C++ Visual Studio Code



PS: This was published on my Blog here.

Visual Studio dev tools & services make app development easy for any platform & language. Try our Mac & Windows code editor, IDE, or Azure DevOps for free. Visual Studio Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, macOS, and Windows. Download Visual Studio Code to experience a redefined code editor, optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. In this video you will learn How to Set up Visual Studio Code for Creating and Executing C and C Programs.Visual Studio Code is the widely used editor in C.

C++ Visual Studio Code Hello World

C++ is a statically-typed, free-form, (usually) compiled, multi-paradigm, intermediate-level general-purpose middle-level programming language.

Visual Studio Code C/C/Fortran with Multiple Source Files Visual Studio Code is a free source-code editor made by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git. Visualize your code with syntax colorization, guidelines, code tooltips, Class View, or Call Hierarchy. Navigate to any code symbol by reference, definition, declaration, and more. Autocomplete your code as you type, quickly repair problems, and refactor your code to.

In simple terms, C++ is a sophisticated, efficient, general-purpose programming language based on C.

It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979.

One of C++'s main features is the compiler. This is used to compile and run C++ code.

A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular programming language like C++ and turns them into machine language or 'code' that a computer's processor uses.

I actually wrote this article because I had a C++ assignment which required using a compiler. As usual, everyone was using the CodeBlocks IDE and Visual Studio IDE. But I was already used to Visual Studio Code for all my programming stuff.

I then set out to find a way of compiling C++ directly inside my own VsCode Editor, hence this article :).

In this article, I'll show you how to set up your compiler in VsCode and give you some links to some of the best C++ resources.

  • Prior knowledge of C++
    (I assume you're learning C++, about to start learning, or just reading this for fun. This article is not a C++ 101 tutorial – some understanding of C++ is needed.)
  • Visual Studio Code Editor
    Download here and read the setup docs for Windows, Linux and Mac
  • Internet connection (!important)

C++ Visual Studio Code Linux

Disclaimer!

I will be using a Windows OS throughout this article, but I'll provide links to resources that will help those using other operating systems.

C++ Visual Studio Code

Now let's get started!

  • Head to www.mingw.org and click the “Download/Installer” link to download the MinGW setup file, or click here for Windows, here for Linux, and here for Mac
MinGW, a contraction of 'Minimalist GNU for Windows', is a minimalist development environment for native Microsoft Windows applications.
  • After downloading, install MinGW and wait for the “MinGW Installation Manager” to show up.
  • When the “MinGW Installation Manager” shows up, click on mingw32-gcc-g++ then select “Mark for Installation”
  • In the menu at the top left corner, click on “Installation > Apply Changes”
  • Wait and allow to install completely. Ensure you have a stable internet connection during this process.

C++ Visual Studio Code Install

PATH is an environment variable on Unix-like operating systems, DOS, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, specifying a set of directories where executable programs are located. In general, each executing process or user session has its own PATH setting. - Wikipedia

After installing MinGW, it can be found in C:MinGWbin. Now you have to include this directory in your environment variable PATH. If you've been using computers for a while now you should know how to do this already, but if you don't, here are a few resources:

  • Click here for a Windows OS guide
  • Click here for Linux
  • Click here for a Mac OS guide

Now we have our compiler set up, let's install Code Runner

Code Runner allows you to Run code snippet or code file for multiple languages:

C, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Perl, Perl 6, Ruby, Go, Lua, Groovy, PowerShell, BAT/CMD, BASH/SH, F# Script, F# (.NET Core), C# Script, C# (.NET Core), VBScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Scala, Swift, Julia, Crystal, OCaml Script, R, AppleScript, Elixir, Visual Basic .NET, Clojure, Haxe, Objective-C, Rust, Racket, AutoHotkey, AutoIt, Kotlin, Dart, Free Pascal, Haskell, Nim, D, Lisp, Kit, and custom command.
  • Click here to download
  • Or search in VsCode marketplace tab
  • After installing restart VsCode
  • Open your C++ file in Vscode. Here's a basic hello world program below:

Save this file as test.cpp

C++ visual studio code compiler
  • Use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+N
  • Or press F1 and then select/type Run Code
  • Or right-click the Text Editor and then click Run Code in the editor context menu

The code will run and the output will be shown in the Output Window. Open the output window with `Ctrl+ shortcut.

  • Use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M
  • Or press F1 and then select/type Stop Code Run
  • Or right-click the Output Channel and then click Stop Code Run in the context menu

Hurray, you just successfully set up your C++ environment in VsCode!

Here's a quick hint: By default, VsCode's output terminal is read-only. If you're running code that requires user input like:

you won't be able to type into the terminal, Cannot edit in read-only terminal.
To fix this, you need to manually enable read-write.

  • In VsCode, Go to File > Preference > Setting.
  • In the User tab on the left panel, find the extensions section
  • Scroll and find 'Run Code Configuration'
  • Scroll and find a checkbox Run in Terminal (Whether to run code in Integrated Terminal) Check the box.
C++ Visual Studio Code

OR

  • In your setting.json file, add:

Hurray, you're done and ready to roll :).

Here are some C++ resources you can use to get started with learning C++

  • Code Runner by Jun Han

Thank you for reading!





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