Question

I created a file chooser for windows it returns me a chosen file path. I want to read the given file but I do not know how to pass the file path to the right function.

File Form1.h I have a button action and inside of it I can get openFileDialog1->FileName but I do not know how to pass this variable to a readFile() function inside of main.cpp file.

I created a method to return the path:

    System::String^ filePath;
....    
    private: System::String^ getPath() { return filePath; }

Here is the file-pickers code:

private: System::Void button1_Click(System::Object^  sender, System::EventArgs^  e) {
              Stream^ myStream;
              OpenFileDialog^ openFileDialog1 = gcnew OpenFileDialog;

              openFileDialog1->InitialDirectory = "c:\\";
              openFileDialog1->Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";
              openFileDialog1->FilterIndex = 2;
              openFileDialog1->RestoreDirectory = true;

              if ( openFileDialog1->ShowDialog() == System::Windows::Forms::DialogResult::OK ){
                if ( (myStream = openFileDialog1->OpenFile()) != nullptr ){
                // Insert code to read the stream here.
                 textBox1->Text = openFileDialog1->FileName; //text box displays the chosen path 

                  myStream->Close();
                }
              }
         }

The variable is set on button click:

private: System::Void button2_Click(System::Object^  sender, System::EventArgs^  e) {
            filePath = textBox1->Text;
         }

How to call the return methods in my main.cpp:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "Form1.h"

using namespace main;
using namespace std;

[STAThreadAttribute]
int main(array<System::String ^> ^args)
{
    // Enabling Windows XP visual effects before any controls are created
    Application::EnableVisualStyles();
    Application::SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false); 

    // Create the main window and run it
    Application::Run(gcnew Form1());

    System::String^ p1 = /*Something missing her?*/getPath1(); //I am guessing it should look like this...
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Put the file name in a public property (public field, if it’s what you prefer) in the Form1 class (or make your getPath() method public) then:

Form1^ form = gcnew Form1();
Application::Run(form);
String^ p1 = form->FileName;