Absolute Path Reference

[scooke]

I am trying to open a file and print the contents of the file to the terminal window. It works when I put the file right in the directory with the Solution but not if the file is out on my desktop and I use the full path. Any ideas what I am doing wrong? Here is the code:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int OpenFile(){
	fstream SampleFile;
	SampleFile.open ("C:\\Users\\scooke\\Desktop\\sample.csv");
	if (SampleFile.is_open())
	{
		string line;
		while (getline (SampleFile,line))
		{
			cout<<line<<endl;
		}
		SampleFile.close();
	}
	else
	cout <<"Could not open file."<<endl;
	
	return 0;
}

int main()
{
	OpenFile();
	return 0;
}

[Little Bobby Tables]

Are you sure that the path is 100% correct?

[scooke]

Yes,

Here is a screenshot of the properties window for the file.

http://i.imgur.com/IsMs4gL.png

[dhayden]

What error does open() return?

Try moving sample.csv to C:\ and see if the code works there. Then move it down one directory at a time.

It might also be possible that your compiler wants forward slashes (/) instead of backslashes (\) for the path delimiter, but I'm reaching here.

Dave

[scooke]

Thanks for the reply. I've added the file to the C Drive folder and tried "C:\\sample.csv" and "C://sample.csv" and neither worked. It still continues to work from the local directory. Very strange. I am not getting any compile errors, I am just getting the else message that I've asked for in the event that the file is not successfully opened which is "Could not open file."

Very strange. Any other ideas?

[dhayden]

Ugh. Does fstream set errno? You could print it out to see why it's failing. Looking at the reference, I don't see that open() provides any details on why it might fail.

Are the file permissions read-only? I bet that would do it. If you're just reading the file, use ifstream instead of fstream, which supports both reading and writing.