You can use QFileInfo to distinguish between dirs and files. void myClass::openFile(const QString & _file) { QFileInfo fileInfo(_file); if(fileInfo.isFile()) { QFile fileToOpen(_file); if(fileToOpen.exists() == false) { printf("Error file:\"%s\" doesn't exist", _file.toStdString().c_str()); } .... } } -- Ender EREL