Configure Visual Studio Code for Microsoft C++ (2023)

In this tutorial, you will configure Visual Studio Code to use the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler and debugger on Windows.

After setting up VS Code, you'll compile and debug a simple Hello World program in VS Code. This tutorial does not teach details about the Microsoft C++ toolset or the C++ language. For these topics, there are many good resources available on the web.

If you run into any issues, feel free to submit an issue for this tutorial atVS Code documentation repository.

previous requirements

To successfully complete this tutorial, you must do the following:

1. installvisual studio code.

2. install theC/C++ Extension for VS Code. You can install the C/C++ extension by searching for 'c++' in the Extensions view (⇧⌘X(Windows,LinuxCtrl+Shift+X)).

   

3. Install the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler (MSVC) toolset.

   If you have a recent version of Visual Studio, open the Visual Studio installer from the Windows Start menu and make sure the C++ workload is checked. If it is not installed, check the box and select theModifybutton in the installer.

   You can also installDesktop development with C++workload without a full installation of the Visual Studio IDE. From Visual Studiodownloadspage, scroll down until you seeTools for Visual StudioUnder theall downloadssection and select download toBuild tools for Visual Studio 2022.

   

   This will launch the Visual Studio installer, which will open a dialog showing the available Visual Studio Build Tools workloads. Check theDesktop development with C++workload and selectinstall.

   

To use: You can use the Visual Studio Build Tools C++ toolset along with Visual Studio Code to compile, compile, and verify any C++ codebase as long as you also have a valid Visual Studio license (Community, Pro, or Enterprise) . actively using to develop this C++ code base.

Check your Microsoft Visual C++ installation

To use MSVC from a command line or VS Code, you must run from aVisual Studio Developer Command Prompt. A common shell such as PowerShell, Bash or Windows Command Prompt does not have the necessary path environment variables set.

To open Developer Command Prompt for VS, start typing 'developer' in the Windows start menu and you should see it in the list of suggestions. The exact name depends on the version of Visual Studio or the Visual Studio build tools you have installed. Select the item to open the notice.

You can prove that you have the C++ compiler,cl.exe, it was successfully installed by typing 'cl' and you will see a copyright message with the version and basic usage description.

If the developer command prompt is using the BuildTools location as its home directory (you don't want to put projects there), navigate to the user's folder (C:\users\{your username}\) before starting to create new projects.

To use: If for some reason you cannot run VS Code from aDeveloper Command Prompt, you can find a workaround for creating C++ projects with VS Code atRun VS Code outside of a developer command prompt.

(Video) How to Set up Visual Studio Code for C and C++ Programming

Create Hello World

In the developer command prompt, create an empty folder called "projects" where you can store all your VS Code projects, create a subfolder called "helloworld", navigate to it and open VS Code (code) in that folder (.) by typing the following commands:

mkdirProjectscdProjectsmkdirHello WorldcdHello Worldcode

The code ." command opens VS Code in your current working folder, which becomes your "workspace". As you progress through the tutorial, you'll see three files created in one.vscodefolder in workspace:

• tasks.json(building instructions)
• release.json(debugger settings)
• c_cpp_properties.json(compiler path and IntelliSense settings)

Add a source code file

In the File Explorer title bar, select thenew filebutton and file namehelloworld.cpp.

Add hello world source code

Now paste this source code:

#include <iostream>#include <vector>#include <string>using namespace standard;E T director(){array<string> message {"Hello","C++","World","of","VS-Code","and the C++ extension!"}; for(constantstring and word:message){cout << word <<" ";}cout << endl;}

now press⌘S(Windows,LinuxControle + S)to save the file. Notice how the file you just added appears in thefile browservista (⇧⌘E(Windows,LinuxCtrl+Mayus+E)) na barra lateral do VS Code:

You can also enableautosaveto automatically save changes to your file by checkingautosavein generalFilemenu.

The activity bar on the far left lets you open different views, such asTo search for,source of control, youRun. you will look at theRunsee later in this tutorial. You can find more information about the other views on VS CodeUser Interface Documentation.

To use– When saving or opening a C++ file, you may see a notification from the C/C++ extension about the availability of an Insiders build, which allows you to test new features and fixes. You can ignore this notification by selecting thex(Clear Notification).

