How to keep the console window open in Visual C

Question

I m starting out in Visual C   and I d like to know how to keep the console window   For instance this would be a typical  hello world  application    int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          cout  lt  lt   Hello World       return 0      What s the line I m missing

User · Answer

As some have already pointed out  Zoidbergs solution does not attach the debugger  which is something you usually don t want   The best option imo is to configure your VS accordingly  from VS 2017 onwards   by going to Tools   Options   Debugging   General  There you uncheck  Automatically close the console when debugging stops   at the very bottom   which is probably checked in your case

User · Answer

Some options are may be called by different names  I do not use the english version   I had the same problem  when I created projects with the option  empty project   Create project as  Win32-console application   instead of  empty project    In the dialog which pops up now  you press  continue  and after that you may check the option  empty project  and press confirm  After that CTRL   F5 will open a console which does not close automatically

User · Answer

cin get    or system  PAUSE    I haven t heard you can use return 0

User · Answer

The standard way is cin get   before your return statement   int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          cout  lt  lt   Hello World       cin get        return 0

User · Answer

int main                   getchar        return 0

User · Answer

int main                   getchar        return 0

User · Answer

You can use cin get    or cin ignore    just before your return statement to avoid the console window from closing

User · Answer

Simply add a Breakpoint to the closing bracket of your  tmain method  This is the easier way plus you don t have to add code in order to debug

User · Answer

Place a breakpoint on the ending brace of main    It will get tripped even with multiple return statements  The only downside is that a call to exit   won t be caught   If you re not debugging  follow the advice in Zoidberg s answer and start your program with Ctrl F5 instead of just F5

User · Answer

I had the same problem  In my application there are multiple exit   points and there was no way to know where exactly it exits  then I found out about this   atexit system  pause       or  atexit cin get       This way it ll stop no matter where we exit in the program

User · Answer

The standard way is cin get   before your return statement   int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          cout  lt  lt   Hello World       cin get        return 0

User · Answer

For makefile projects  the accepted solution fails  due to a bug in Visual Studio  which is present at least up until version 2012 - I haven t yet tested 2013   This bug is detailed here   In order to have the console pause after program termination on a makefile project  perform these steps  this may differ for versions other than 2010 - 2012    1  Pass  SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE to the linker  - EDIT  see below   2  Open your project file   vcxproj  in a text editor   3  Inside the root  lt project gt  tag  insert the following     lt ItemDefinitionGroup gt     lt Link gt       lt SubSystem gt Console lt  SubSystem gt     lt  Link gt   lt  ItemDefinitionGroup gt     4  Reload the project in your solution   5  Run the program without debugging  CTRL   F5    EDIT   As per my comment below  setting the linker option  SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE is actually irrelevant for makefile projects  and not necessarily even possible  if you are using a compiler other than MSVC   All that matters is that the setting is added to the  vcxproj file  as per step 3 above

User · Answer

Another option is to use   include  lt process h gt  system  pause      Though this is not very portable because it will only work on Windows  but it will automatically print     Press any key to continue

User · Answer

I had the same problem  In my application there are multiple exit   points and there was no way to know where exactly it exits  then I found out about this   atexit system  pause       or  atexit cin get       This way it ll stop no matter where we exit in the program

User · Answer

My 2 Cents   Choice 1  Add a breakpoint at the end of main     Choice 2  Add this code  right before the return 0    std  cout  lt  lt   Press ENTER to continue        So the User knows what to do std  cin ignore std  numeric limits lt std  streamsize gt   max      n      You need to include  lt iomanip gt  for std  numeric limits

User · Answer

just put a breakpoint on the last curly bracket of main       int main                  your code           return 0           lt - breakpoint here   it works for me  no need to run without debugging  It also executes destructors before hitting the breakpoint so you can check any messages print on these destructors if you have any

User · Answer

Another option is to use   include  lt process h gt  system  pause      Though this is not very portable because it will only work on Windows  but it will automatically print     Press any key to continue

User · Answer

Had the same problem  I am using   getch   just before the return statement  It works

User · Answer

You can use cin get    or cin ignore    just before your return statement to avoid the console window from closing

