Using command-line arguments in C++

By: Lakshmi  

Many operating systems, such as DOS and UNIX, enable the user to pass parameters to your program when the program starts. These are called command-line options, and are typically separated by spaces on the command line. For example:

SomeProgram Param1 Param2 Param3

These parameters are not passed to main() directly. Instead, every program's main() function is passed two parameters. The first is an integer count of the number of arguments on the command line. The program name itself is counted, so every program has at least one parameter. The example command line shown previously has four. (The name SomeProgram plus the three parameters make a total of four command-line arguments.)

The second parameter passed to main() is an array of pointers to character strings. Because an array name is a constant pointer to the first element of the array, you can declare this argument to be a pointer to a pointer to char, a pointer to an array of char, or an array of arrays of char.

Typically, the first argument is called argc (argument count), but you may call it anything you like. The second argument is often called argv (argument vector), but again this is just a convention.

It is common to test argc to ensure you've received the expected number of arguments, and to use argv to access the strings themselves. Note that argv[0] is the name of the program, and argv[1] is the first parameter to the program, represented as a string. If your program takes two numbers as arguments, you will need to translate these numbers to strings. On Day 21 you will see how to use the standard library conversions. Listing below illustrates how to use the command-line arguments.

Using command-line arguments.

1:     #include <iostream.h>
2:     int main(int argc, char **argv)
3:     {
4:        cout << "Received " << argc << " arguments...\n";
5:        for (int i=0; i<argc; i++)
6:           cout << "argument " << i << ": " << argv[i] << endl;
7:     return 0;
8: }

Output: TestProgram  Teach Yourself C++ In 21 Days
Received 7 arguments...
argumnet 0: TestProgram.exe
argument 1: Teach
argument 2: Yourself
argument 3: C++
argument 4: In
argument 5: 21
argument 6: Days

Analysis: The function main() declares two arguments: argc is an integer that contains the count of command-line arguments, and argv is a pointer to the array of strings. Each string in the array pointed to by argv is a command-line argument. Note that argv could just as easily have been declared as char *argv[] or char argv[][]. It is a matter of programming style how you declare argv; even though this program declared it as a pointer to a pointer, array offsets were still used to access the individual strings.

On line 4, argc is used to print the number of command-line arguments: seven in all, counting the program name itself.

On lines 5 and 6, each of the command-line arguments is printed, passing the null-terminated strings to cout by indexing into the array of strings.




Archived Comments

1. in tc not accept argument directly run and gave file name in argument 1 so plz tc correct program ga
View Tutorial          By: vishal vekariya at 2012-11-16 11:06:38

2. Excellent tutorial.
I have written a blog on C/C++ tutorials and one post also discusses comm

View Tutorial          By: Haziq at 2011-12-19 16:30:18

3. nice...thanks a lot
It is very useful to me..
please include some more examples

View Tutorial          By: jamal at 2011-10-14 04:57:58

4. nice...thanks a lot
It is very useful to me..
please include some more examples

View Tutorial          By: jamal at 2011-10-14 04:57:20

5. It is nice...
View Tutorial          By: Bunty at 2011-02-20 23:43:53

6. well,its better to teach with video how it works
View Tutorial          By: c.muthukumar at 2010-09-22 07:28:24

7. This came out of a book
View Tutorial          By: Kyle Bradley at 2010-04-12 19:48:12

8. can u give a gud example on command line arguments
View Tutorial          By: shravan at 2010-04-09 23:11:18

9. @3
argc simply means the argument count.

Thanks for the explanation on comman

View Tutorial          By: CDub at 2010-02-22 09:32:54

10. A good and useful tutorial for beginners.
thanks a lot.

View Tutorial          By: Hayk at 2010-01-12 10:55:15

11. what does argc means?
View Tutorial          By: Don Panganiban at 2009-10-09 21:19:48

12. Very useful. Thank you. Would be interesting to know how the program obtains argc? And what type of
View Tutorial          By: Sergei at 2009-02-07 19:20:16

13. Very useful. Thank you. Would be interesting to know how the program obtains argc? And what type of
View Tutorial          By: Sergei at 2009-02-07 19:19:21

14. Very useful. Thank you. Would be interesting to know how the program obtains argc? And what type of
View Tutorial          By: Sergei at 2009-02-07 19:18:46

15. Simple and to the point. Thanks for this tutorial.
View Tutorial          By: Balvinder at 2008-08-03 04:40:05


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