How to pass command line arguements to my main function?

Question

So my main function looks like this:

int main(int numberOfArguments, char* argumentArray[]) {
        if (assemble(numberOfArguments, argumentArray)) {
                return 0;
        } else {
                return -1;
        }
}

I want to be able to give to the command line the arguement

./program inputFile.txt outputFile.txt // PROBLEM IS that this is being interpreted as 3 command line arguments somehow when it is only 2.

where inputFile.txt is argumentArray[0] and outputFile.txt is argumentArray[1]

What's your `assemble`? Your code is already able to process the command line arguments, by accessing your numOfArgs and argArray. — starrify, Nov 27 '13 at 06:48
Your program is stored as command 0 and the rest continue like that. So yes the interpretation is correct — smac89, Nov 27 '13 at 06:55

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

every word you type into the command line (beginning with the executable name) is passed to the main function at begin. related question

The first argument argumentArray[0] is the as readable in the realted question reserved. After that you get each word (seperated by whitespaces in the commandline) as an element in the argumentArray.

The size of the argumentArray is given by numberOfArguments.

So if you insist on having your input file on [0] you should work with some pointer arithmetics like argumentArray++; otherwise you have the given data at [1] and [2] automatically.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '13 at 06:59

The generation of arguments from the text command line is platform-specific, but the first element of the argv array is almost always the name used to find your program.

If you want to discard this first argument, simply add to the beginning of main:

-- numberOfArguments;
++ argumentArray;

How to pass command line arguements to my main function?

2 Answers2