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.

Example

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

Command-Line Input	argv[1]	argv[2]	argv[3]
"abc" d e	abc	d	E
a\\\b d"e f"g h	a\\\b	de fg	H
a\\\"b c d	a\"b	c	D
a\\\\"b c" d e	a\\b c	d	E

END Microsoft Specific

See Also

Reference

main: Program Startup