Explore IntelliSense

in your newhelloworld.cppfile, hover overvectorochainto see the type of information. After the declaration ofmessagevariable, start typingmessagejust as you would when calling a member function. You should immediately see a complete list showing all member functions and a window showing the type information for themessageobject:

You can press the buttoneyelashkey to insert the selected member; then when you add the opening parenthesis you will see information about the arguments the function requires.

Execute helloworld.cpp

Remember, the C++ extension uses the C++ compiler you have installed on your machine to build your program. Make sure you have a C++ compiler installed before trying to run and debughelloworld.cppnot VS Code.

1. Openhelloworld.cppto make it the active file.

2. Hit the play button in the top right corner of the editor.

   

3. To chooseC/C++: active compilation and debug file cl.exefrom the list of compilers detected on your system.

   

You will only be asked to choose a compiler the first time you runhelloworld.cpp. This compiler will be set as the "default" compiler intasks.jsonfile.

4. After the compilation is successful, the output of your program will appear in the embedterminal.

   

If you get an error when trying to compile and debug with cl.exe, make sure you havestarted VS Code from developer command prompt for Visual Studiousing thecodeshortcut.

The first time you run your program, the C++ extension createstasks.json, which you will find in your project.vscodefile.tasks.jsonstores build settings.

your newtasks.jsonThe file should look similar to the JSON below:

{ "version":"2.0.0", "tasks": [{ "type":"concha", "label":"C/C++: active build file cl.exe", "domain":"cl.exe", "arguments": [ "/Day", "/EHsc", "/Fe:", "${fileDirname}\\${baseFileNameWithoutExtension}.exe", "${file}"], "matching issues": ["$msCompile"], "group": { "kind":"build", "is standard":TRUE}, "detail":"Task generated by the debugger."}]}

To use: You can get more information abouttasks.jsonvariable invariable reference.

Hedomainthe configuration specifies the program to run; in this case it is "cl.exe". Heargumentsarray specifies the command line arguments to be passed to cl.exe. These arguments must be specified in the order expected by the compiler.

This task tells the C++ compiler to get the active file (${file}), compile it and create an executable file (/Fe:change) in the current directory (${archivoDirname}) with the same name as the active file, but with the extension.exeextension (${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe), resulting inholamundo.exefor our example.

Helabelthe value is what you will see in the task list; you can name it whatever you like.

Hedetailthe value is what you want as the task description in the task list. We recommend renaming this value to differentiate it from similar tasks.

Hetroubleshootervalue selects the output parser to use to check the compiler output for errors and warnings. For cl.exe, you will get the best results if you use the$msCompileproblem matches.

From now on, the play button will read fromtasks.jsonto find out how to build and run your program. You can define multiple build tasks intasks.json, and all tasks marked as default will be used by the play button. In case you need to change the default compiler, you can runTasks: Set the default build task. Alternatively, you can modify thetasks.jsonfile and remove the default value by replacing this segment:

 "group": { "kind":"build", "is standard":TRUE},

like this:

 "group":"build",

Modificando tasks.json

you can modify yourtasks.jsonto build multiple C++ files using an argument like"${workspace folder}/*.cpp"rather than${file}.that will build everything.cppfiles in your current folder. You can also modify the output file name by replacing"${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"with an encoded filename (for example"${workspace folder}\\myProgram.exe").

Depurar helloworld.cpp

1. Back tohelloworld.cppto make it the active file.
2. Set a breakpoint by clicking in the editor's margin or using F9 on the current line.
3. From the drop-down menu next to the play button, selectC/C++ debug file.
4. To chooseC/C++: active compilation and debug file cl.exefrom the list of compilers detected on your system (you will only be asked to choose a compiler the first time you run/debughelloworld.cpp).

The play button has two modes:Run C/C++ fileyC/C++ debug file. The default will be the last used mode. If you see the debug icon on the play button, just click the play button to debug instead of selecting the dropdown menu item.

If you get an error when trying to compile and debug with cl.exe, make sure you havestarted VS Code from developer command prompt for Visual Studiousing thecodeshortcut.

explore the debugger

Before we start stepping through the code, let's look at a few UI changes:

• The Embedded Terminal appears at the bottom of the source code editor. At thedebug outputtab, you will see output indicating that the debugger is working.

