Question

I implemented a solution to the problem meant to be cross-platform and adherent to the C++ standard library.

bool isdir(const char *string) {
   ofstream file(string, ios::out);
   return file.fail();
}

Yet, if the file is actually writable, the program opens an empty file with string name in its working directory.
How can I prevent this from happening?

Answer 1

There is no standard way of detecting if a file is a directory in C++. But you can use Boost.Filesystem. It is well portable.

Edit: It seems that this question has already been answered here.