Why can't one open a file in a different directory like "..\test.dat"?

A: Since " " is a tab character.

You must employ forward slashes in your filenames, even on operating systems which use backslashes (Windows, DOS, OS/2, etc.). For instance:

#include

#include

int main()

{

#if 1

std::ifstream file("../test.dat"); // RIGHT!

#else

std::ifstream file(".. est.dat"); // WRONG!

#endif

...

}

Keep in mind, the backslash ("\") is utilized in string literals to generate special characters: "\b" is a backspace, "\n" is a newline, and "\a" is an "alert", " " is a tab, "\v" is a vertical-tab, etc. Thus the file name "\version\next\alpha\beta est.dat" is interpreted such as a bunch of extremely funny characters. To be secure, employ "/version/next/alpha/beta/test.dat" in spite of, even on systems which use a "\" as the directory separator. It is because the library routines on these operating systems handle "\" and"/" interchangeably.

Certainly you could employ "\\version\\next\\alpha\\beta\ est.dat", however that might hurt you (there's a non-zero chance you'll forget one of the "\"s, a rather subtle bug since most people don't notice it) & it can't help you (there's no advantage for using "\\" over "/"). In addition "/" is more portable since it works on all flavors of Unix, Inferno, Plan 9, all Windows, OS/2, etc., however "\\" works only on subset of that list. Thus "\\" costs you something and gains you nothing: use "/" instead.