C++ All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 4

Building Directories and Contents

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating and deleting directories

Getting the contents of a directory

Copying and moving, and why they are related

Moving and renaming files and why they are similar

Native C++ versions before version 17 provide no functions for creating directories and getting the contents of a directory. (C++ 17 and above provides access to the filesystem library, but it isn’t implemented in most compilers yet.)You need to know two points about this situation:

• There really is a good reason for this lack. C++ is a general-purpose language. Issues that deal with directories are specific to individual operating systems. Thus it doesn’t make sense to include such features in C++.
• Some brave rebels have added some functions — and these functions exist in most C++ implementations. These additions are important; otherwise, you’d have to call in to the operating system to create or modify a directory.

C++ has a holdover from the C programming language in the header file stdio.h that includes functions for renaming and removing files and directories. ...