How to get Current Directory?

Question

I would recommend reading a book on C++ before you go any further, as it would be helpful to get a firmer footing. Accelerated C++ by Koenig and Moo is excellent.

To get the executable path use GetModuleFileName:

TCHAR buffer[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
GetModuleFileName( NULL, buffer, MAX_PATH );

Here's a C++ function that gets the directory without the file name:

#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

std::wstring ExePath() {
    TCHAR buffer[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
    GetModuleFileName( NULL, buffer, MAX_PATH );
    std::wstring::size_type pos = std::wstring(buffer).find_last_of(L"\\/");
    return std::wstring(buffer).substr(0, pos);
}

int main() {
    std::cout << "my directory is " << ExePath() << "\n";
}

GetCurrentDirectory does not allocate space for the result, it's up to you to do that.

TCHAR NPath[MAX_PATH];
GetCurrentDirectory(MAX_PATH, NPath);

Also, take a look at Boost.Filesystem library if you want to do this the C++ way.

The question is not clear whether the current working directory is wanted or the path of the directory containing the executable.

Most answers seem to answer the latter.

But for the former, and for the second part of the question of creating the file, the C++17 standard now incorporates the filesystem library which simplifies this a lot:

#include <filesystem>
#include <iostream>

std::filesystem::path cwd = std::filesystem::current_path() / "filename.txt";
std::ofstream file(cwd.string());
file.close();

This fetches the current working directory, adds the filename to the path and creates an empty file. Note that the path object takes care of os dependent path handling, so cwd.string() returns an os dependent path string. Neato.

IMHO here are some improvements to anon's answer.

#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

std::string GetExeFileName()
{
  char buffer[MAX_PATH];
  GetModuleFileName( NULL, buffer, MAX_PATH );
  return std::string(buffer);
}

std::string GetExePath() 
{
  std::string f = GetExeFileName();
  return f.substr(0, f.find_last_of( "\\/" ));
}

An easy way to do this is:

int main(int argc, char * argv[]){
    std::cout << argv[0]; 
    std::cin.get();
}

argv[] is pretty much an array containing arguments you ran the .exe with, but the first one is always a path to the executable. If I build this the console shows: C:\Users\Ulisse\source\repos\altcmd\Debug\currentdir.exe

#include <iostream>    
#include <stdio.h>
#include <dirent.h>

std::string current_working_directory()
{
    char* cwd = _getcwd( 0, 0 ) ; // **** microsoft specific ****
    std::string working_directory(cwd) ;
    std::free(cwd) ;
    return working_directory ;
}

int main(){
    std::cout << "i am now in " << current_working_directory() << endl;
}

I failed to use GetModuleFileName correctly. I found this work very well. just tested on Windows, not yet try on Linux :)

WCHAR path[MAX_PATH] = {0};
GetModuleFileName(NULL, path, MAX_PATH);
PathRemoveFileSpec(path);