Entering a folder with a template path

I am using Visual Studio C 2017 Professional and MFC

I am working on a project which has a function that collects file paths (like C:/foo1/foo2/foo3.txt) as strings, if a file with that path exists (found using the filesystem library).

At first this looks straightforward until I see that the file paths often are simply (for lack of a better word) templates.

My program is given a template file path such as this: C:/User/Documents/%A/%B.txt, where %A represents a year (which my program has a range for and iterates through each year, comparing to the template folder) and %B is the month, again iterating.

It only gets more complicated, because we now add two more template symbols: * and ?. For example: C:/User/Documents/*_%A_??_*/%B_*.txt.

Here, * represents 0 or more characters and ? represents one character. So in the example, a filepath like: C:/User/Documents/smile_2022_A1_/07_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP.txt should be found and saved as a string.

I am able to separate the file path via tokenization, meaning I already have a function that collects a vector filled with, say, C:, foo1, foo2, foo3.txt. With this I can iterate through the vector either with a loop or recursively enter a folder until I either:

reach a deadend (aka the folder or file does not exist)
reach the file I want and save its entire path as a string

One thought I have come up with is look for _ symbols and separate the folder or file name with those but this gets countered by:

if the * or ? contain a _
if the folder or file name simply do not contain _

The solution I am looking for ideally does not utilize regex. However, if that is the only solution (obviously I do not want to recreate regex), please advise me on how I can use it on varying path complexities, as my function should allow for both regular folder paths without template symbols and those with them.

The reason I say no regex is because from my understanding, it is a little more strict when it comes to comparing a file. It expects the string to be written in a certain generic but consistent way. However, in my case I cannot expect a user to name their folders in a consistent manner...

CodePudding user response：

Once you replace YOUR env variables (%A, %B, etc.), then FindFirstFile, FindNextFile API calls support wild cards.