Program cannot access file.

[bytebaron]

Hi guys. I am quite new to qtcreator and I tried to make a simple program that opened up a file, read the contents and set a label equal to it. My code is as follows:

main.cpp

#include "mainwindow.h"

#include <QApplication>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);
    MainWindow w;
    w.show();
    return a.exec();
}

mainwindow.cpp

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <QDebug>

std::string readTimeFromFile() {
    std::fstream timefile;
    timefile.open("timelog.txt");

    if(!timefile.is_open()) {
        qDebug() << "File not opening";
    }

    std::string thetime;
    std::getline(timefile, thetime);
    timefile.close();
    return thetime;

}

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent)
    : QMainWindow(parent)
    , ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
    ui->setupUi(this);
    std::string timeToDisplay = readTimeFromFile();
}


MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
    delete ui;
}

I assume it's because of the directory where the compiled program ends up and have looked at supposed solutions to this online but some seem so complex that I'd rather get a solid answer before I proceed. Thanks for any help.

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

Where is that file located ?
Any reason for the path to be hardcoded ?
What will be its use ?

[bytebaron]

@sgaist Hey and thank you. I added a new file via right-clicking the sources folder and adding the text file that way. The directory is: C:\Users\Byte\Documents\testProg (testProg is the name of the project, pretty bad). The file is just going to keep track of a time. It's an eternal stopwatch. An example use case:

1. I load the program up, the label is set to the time stored in the file.
2. I exit the program, the time elapsed is added to the original time and is written back to the file.

[SGaist]

In that case, use QStandardPaths to get a suitable location for your application data and put the file there.

[bytebaron]

@sgaist I used the method and got a filepath returned however the directory returned doesn't actually exist?

[bytebaron]

Ah, figured it out. Thanks for the help.