User · Answer

Put a breakpoint on the return line   You are running it in the debugger  right

User · Answer

I include  include  lt conio h gt  and then  add getch    just before the return 0  line  That s what I learnt at school anyway  The methods mentioned above here are quite different I see

User · Answer

Simply add a Breakpoint to the closing bracket of your  tmain method  This is the easier way plus you don t have to add code in order to debug

User · Answer

My 2 Cents   Choice 1  Add a breakpoint at the end of main     Choice 2  Add this code  right before the return 0    std  cout  lt  lt   Press ENTER to continue        So the User knows what to do std  cin ignore std  numeric limits lt std  streamsize gt   max      n      You need to include  lt iomanip gt  for std  numeric limits

User · Answer

You can use cin get    or cin ignore    just before your return statement to avoid the console window from closing

User · Answer

Had the same problem  I am using   getch   just before the return statement  It works

User · Answer

The standard way is cin get   before your return statement   int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          cout  lt  lt   Hello World       cin get        return 0

User · Answer

Here s a way to keep the command window open regardless of how execution stops without modifying any code   In Visual Studio  open Project Property Pages -  Debugging   For Command  enter   ComSpec   For Command Arguments  enter  k   TargetPath   Append any arguments to your own application   Now F5 or Ctrl-F5 executes Windows System32 cmd exe in a new window  and  k ensures that the command prompt stays open after execution completes   The downside is that execution won t stop on breakpoints

User · Answer

Another option is to use   include  lt process h gt  system  pause      Though this is not very portable because it will only work on Windows  but it will automatically print     Press any key to continue

User · Answer

As some have already pointed out  Zoidbergs solution does not attach the debugger  which is something you usually don t want   The best option imo is to configure your VS accordingly  from VS 2017 onwards   by going to Tools   Options   Debugging   General  There you uncheck  Automatically close the console when debugging stops   at the very bottom   which is probably checked in your case

User · Answer

Start the project with Ctrl F5 instead of just F5  The console window will now stay open with the Press any key to continue       message after the program exits  Note that this requires the Console   SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE  linker option  which you can enable as follows   Open up your project  and go to the Solution Explorer  If you re following along with me in K amp R  your  quot Solution quot  will be  hello  with 1 project under it  also  hello  in bold  Right click on the  hello quot   or whatever your project name is   Choose  quot Properties quot  from the context menu  Choose Configuration Properties gt Linker gt System  For the  quot Subsystem quot  property in the right-hand pane  click the drop-down box in the right hand column  Choose  quot Console   SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE  quot  Click Apply  wait for it to finish doing whatever it does  then click OK   If  quot Apply quot  is grayed out  choose some other subsystem option  click Apply  then go back and apply the console option  My experience is that OK by itself won t work    CTRL-F5 and the subsystem hints work together  they are not separate options   Courtesy of DJMorreTX from http   social msdn microsoft com Forums en-US vcprerelease thread 21073093-516c-49d2-81c7-d960f6dc2ac6

User · Answer

Some options are may be called by different names  I do not use the english version   I had the same problem  when I created projects with the option  empty project   Create project as  Win32-console application   instead of  empty project    In the dialog which pops up now  you press  continue  and after that you may check the option  empty project  and press confirm  After that CTRL   F5 will open a console which does not close automatically

User · Answer

just put a breakpoint on the last curly bracket of main       int main                  your code           return 0           lt - breakpoint here   it works for me  no need to run without debugging  It also executes destructors before hitting the breakpoint so you can check any messages print on these destructors if you have any

User · Answer

The standard way is cin get   before your return statement   int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          cout  lt  lt   Hello World       cin get        return 0

User · Answer

I include  include  lt conio h gt  and then  add getch    just before the return 0  line  That s what I learnt at school anyway  The methods mentioned above here are quite different I see

User · Answer

You can use cin get    or cin ignore    just before your return statement to avoid the console window from closing

