How can we check if a file Exists or not using Win32 program?

How can we check if a file Exists or not using a Win32 program? I am working for a Windows Mobile App.

Use GetFileAttributes to check that the file system object exists and that it is not a directory.

BOOL FileExists(LPCTSTR szPath)
{
  DWORD dwAttrib = GetFileAttributes(szPath);

  return (dwAttrib != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES && 
         !(dwAttrib & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY));
}

Copied from How do you check if a directory exists on Windows in C?

You can make use of the function GetFileAttributes. It returns 0xFFFFFFFF if the file does not exist.

You can call FindFirstFile.

Here is a sample I just knocked up:

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int fileExists(TCHAR * file)
{
   WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;
   HANDLE handle = FindFirstFile(file, &FindFileData) ;
   int found = handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
   if(found) 
   {
       //FindClose(&handle); this will crash
       FindClose(handle);
   }
   return found;
}

void _tmain(int argc, TCHAR *argv[])
{
   if( argc != 2 )
   {
      _tprintf(TEXT("Usage: %s [target_file]\n"), argv[0]);
      return;
   }

   _tprintf (TEXT("Looking for file is %s\n"), argv[1]);

   if (fileExists(argv[1])) 
   {
      _tprintf (TEXT("File %s exists\n"), argv[1]);
   } 
   else 
   {
      _tprintf (TEXT("File %s doesn't exist\n"), argv[1]);
   }
}

How about simply:

#include <io.h>
if(_access(path, 0) == 0)
    ...   // file exists

Another option: 'PathFileExists'.

But I'd probably go with GetFileAttributes.

You can try to open the file. If it failed, it means not exist in most time.

Came across the same issue and found this brief code in another forum which uses GetFileAttributes Approach

DWORD dwAttr = GetFileAttributes(szPath);
if (dwAttr == 0xffffffff){

  DWORD dwError = GetLastError();
  if (dwError == ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND)
  {
    // file not found
  }
  else if (dwError == ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND)
  {
    // path not found
  }
  else if (dwError == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED)
  {
    // file or directory exists, but access is denied
  }
  else
  {
    // some other error has occured
  }

}else{

  if (dwAttr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
  {
    // this is a directory
  }
  else
  {
    // this is an ordinary file
  }
}

where szPath is the file-path.

Use OpenFile with uStyle = OF_EXIST

if (OpenFile(path, NULL, OF_EXIST) == HFILE_ERROR)
{
    // file not found
}
// file exists, but is not open

Remember, when using OF_EXIST, the file is not open after OpenFile succeeds. Per Win32 documentation:

Value	Meaning
OF_EXIST (0x00004000)	Opens a file and then closes it. Use this to test for the existence of a file.

See doc: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-openfile

Another more generic non-windows way:

static bool FileExists(const char *path)
{
	FILE *fp;
	fpos_t fsize = 0;

	if ( !fopen_s(&fp, path, "r") )
	{
		fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);
		fgetpos(fp, &fsize);
		fclose(fp);
	}

	return fsize > 0;
}