• The editor highlights the line where you set a breakpoint before starting the debugger:

  

• Herun and debugThe display on the left shows debugging information. You'll see an example later in the tutorial.

• At the top of the code editor, a debug dashboard appears. You can move it around the screen by holding the dots on the left side.

  

step through the code

You are now ready to start stepping through the code.

1. Click or press the buttonwent overicon in the debug control panel.

   

   This will advance program execution to the first line of the for loop and skip all internal function calls within the loop.vectorychainClasses that are called when themessagethe variable is created and initialized. Notice the change inVariablesleft window.

   

   In this case, errors are to be expected because even though the loop variable names are now visible to the debugger, the statement has not yet been executed, so there is nothing to read at this point. the content ofmessagethey are visible, however, because that statement has completed.

2. Presswent overagain to advance to the next statement in this program (skipping all the internal code that runs to initialize the loop). now heVariableswindow displays information about loop variables.

3. Presswent overagain to run thecoutdeclaration. (Note that as of the March 2019 release, the C++ extension does not print any output to thedebug consoleuntil the loop exits.)

4. If you want, you can keep pressingwent overuntil all the words in the array have been printed to the console. But if you're curious, try pressing the buttonEnter intobutton for stepping through the source code in the C++ Standard Library.

   

   To get back to your own code, one way is to keep pressingwent over. Another way is to set a breakpoint in your code, switching to thehelloworld.cppguide in the code editor, placing the insertion point somewhere in thecoutstatement inside the loop and pressingF9. A red dot appears on the left gutter to indicate that a breakpoint has been set on this line.

   

   then pressF5to start execution from the current line in the standard library header. Execution will stopcout. If you want, you can pressF9again to disable the breakpoint.

set a clock

Sometimes you may want to keep track of the value of a variable as your program runs. You can do this by defining ato lookin variable.

1. Place the insertion point inside the loop. At theTo lookwindow, select the plus sign, and in the text box, typeword, which is the name of the loop variable. Now watch the Watch window as you step through the loop.

   

2. Add another watch by adding this statement before the loop:int i = 0;. Then inside the loop add this statement:++eu;. Now add a clock toeuas you did in the previous step.

3. To quickly see the value of any variable while execution is paused at a breakpoint, you can hover your mouse pointer over it.

   

Customize debugging with launch.json

When you debug with the play button orF5, the C++ extension creates a dynamic real-time debugging setup.

There are cases where you would like to customize your debug configuration, such as specifying arguments to pass to the program at runtime. You can define custom debug settings in arelease.jsonfile.

To createrelease.json, to chooseAdd debug configurationin the play button drop-down menu.

You'll see a dropdown menu for several predefined debug configurations. To chooseC/C++: active compilation and debug file cl.exe.

VS Code creates arelease.jsonfile, which looks like this:

{ "version":"0.2.0", "settings": [{ "name":"C/C++: active compilation and debug file cl.exe", "type":"cppvsdbg", "order":"to throw", "program":"${fileDirname}\\${baseFileNameWithoutExtension}.exe", "arguments": [], "stop at the entrance":FALSE, "cwd":"${workspace folder}", "environment": [], "external console":FALSE, "pre-launch task":"C/C++: active build file cl.exe"}]}

In the JSON above,programspecifies the program you want to debug. Here it is set to the active file folder (${archivoDirname}) and name of the active file with the.exeextension (${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe), Yeshelloworld.cppis the active file will beholamundo.exe. HeargumentsThe property is an array of arguments to be passed to the program at runtime.

By default, the C++ extension will not add any breakpoints to your source code and thestop at the entrancethe value is defined asFALSE.

Change thestop at the entrancevalor aTRUEto make the debugger stop atdirectormethod when you start debugging.

From now on, the play button andF5will read from yourrelease.jsonfile when starting your program for debugging.

C/C++ Settings

If you want more control over the C/C++ extension, you can create ac_cpp_properties.jsonfile, which will allow you to change settings like compiler path, include paths, standard C++ (default is C++17), and more.

