Hi im new to c++ and i need some help understanding

[Napcrisis]

As above, i need to make a program out of c++ with encryption and file erasing function(prevents recovery) as my FYP. But the course never taught us c++ before so having alot of problems, hope that you can help.
Im incharged of the file erasure part and so im trying to understand this

bool WipeFile (string * inFilePath, int nWipes )
{
    bool status = false;
    FileStream * sw;
    Byte Patterns[];
    __int64 fileLength=0;
    int patIndex =0;
 
    if (nWipes<1) nWipes =1;
    else if (nWipes>200) nWipes=200;
 
    try {
        // Open the file with exclusive access
 
        sw = new FileStream (inFilePath, FileMode::Open ,
                 FileAccess::Write, FileShare::None);
 
        Patterns = new Byte[nWipes] ;
        // Create a pattern index
 
 
        for (patIndex = 0; patIndex < 
            Patterns->Count ; patIndex++) 
            Patterns[patIndex] = patIndex;
 
        fileLength = sw->Length ;
        for (patIndex=0; patIndex < 
            Patterns->Count ; patIndex++) 
        {
            sw->Seek (0,SeekOrigin::Begin );
            for (int i =0; i <= fileLength ;i++)
                sw->Write (Patterns,patIndex,1);
          }
        sw->Flush ();
        sw->Close ();
 
        // Safe to remove the file now
 
        File::Delete (inFilePath); 
        status = true;
        }
        catch (Exception * e) 
        {
            Console::Writeline (e->ToString());
        }
    return status;
}
 

btw i got this piece of code from codeproject.com
The thing is that it won't run which i suspect due to lack of include statements. What do i need inorder for this to work?

[Studlyami]

Welcome to the bytes and THANK YOU for actually using the code tags. A bit of a warning this site considers the link you posted above as competition and they may remove the link/code. On the page where that code is located it was stated "The code is written for the .NET environment using Visual C++.NET". Is your project strictly using c++ or are you using .net as well? Also that code would "wipe out the contents of the file before it deletes it". Do you have to do this or can you just delete the file? If your just looking for a basic function to remove a file check out the remove function. You can see an example here. . Hopes this helps.

Also that code was just a function and not a complete executable program. Is this project going to be a console app or what GUI library are you using?