return EXIT FAILURE     It is just a small header file and does most of the simple stuff you need without using a big template-based approach like boost no offence  I like boost    The author of the windows compatibility layer is Toni Ronkko  In Unix  it is a standard header

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Building on what herohuyongtao posted and a few other posts   http   www cplusplus com forum general 39766   What is the expected input type of FindFirstFile   How to convert wstring into string   This is a Windows solution   Since I wanted to pass in std  string and return a vector of strings I had to make a couple conversions    include  lt string gt   include  lt Windows h gt   include  lt vector gt   include  lt locale gt   include  lt codecvt gt   std  vector lt std  string gt  listFilesInDir std  string path        std  vector lt std  string gt  names        Convert string to wstring     std  wstring search path   std  wstring convert lt std  codecvt utf8 lt wchar t gt  gt    from bytes path       WIN32 FIND DATA fd      HANDLE hFind   FindFirstFile search path c str     amp fd       if  hFind    INVALID HANDLE VALUE                 do                           read all  real  files in current folder                  delete     read other 2 default folder   and                if    fd dwFileAttributes  amp  FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY                                    convert from wide char to narrow char array                 char ch 260                   char DefChar                        WideCharToMultiByte CP ACP  0  fd cFileName  -1  ch  260   amp DefChar  NULL                   names push back ch                                    while    FindNextFile hFind   amp fd              FindClose hFind             return names

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This works for me  I m sorry if I cannot remember the source  It is probably from a man page    include  lt ftw h gt   int AnalizeDirectoryElement  const char  fpath                               const struct stat  sb                              int tflag                               struct FTW  ftwbuf       if  tflag    FTW F        std  string strFileName fpath        DoSomethingWith strFileName         return 0      void WalkDirectoryTree  const char   pchFileName       int nFlags   0     if  nftw pchFileName  AnalizeDirectoryElement  20  nFlags     -1        perror  nftw           int main       WalkDirectoryTree  some dir

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I tried to follow the example given in both answers and it might be worth noting that it appears as though std  filesystem  directory entry has been changed to not have an overload of the  lt  lt  operator  Instead of std  cout  lt  lt  p  lt  lt  std  endl  I had to use the following to be able to compile and get it working    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt filesystem gt   include  lt string gt  namespace fs   std  filesystem   int main         std  string path     path to directory       for const auto amp  p   fs  directory iterator path           std  cout  lt  lt  p path    lt  lt  std  endl      trying to pass p on its own to std  cout  lt  lt  resulted in a missing overload error

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

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