Visual Studio Code gives me "#include error detected" for C

Question

I have started to learn c, I tried to use it with VS Code, but the #include < stdio.h> is highlighted in green with this error message:

#include errors detected. Please update your includePath. IntelliSense features for this translation unit
(C:\Users\Jerlam\Desktop\C\training\dweight.c) will be provided by the
Tag Parser.

could not open source file "stdio.h" (no directories in search list)

I have seen some topics about this issue, but none of them helped me to fix it.
Here is my c_cpp_properties.json file in which I have to add the path (of stdio). In fact the documentation about it is absolutely not beginner friendly.

    {
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10/Include/10.0.10240.0/ucrt"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "_DEBUG",
                "UNICODE",
                "_UNICODE"
        ],
            "intelliSenseMode": "clang-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

I have added manually this path:

"C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10/Include/10.0.10240.0/ucrt"

because it contains the stdio.h header.

What shall I do? Thanks.

Since you're using the mingw-w64 compiler, I would assume that the correct version of `stdio.h` would be the one in `c:\\mingw-w64\\include`? I know nothing about Windows or VS, but that looks wrong to me. — Lee Daniel Crocker, Aug 16 '18 at 19:49
Ups sorry, I added myself this line of code that I took from another post. This line is not there originally. I installed mingw, but it turns out that there is no include folder in C:/mingw/ ... — Jerlam, Aug 16 '18 at 21:07

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 05 '20 at 14:37

8

I have found the solution thanks to this video on how to Set Up C++ Development With Visual Studio Code on Windows 10 (VS Code).

I launched MinGW Installation Manager and installed all the package from the Basic Setup.
I added the path of the gcc compiler to my system´s environment variables: C:\MinGW\bin, in which is the gcc.exe.

I opened the c_cpp_properties.json file and added different paths for the folders I want to include. So now my c_cpp_properties.json file looks like this:

{
    "configurations": [{
        "name": "Win32",
        "includePath": [
            "${workspaceFolder}/**",
            "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\Include\\10.0.10240.0\\ucrt",
            "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\include",
            "C:\\MinGW\\lib\\gcc\\mingw32\\6.3.0",
            "C:\\MinGW\\lib\\gcc\\mingw32\\6.3.0\\include\\c++",
            "C:\\MinGW\\lib\\gcc\\mingw32\\6.3.0\\include"
        ],
        "defines": ["_DEBUG", "UNICODE", "_UNICODE"],
        "intelliSenseMode": "clang-x64"
    }],
    "version": 4
}

edited Dec 05 '20 at 14:37

KyleMit

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answered Aug 17 '18 at 10:12

Jerlam

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1

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/low-quality-posts/20613793) – Dov Benyomin Sohacheski Aug 17 '18 at 10:35
@DovBenyominSohacheski I am sorry, I am not completly used to stackoverflow. My solution was edited. – Jerlam Aug 17 '18 at 13:09
regarding this statement: `#include < stdio.h>` This does not have the proper syntax. There should be no spaces between the `<` nor `>` and the name of the header file – user3629249 Aug 17 '18 at 22:06
@user3629249 I put a space because otherwise it does not display anything, I don't know why... – Jerlam Aug 20 '18 at 08:15

Insane · Answer 2 · 2022-04-01T12:54:59.163

2

(Updated the answer)

Anyone else coming here, note VS Code keeps caches. If even after making changes to your c_cpp_properties.json the error doesn't go away. Try deleting the cache for your workspace (aka directory).

For,

Windows: C:\Users\<YOUR_USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Code\CachedData\*

Linux:

edited Apr 01 '22 at 12:54

answered Dec 19 '20 at 12:58

Insane

31
4

I think that may have fixed it... Thanks... By the way, the VSCode setting for the IntelliSense path is `C_Cpp.intelliSenseCachePath`. (On Linux, I navigated into it, found a folder named `/ipch/`, and ran `sudo rm -r ipch`.) – Andrew Jan 26 '21 at 02:39

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 11 '21 at 21:28

Worked for me, running VSCode on Windows 10.

Go to your project folder
Open .vscode subfolder
Go to c_cpp_properties.json
Replace everything you have in that file with this code:

{
"configurations": [
    {
        "name": "MinGW",

        "includePath": [
            "${workspaceFolder}"
        ],
        "defines": [
            "_DEBUG",
            "UNICODE",
            "_UNICODE"
        ],
        "intelliSenseMode": "clang-x64",
        "browse": {
            "path": [
                "${workspaceFolder}"
            ],
            "limitSymbolsToIncludedHeaders": true,
            "databaseFilename": ""
        },
        "cStandard": "c11",
        "cppStandard": "c++17"
    }
],
"version": 4
}

Save and restart the IDE.

"intelliSenseMode": "windows-gcc-x64" is now also a possibility — VMMF, Jul 02 '21 at 15:50

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 30 '21 at 02:40

It may happen if you have visual studio and code together on your pc. Just try to uninstall all C and C++ extensions from apps list, visual studio and visual studio code on your pc then restart and again install the vs code. I wasted my whole day behind it but no JSON file did work for me. you only need to put the MinGW-64/bin path in JSON file on vs code where ever you have installed the MinGW-64 on your pc. if you do not have MinGW on your pc I am putting a video link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HD0pqVtsmw

Visual Studio Code gives me "#include error detected" for C

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