For Dummies C++ All-In-One Desk Reference, 2nd Edition
Contents
1. Another approach is to double click the keyword you need to understand better and press F1 Using this technique opens a copy of MSDN Library but this time you see the help associated with the keyword Unfortunately you get the help that Microsoft thinks you need MSDN Library can contain a host of entries for any given keyword If you don t see what you want you can always type the keyword in the Index tab or perform a search Visual Studio also has a feature called Dynamic Help This window displays help based on whatever you re typing at the time For example Figure 1 5 shows what you see when you type cout The advantage of using Dynamic Help is that you normally see multiple useful help selections so you can click the one that looks like it will answer your question Unfortunately Dynamic Help can also cause problems by eating system resources and causing the IDE to work slowly You display Dynamic Help by choosing Help Dynamic Help Simply close the window when you no longer need it Book VII Chapter 1 s oafoig pue AGI 8002 9 Jensi A ay IM funoM 722 Writing Code Faster e Development Environment omize Dynamic Help in Visual Studio 2008 Studio Valkthroughs Figure 1 5 ce Develo ment Dynamic Getting Started help Deciding Which Technologies and Tools To Use provides information about the current task Properties g Dynamic Help Working with IntelliSense IntelliSense is a sp2. Before you can begin writing code for a project you need to define the project itself The following steps describe how to create a Win32 Console Application project s oafoig pue AGI 8002 9 Jensi A ay IM funoM 1 Choose File New Project You see the New Project dialog box refer to Figure 1 1 2 Select the Visual C Win32 folder in the Project Types list Highlight the Win32 Console Application template in the Templates list 3 Type a project name in the Name field the example uses Hello World The New Project dialog box automatically changes the Solution Name field content to match the project name You can always type a different solution name if desired 4 Click Browse You see a Project Location dialog box 718 Creating a New Win32 Console Application Figure 1 2 The Application Settings page lets you choose an application type 5 Select a location for the project and click OK The Location field of the New Project dialog box contains the location you selected Click OK Visual Studio starts the Win32 Application Wizard You see the Welcome page of this wizard Click Next You see the Application Settings page shown in Figure 1 2 The Win32 Console Application template actually provides access to four kinds of applications including a DLL or static library You can also add support for both the MFC and Active Template Library ATL The default set tings work fine fo
3. Fie Type Dimension DSL Tools Add Internet Information Services Launch Condition Fie v Add Launch Condition Rearrange Commands To add a command drag the command from the Commands list and drop the command on the target toobar or menu To use Commands tab select an entry in the Categories list Locate the command you want to add drag it to a menu or toolbar and drop it At that point you can right click the command and configure it as desired You may wonder at this point how you add a new menu The Categories list contains a special New Menu category Simply drag the New Menu command to the location you want even a top level location and drop it in place Configuring your custom menu is the same as using any other command If you make a mistake changing a command which includes menus you can return the commands to their default state by right clicking the command and choosing Reset from the context menu Be careful about where you use Reset If you reset a custom command what you ll see is a blank entry rather than an unmodified version of the command you expect because a custom command has no default state Modifying windows Visual Studio provides considerable flexibility in working with windows Windows have two states hidden or visible You can t hide an editing window but you can hide any other window simply by clicking the Auto Hide button in the upper right corner the icon looks like a thumbtack The window
4. ReadMe tet include stdafx h 0 1 OF sauojdeg sanag s using name _TCHAR argv Properties ae You can undock any visible window simply by grabbing its title bar with the mouse and dragging it anywhere you like even outside the Visual Studio IDE window When you drag a dockable window within the Visual Studio IDE confines you see the docking indicators shown in Figure 1 12 Simply drag and drop the dockable window onto any of the docking indicators to dock it Visual Studio shows where the window will dock by showing a highlighted area within the IDE Windows can appear as separate areas within the IDE or as a tab with another window where you select the window you want to see by selecting its tab Book VII Chapter 1 s oafoig pue 301 8002 9 IEnsIA ay YIM BUDO 730 Modifying the IDE Appearance a Hello World Microsoft Visual Studio File Edit View Project Build Debug Data Test Tools Analyze Window Help Gly ed y Yas 4 gt Debug oa BR BL Chey LB te ae oe Hello World cpp sidafx cpp stdafx h targetver h Start Page 5 Global Scope 6 Hello World cpp Defin Tot along auas ee include Solution Explorer Solution Hello World 1 project x Koq oo using name Z Solution Hello World 1 project S 7 Hello World f ky Header Fies a a _tmain D pant 7J Res mes E Z a i souls Heed Pd c H
