Introduction to Using Visual C++ in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Transcription

1 Introduction to Using Visual C++ in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Note that for several of the operations discussed in this document, the description given is only one of multiple methods for achieving the task in question. Starting a new project: Click Start, Microsoft Visual Studio This will yield a start page something like (not exactly like) the following.

2 On the left (about 1/3 of the way down from the top), click New Project. This yields a screen something like the following. Toward the bottom, enter a Name for your project. You can then use the Browse button to determine where on your disk or network space the project will be saved. Choose Empty Project and click OK. This will create a project folder with the Name you entered, as a sub-folder of the folder to which you chose to save your project. The project folder will have several files and a sub-folder. The last click also yields a screen like the following.

3 The code you write for your computer program is in a source (or source code ) file. In the Solution Explorer (shown above at the right, top half, of the figure), right-click Source Files, then left-click Add, New Item. This yields a screen like the following.

4 If the file you wish to create is the driver code the code that contains the main function - of your program, choose C++ File as shown above. Enter the Name of your file. For the Location entry, you can probably accept the default, which will be in an appropriate place in your project folder, as shown above. When Name and Location are chosen, click Add. This yields a blank text file with the name you chose and the extension.cpp. If, instead, the file you wish to create is a header file, one to be included, perhaps via a #include directive in the driver file, then, instead of choosing C++ file from the menu above, choose Header File and proceed similarly. The file extension of a file created this way will be.h. Editing a file: The Visual Studio editor is an enhanced text editor. Alternately, if you really want, you can edit your source files using NotePad. Assuming you use the Visual studio editor, the editing screen might look like the following.

5 Notice the File menu and the Save buttons toward the top of the screen. These can be used to save your edited file in familiar fashion. Compiling and executing a program: When you re ready to see if your program will compile and run successfully, click the Start Debugging button, as shown below (the right arrowhead button with the orange background).

6 It may be, as in the current example, that your code has syntax errors. These are violations of the rules of how statements must be written in your programming language. If syntax errors are found by the compiler, they will be shown in the Description area at the bottom of the screen, as below.

7 Click the No button of the dialogbox to proceed with correction of the errors. The errors listed in the Description section, toward the bottom of the screen, are the compiler s guesses as to what might be wrong with your code. Sometimes, a compiler s guess is correct, and sometimes, it isn t. It s up to you to figure out the necessary corrections. Note also that one error often generates multiple error messages. Therefore, the first error message is a definite indication of something that s not right, but subsequent error messages may or may not be helpful. In the screen shown above, there are 2 references to line 6, both generated by the single error of having a colon where a semicolon should be. Further, an error message refers to the line of code at which a possible error is detected, which isn t always the same as the actual location of the error. If you click on one of the error messages of the Description section, your cursor will move to the line of code that the message references. After correcting errors, try to re-compile your program. It may take several rounds of editing and compiling before your program will run. When it does run, you may find that the window with input and output disappears rapidly upon completion of the program, perhaps before you are able to read and digest its results. A simple trick to keep the input/output (i/o) window visible until you re ready to be done with it is to place an otherwise useless input statement near the end of your main function (just before its return statement). As long as the user delays performing the expected input, the i/o window remains open, and you can read its data. Retrieving a previously saved project is done by retrieving the project s solution file, as shown below.

8 Notice also that the project folder has a Debug sub-folder. One of the files in the Debug folder is the project s executable file, called the Application file, as shown below. If you want to run your program without invoking the editor or compiler, simply retrieve the Application file.

9