How to parse arguments in a Win32 Console Application?

Question

everyone. I know there are a lot of related threads, but I can't understand them very well, so I decided to write my own.

I am trying to write a Win32 Console Application, and this is I would like to do:

Let's suppose my name app is: MyApp.exe, so I want every time I type in the command line:

MyApp.exe -W Hello

My app writes "Hello" in the output. Same as other arguments. Basically, I want to control every argument that I want but I don't know how to do that.

This is all I have:

    #include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <Windows.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv [])
{

    int count;


    printf("This program was called with  \"%s\". \n", argv[1]);
    printf("\n");

    system("Pause");

}

I mean, I know every argument is in the argv array, but I don't know how to parse that, like:

if(argv[1] == "-W")

It does not work.

Thanks a lot!

Assuming you forgot the "C" language tag on this question, tag on this, take a look at [this possible duplicate](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9642732/parsing-command-line-arguments) — WhozCraig, Aug 12 '13 at 14:49

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 12 '13 at 14:50

0

You cannot do string compares using ==, you need something like

if (strcmp(argv[1], "-W") == 0)

For case-insensitive comparisons, you need to use _stricmp() instead.

See this MSDN article on String Manipulation.

answered Aug 12 '13 at 14:50

Edward Clements

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 12 '13 at 14:54

0

If you're using C, use the strcmp function:

if(strcmp(argv[1], "-W") == 0) { /* the first argument is -W */ }

If you're using C++, use the operator==:

if(std::string(argv[1]) == "-W") { /* the first argument is -W */ }

answered Aug 12 '13 at 14:54

Smi

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How to parse arguments in a Win32 Console Application?

2 Answers2