5. more than one kind of application In this case a wizard guides you through the process of defining the application type For example even though you see only one MFC Application template in the Visual C MFC folder this one template creates a number of application types as you discover in Chapters 2 and 3 Creating a New Win32 Console Application The Win32 Console Application template shown in Figure 1 1 helps you create an application that executes at the command prompt The application won t have any fancy Windows interface elements In fact the result is very much like the majority of the CodeBlocks applications created in the other minibooks However console applications do provide useful services and they re a good place to begin discussing Visual C and the Visual Studio IDE The following sections describe how you can create your own Win32 console application Defining the project Visual Studio provides two levels of application management The top level is a solution A solution is the set of executables needed to create a complete application Every application has only one solution The second level is the project A project contains the files needed to create a single executable A solution can contain as many projects as needed to create a complete appli cation This example requires only one project the executable used to display Hello World at the command prompt Book VII Qo 2 g i gt
6. will slide out of view except for a label identifying its position When you move the mouse over to the label the window reappears Hiding Figure 1 11 Windows have different states depending on their use in Visual Studio and how you configure them 729 Modifying the IDE Appearance windows creates more space for working with editors without making the window inaccessible Figure 1 11 shows three kinds of windows The editor window appears in the center You can close it but you can t hide it The Server Explorer Toolbox Error List and Output windows are all hidden If you hover the mouse cursor over their labels the windows will reappear Solution Explorer and Properties Window are both visible Notice the thumbtack icon in the upper right corner of these windows Clicking that icon will hide the window click ing it again will make it visible A Hello World Microsoft Visual Studio File Edit View Project Build Debug Data Test Tools Analyze Window Help D H gl saa b Debug JATA Hello World cpp stdafx cpp stdafx h targetver h Start Page E MS a tess x Solution Explorer Solution Helo Worl 2X Global Scope v v ALA 214 Hello World cpp Defines the entry point for the Candil a Solution Helo World 1 project BS a as Woes wey a oe ee 34 Hello World Ly Header Files in stdafx h h targetver h ij Resource Files Gy Source Files Hello World cpp C stdafx cpp E
7. MBER KO amp Chapter 1 Working with the Visual C 2008 IDE and Projects In This Chapter Considering the Visual C 2008 project types Developing a simple application Using help to write code faster Working with Solution Explorer Interacting with the standard toolbars Modifying application properties v Changing the IDE appearance M icrosoft s Visual C 2008 is an incredibly full featured product and this minibook can t even begin to discuss most of the tasks you can perform using Visual C What you ll discover in this minibook starting with this chapter are the traditional options that Visual C 2008 offers including Win32 console applications and Microsoft Foundation Classes MFC graphical applications You won t find any coverage of Microsoft s NET Framework and managed coding Visual C 2008 is the Microsoft view of what C should offer which may or may not be the same as your view Let s just say that Microsoft adds a wealth of features to Visual C some of which you ll like and others that you might want to do without We know of some developers who go out of their way to overcome the less liked features in Visual C 2008 For the most part this minibook goes with the flow and shows you what Visual C 2008 has to offer so you can make your own decisions The focus of this chapter is the Integrated Development Environment IDE As you progress through the chapter you discover how Visual C di