You can view the C/C++ configuration UI by running the commandC/C++: Edit Settings (UI)from the command palette (⇧⌘P(Windows,LinuxCtrl+Shift+P)).

This opens theC/C++ Settingspage. When you make changes here, VS Code writes them to a file calledc_cpp_properties.jsonno.vscodefile.

Visual Studio Code puts this setting in.vscode\c_cpp_properties.json. If you open this file directly, it should look like this:

{ "settings": [{ "name":"Win32", "include Route": ["${workspace folder}/**"], "define": ["_DEBUG","UNICODE","_UNICODE"], "windowsSdkVersion":"10.0.18362.0", "compiler path":"C:/Archivos de programa (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/BuildTools/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.24.28314/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe", "cDefault":"c11", "cppStandard":"c++17", "intelliSense mode":"msvc-x64"}], "version":4}

You just need to add toinclude patharray configuration if your program includes header files that are not in your workspace or default library path.

compiler path

Hecompiler pathSettings is an important setting in your setup. The extension uses it to infer the path to the C++ Standard Library header files. When the extension knows where to find these files, it can provide useful features like smart completions andGo to Definitionnavigation.

The C/C++ extension tries to populatecompiler pathwith the default compiler location based on what it finds on your system. The extension looks in several common compiler locations.

Hecompiler pathsearch order is:

• First check the Microsoft Visual C++Ope compiler
• Em seguida, procure g++ no Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
• So g++ for Mingw-w64.

If you have g++ or WSL installed, you may need to changecompiler pathto match the preferred compiler for your project. For Microsoft C++, the path should look like this depending on the specific version you have installed: "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/BuildTools/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.16.27023/bin /Hostx64/ x64/cl.exe".

Reusing your C++ configuration

VS Code is now configured to use the Microsoft C++ compiler. Settings are applied to the current workspace. To reuse the configuration, just copy the JSON files to a.vscodefolder into a new project folder (workspace) and rename the source and executable files as needed.

Run VS Code outside developer command prompt

Under certain circumstances it is not possible to run VS Code fromVisual Studio Developer Command Prompt(for example, in Remote Development scenarios via SSH). In that case, you can automate the startup of theVisual Studio Developer Command Promptduring compilation using the followingtasks.jsoncontext:

{ "version":"2.0.0", "windows": { "options": { "concha": { "executable":"cmd.exe", "arguments": [ "/C", // The path to VsDevCmd.bat depends on the version of Visual Studio you have installed. "\"C:/Archivos de programa (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/Common7/Tools/VsDevCmd.bat\"", "&&"]}}}, "tasks": [{ "type":"concha", "label":"active build file cl.exe", "domain":"cl.exe", "arguments": [ "/Day", "/EHsc", "/Fe:", "${fileDirname}\\${baseFileNameWithoutExtension}.exe", "${file}"], "matching issues": ["$msCompile"], "group": { "kind":"build", "is standard":TRUE}}]}

To use: The way forVsDevCmd.batmay differ depending on the Visual Studio version or installation path. You can find your way toVsDevCmd.batopening a command prompt and runningdirectory "\VsDevCmd*" /s.

Problems solution

The term 'cl.exe' is not recognized

If you see the error "The term 'cl.exe' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program", this usually means you are running VS Code outside of aVisual Studio Developer Command Promptand VS Code doesn't know the path to thecl.execompiler.

VS Code must be launched from the developer command prompt for Visual Studio or the task must be set torun outside of a developer command prompt.

You can always verify that you're running VS Code in the context of the Developer Command Prompt by opening a new Terminal (⌃⇧`(Windows,LinuxCtrl+Shift+`)) and typing 'cl' to checkcl.exeis available for VS Code.

fatal error C1034: assert.h: does not include defined path

In this case,cl.exeis available for VS Code through thePATHenvironment variable but VS Code still needs to be started from theVisual Studio Developer Command Prompt, or be set torun outside developer command prompt. On the contrary,cl.exedoesn't have access to important environment variables likeINCLUDE.

Next steps

• Explore oVS Code User Guide.
• Check aC++ extension overview.
• Create a new workspace, copy your.vscodeJSON, adjust the necessary settings for the new workspace path, program name, etc. and start coding!

07/03/2023