Deleting A Directory in C++

When we delete a directory programatically we can't delete it when there is some files or folders inside the directory.  We can delete only the empty folders.

Otherwise, We usually delete  recursively search and delete all files and then we delete all folders and finally we delete the folder which we want to delete.

But the following code snippet uses shell operation and delete the directory directly without any recursive function.

It is faster than the recursive function.

 

bool DeleteDirectory(LPCTSTR lpszDir)
{
 int len = _tcslen(lpszDir);
 TCHAR *pszFrom = new TCHAR[len+2];
 _tcscpy(pszFrom, lpszDir);
 pszFrom[len] = 0;
 pszFrom[len+1] = 0;

 SHFILEOPSTRUCT fileop;
 fileop.hwnd   = NULL;    // no status display
 fileop.wFunc  = FO_DELETE;  // delete operation
 fileop.pFrom  = pszFrom;  // source file name as double null terminated string
 fileop.pTo    = NULL;    // no destination needed
 fileop.fFlags = FOF_NOCONFIRMATION|FOF_SILENT;  // do not prompt the user

 

 fileop.fAnyOperationsAborted = FALSE;
 fileop.lpszProgressTitle     = NULL;
 fileop.hNameMappings         = NULL;

 int ret = SHFileOperation(&fileop); 
 delete [] pszFrom;  
 return (ret == 0);
}