What's the best way to check if a file exists in C?

Question

What's the best way to check if a file exists in C?

Is there a far better way than simply trying to open the file?

int exists(const char fname)

{

    FILE file;

    if ((file = fopen(fname, "r")))

    {

        fclose(file);

        return 1;

    }

    return 0;

}

cross-platform filesystem

4 years ago by vishaljlf39

2 Answers

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**akshay1995** · Answer 1 · 2021-05-19T11:17:25



FILE *file;

    if((file = fopen("sample.txt","r"))!=NULL)

        {

            // file exists

            fclose(file);

        }

    else

        {

            //File not found, no memory leak since 'file' == NULL

            //fclose(file) would cause an error

        }

**kshitijrana14** · Answer 2 · 2021-05-20T13:44:20

Use stat like this:



#include <sys/stat.h>   // stat

#include <stdbool.h>    // bool type



bool file_exists (char *filename) {

  struct stat   buffer;   

  return (stat (filename, &buffer) == 0);

}

and call it like this:



#include <stdio.h>      // printf



int main(int ac, char

av) {
if (ac != 2)
return 1;

if (file_exists(av[1]))
printf("%s exists\n", av[1]);
else
printf("%s does not exist\n", av[1]);

return 0;
}

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What's the best way to check if a file exists in C?

2 Answers

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