User · Answer

Start the project with Ctrl F5 instead of just F5  The console window will now stay open with the Press any key to continue       message after the program exits  Note that this requires the Console   SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE  linker option  which you can enable as follows   Open up your project  and go to the Solution Explorer  If you re following along with me in K amp R  your  quot Solution quot  will be  hello  with 1 project under it  also  hello  in bold  Right click on the  hello quot   or whatever your project name is   Choose  quot Properties quot  from the context menu  Choose Configuration Properties gt Linker gt System  For the  quot Subsystem quot  property in the right-hand pane  click the drop-down box in the right hand column  Choose  quot Console   SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE  quot  Click Apply  wait for it to finish doing whatever it does  then click OK   If  quot Apply quot  is grayed out  choose some other subsystem option  click Apply  then go back and apply the console option  My experience is that OK by itself won t work    CTRL-F5 and the subsystem hints work together  they are not separate options   Courtesy of DJMorreTX from http   social msdn microsoft com Forums en-US vcprerelease thread 21073093-516c-49d2-81c7-d960f6dc2ac6

User · Answer

you can just put keep window open     before the return here is one example  int main         cout lt  lt  hello world  n       keep window open         return 0

User · Answer

cin get    or system  PAUSE    I haven t heard you can use return 0

User · Answer

Another option is to use   include  lt process h gt  system  pause      Though this is not very portable because it will only work on Windows  but it will automatically print     Press any key to continue

User · Answer

Place a breakpoint on the ending brace of main    It will get tripped even with multiple return statements  The only downside is that a call to exit   won t be caught   If you re not debugging  follow the advice in Zoidberg s answer and start your program with Ctrl F5 instead of just F5

User · Answer

just add system  pause   at the end of the code before return 0 like this   include  lt stdlib h gt   int main           some code goes here     system  pause       return 0

User · Answer

just add system  pause   at the end of the code before return 0 like this   include  lt stdlib h gt   int main           some code goes here     system  pause       return 0

User · Answer

Put a breakpoint on the return line   You are running it in the debugger  right

User · Answer

you can just put keep window open     before the return here is one example  int main         cout lt  lt  hello world  n       keep window open         return 0

User · Answer

Another option    ifdef  WIN32  define MAINRET system  pause   return 0  else  define MAINRET return 0  endif   In main   int main int argc  char  argv          MAINRET

User · Answer

For makefile projects  the accepted solution fails  due to a bug in Visual Studio  which is present at least up until version 2012 - I haven t yet tested 2013   This bug is detailed here   In order to have the console pause after program termination on a makefile project  perform these steps  this may differ for versions other than 2010 - 2012    1  Pass  SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE to the linker  - EDIT  see below   2  Open your project file   vcxproj  in a text editor   3  Inside the root  lt project gt  tag  insert the following     lt ItemDefinitionGroup gt     lt Link gt       lt SubSystem gt Console lt  SubSystem gt     lt  Link gt   lt  ItemDefinitionGroup gt     4  Reload the project in your solution   5  Run the program without debugging  CTRL   F5    EDIT   As per my comment below  setting the linker option  SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE is actually irrelevant for makefile projects  and not necessarily even possible  if you are using a compiler other than MSVC   All that matters is that the setting is added to the  vcxproj file  as per step 3 above

User · Answer

Another option    ifdef  WIN32  define MAINRET system  pause   return 0  else  define MAINRET return 0  endif   In main   int main int argc  char  argv          MAINRET

User · Answer

Here s a way to keep the command window open regardless of how execution stops without modifying any code   In Visual Studio  open Project Property Pages -  Debugging   For Command  enter   ComSpec   For Command Arguments  enter  k   TargetPath   Append any arguments to your own application   Now F5 or Ctrl-F5 executes Windows System32 cmd exe in a new window  and  k ensures that the command prompt stays open after execution completes   The downside is that execution won t stop on breakpoints

User · Answer

Actually  the real solution is the selection of the project template itself  You MUST select Win32 Console Application in older VS  or fill in the project name first and then double click on Windows Desktop wizard and then select Win32 console application  Then select empty project at this point  This then allows for what the original questioner really wanted without adding extra stopping point and hold code  I went through this problem as well   The answer is also at MSDN site

User · Answer

Actually  the real solution is the selection of the project template itself  You MUST select Win32 Console Application in older VS  or fill in the project name first and then double click on Windows Desktop wizard and then select Win32 console application  Then select empty project at this point  This then allows for what the original questioner really wanted without adding extra stopping point and hold code  I went through this problem as well   The answer is also at MSDN site

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