Parsing C++ Command-Line Arguments

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The latest version of this topic can be found at Parsing C++ Command-Line Arguments.

Microsoft Specific**

Microsoft C/C++ startup code uses the following rules when interpreting arguments given on the operating system command line:

• Arguments are delimited by white space, which is either a space or a tab.

• The caret character (^) is not recognized as an escape character or delimiter. The character is handled completely by the command-line parser in the operating system before being passed to the argv array in the program.

• A string surrounded by double quotation marks ("string") is interpreted as a single argument, regardless of white space contained within. A quoted string can be embedded in an argument.

• A double quotation mark preceded by a backslash (\") is interpreted as a literal double quotation mark character (").

• Backslashes are interpreted literally, unless they immediately precede a double quotation mark.

• If an even number of backslashes is followed by a double quotation mark, one backslash is placed in the argv array for every pair of backslashes, and the double quotation mark is interpreted as a string delimiter.

• If an odd number of backslashes is followed by a double quotation mark, one backslash is placed in the argv array for every pair of backslashes, and the double quotation mark is "escaped" by the remaining backslash, causing a literal double quotation mark (") to be placed in argv.

The following program demonstrates how command-line arguments are passed:

// command_line_arguments.cpp  
// compile with: /EHsc  
#include <iostream>  
  
using namespace std;  
int main( int argc,      // Number of strings in array argv  
          char *argv[],   // Array of command-line argument strings  
          char *envp[] )  // Array of environment variable strings  
{  
    int count;  
  
    // Display each command-line argument.  
    cout << "\nCommand-line arguments:\n";  
    for( count = 0; count < argc; count++ )  
         cout << "  argv[" << count << "]   "  
                << argv[count] << "\n";  
}  

The following table shows example input and expected output, demonstrating the rules in the preceding list.

Results of Parsing Command Lines

main: Program Startup