MoveFile function convert syntax / how to use MoveFile with variables to rename folders-CodePudding

This part of my programm tries to rename all folders and subfolders. All other functionality is in another code, here I'm just renaming a single folder by providing a path.

Since rename doesnt seem to work for me I tried using MoveFile.

I understand that it requires an LPCTSTR value.. but the paths I am currently providing (casted from std::filesystem::directory_entry -> std::filesystem::path) -> LPCTSTR) aren't accepted.

I'm getting that I'm not casting it the right way and I probably have to provide it with an "L" in front of the variable, but I can't find nor figure out the syntax.

Thanks in advance! And please don't down vote bomb me instantly just because I might not have 30 years experience.

bool renameFolder(std::string confirmStr3, auto dirEntry, std::string& replacedStr, std::string& insertStr, int& foldername_replacements)
{
    std::string path_string = dirEntry.path().string();

    path_string = std::filesystem::path(path_string).filename().string();

    replace_all(path_string, replacedStr, insertStr);

    path_string = getFolderPath(std::filesystem::path(dirEntry).string())   "\\"   path_string;
 

    if (std::filesystem::path(dirEntry) != std::filesystem::path(path_string))
        foldername_replacements  ;


    //std::filesystem::rename(std::filesystem::path(dirEntry), std::filesystem::path(path_string));
    MoveFile(LPCTSTR(std::filesystem::path(dirEntry)), LPCTSTR(std::filesystem::path(path_string)));

}

CodePudding user response：

You can't type cast a std::filesystem::path object directly to a character pointer. That is exactly what the error message is telling you. And you can't use the L prefix with variables, only with compile-time literals.

You need to call the path::c_str() method instead, or the path::(w)string() method and then c_str() on the returned std::(w)string object.

That being said, ,std::rename() is likely to be implemented on Windows using MoveFile/Ex() internally, so this is a possible XY Problem. std::rename() is the preferred solution, so you should focus your efforts on figuring out why it is not working for you.