How to hold the console open in C?

Question

What is a 'nice' standard way of holding the console open in C? I'm looking for something similar to cin.clear(), cin.get(); in C++.

The notion of a "console" is not in any way *standard* in either C or C++, so you're starting with a false premise. — Paul R, Oct 18 '11 at 20:06
possible duplicate of [Why does my program's output flash and close in Windows?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1048975/why-does-my-programs-output-flash-and-close-in-windows) — pmr, Oct 18 '11 at 20:09
@Paul R Oh, come one, do I really have to be so verbose in every single question I ask, even though my intent is clear? I obviously meant keeping the main function from returning and exiting until the user presses a key. — Paul Manta, Oct 18 '11 at 20:09
No verbosity issue here but lack of a good issue description and failure to google. — pmr, Oct 18 '11 at 20:11
Your intent may be clear to *you*, but it's not at all obvious to me. "Holding the console open" is pretty vague. If you actually meant "keeping the main function from returning and exiting until the user presses a key" then you should probably have said that in your question. — Paul R, Oct 18 '11 at 20:13
No, it's really not obvious what "holding the console open" means. The C++ fragment helps, but not enough; you might do that for any number of reasons other than what you said. — zwol, Oct 18 '11 at 20:14

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '11 at 20:10

10

puts("Press <enter> to quit:");
getchar();

That's assuming you need to do this in the program, which is probably not a good idea in general. And if I run your program from a shell, I'm going to be a bit annoyed at the extra step when I'm expecting the program to terminate nicely and let me have my next prompt.

answered Oct 18 '11 at 20:10

Keith Thompson

254,901
44
429
631

1

Thanks. I only use this in programs I'm asked to do in class, not in real world programs. – Paul Manta Oct 18 '11 at 20:12
Why isn't this method not working for me? (as of 2023) – Scott Mar 14 '23 at 05:14
@Scott I don't know. How exactly is it not working? What system are you running on? How are you running your program? – Keith Thompson Mar 14 '23 at 22:44
I'm using Windows 10. But, `system("pause");` worked for me – Scott Mar 15 '23 at 03:34
I have no idea why `getchar()` wouldn't work if `system("pause")` did. And without more information (how did it fail, how did you run the program), I never will. – Keith Thompson Mar 15 '23 at 05:39
doesnt work for me either, Win 10 x64 VS 17 – DrBwts Jun 13 '23 at 12:09
@DrBwts Same question: How exactly did it not work? – Keith Thompson Jun 13 '23 at 22:32
@KeithThompson turns out it was a bug that shut the program down before it got to the pause, all works now, nothing to see here..... – DrBwts Jun 14 '23 at 15:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 13 '18 at 21:16

1

I use the below 2 lines of code.

printf("Press ENTER key to Continue\n");
getchar();

answered Jun 13 '18 at 21:16

Iphiclus

264
3
8

That looks remarkably similar to [the answer I posted](https://stackoverflow.com/a/7813074/827263) 7 years before yours. – Keith Thompson Mar 14 '23 at 22:45

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 14 '23 at 05:52

0

/* Windows only */
#include <stdlib.h>

system("pause");

answered Mar 14 '23 at 05:52

Scott

4,974
6
35
62

ObscureRobot · Answer 4 · 2011-10-18T20:15:50.963

0

how about:

while (1) { sleep 3600; }

Or do you need to be able to respond to a keypress? If so, and you want to stick to the standard C library, then use scanf. Beware of buffer overruns.

What are you trying to do here? If you just need to keep your terminal open when your program exits, that's something you should set in your terminal emulator, not in your program.

edited Oct 18 '11 at 20:15

answered Oct 18 '11 at 20:05

ObscureRobot

7,306
2
27
36

Yup, a key press would be nice. Besides, is there even a standard sleep function to being with? – Paul Manta Oct 18 '11 at 20:06
"that's something you should set in your terminal emulator, not in your program" -- This isn't for real-world programs. I'd only use it in small programs that I'm asked to do in class. – Paul Manta Oct 18 '11 at 20:07
@Paul: No, there is no `sleep` function in standard C (there is one in POSIX). – Keith Thompson Oct 18 '11 at 20:08
You can usually find sleep in unistd.h on unix boxes. Windows also has a sleep that is roughly compatible, but it lives in Winbase.h. – ObscureRobot Oct 18 '11 at 20:10
I'd go with scanf() in that case. – ObscureRobot Oct 18 '11 at 20:13

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 20:07

0

used to get a character from console but does not echo to the screen

getch();

answered Oct 18 '11 at 20:07

Ion Sapoval

635
5
8

`getch` is non-standard. For that matter, there are at least two very different functions by that name, one defined in the old Windows `` header, and one defined by curses / ncurses. – Keith Thompson Mar 14 '23 at 22:47

How to hold the console open in C?

5 Answers5

Linked