8. d Project Hello World Configuration Debug Win32 Compiling stdafx cpp Compiling Hello World cpp Linking Embedding manifest Build log was Eil 0246 Source Code BookVII Chapter0l Hello World Hello World Debug BuildLoc Helle World 0 failed 0 up to date 0 skipped To see your application in action click Start Debugging the green arrow on the Standard toolbar or press F5 If you want to start your application with out debugging support choose Debug Start Without Debugging or press Ctrl F5 Figure 1 4 shows the output from this application Figure 1 4 Running the application displays a simple message Writing Code Faster 721 ET 0246 Source Code BookVIN Chapter01 Hello World Debug Hello World exe of x ello World a ress any key to continue Writing Code Faster Microsoft provides a number of ways to obtain help in writing code faster The two most commonly used techniques are working with the help files and relying on IntelliSense The following sections describe how to use these two approaches Obtaining coding help You have access to a wealth of help options The first place most people look is the Help menu The Help menu does contain a wealth of options but the help you receive is generic These options may open a copy of MSDN Library but you still have to look for the topic you need help with and most developers want something faster
9. e selected in Solution Explorer The second builds an entire solution The third cancels a build and is disabled unless you re building a project or a solution Standard The Standard toolbar contains a number of buttons grouped into six sections The first section contains buttons for creating new projects and saving your files The second section contains the Cut Copy and Paste buttons that you see in nearly every Windows applica tion The third section contains buttons for undoing and redoing actions within the editors The fourth section contains a single button contain ing a green arrow that lets you start debugging the application The fifth section chooses the kind of build you ll create when you build the appli cation the default is a Debug build which contains debugging informa tion The sixth section contains buttons that provide access to common Visual Studio windows such as Solution Explorer and Properties Text Editor The Text Editor toolbar may not contain the buttons you d think it would After all you won t format your source code so you won t find a font selection here or the ability to add color to your text Changing Application Properties 125 Instead this toolbar contains buttons that help you interact with the text in various ways The first section contains IntelliSense buttons that show you object members parameter lists and quick information about a particular function In addition clicking Displa
10. ecial Visual Studio feature that looks at what you re typing and then provides suggestions on what to type next Using this special fea ture means that you spend less time remembering how to spell and capital ize function names and more time coding In many cases Intellisense can direct your attention to code that you may have forgotten about In addition to function names IntelliSense also tells you about function arguments and other code you need to type Figure 1 6 shows an example of IntelliSense in action In this case the figure shows what you see when you type the system keyword Note that Intellisense shows precisely what you should type as input for the system function Figure 1 6 _ CEES IntelliSense sse A SEa provides T helpful information ees tom oe CERURA about the codeyou write MBER we amp Viewing Your Project in Solution Explorer 123 You don t have to type something to see IntelliSense To see the same dis play as Figure 1 6 for any function you have already typed place the cursor within the function call and press Ctrl Shift Spacebar If you want to seea list of items you can type press Ctrl Spacebar instead Viewing Vour Project in Solution Explorer Figure 1 7 Solution Explorer displays a list of the files in the project ar Every time you create a new application in Visual Studio you work with a solution The solution contains one or more pro
11. elo Vz Cr stdafx Soe Figure 1 12 Cee Use docking indicators to determine where a window z appears in a the IDE L C8 Error tist E Output Use the guide diamond to choose a docking location To prevent docking hold down CTRL P A 3 S Dockable windows need not be dockable Right click the title bar of the window and you can choose to make the window floating which means it never docks or a tabbed document in the editor Editor windows also provide some choices You can right click a document tab and choose New Horizontal Tab Group or New Vertical Tab Group from the context menu to create a new editing area Normally these additional editing areas simply chew up screen real estate that you could better use to edit your code However using multiple editing areas can be helpful when you want to compare the content of two files
12. ffers from the CodeBlocks IDE used for the other minibooks In addition you ll create your first Visual C application a simple console application that shows even in this regard that Microsoft is a bit different This minibook relies on Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 SP 1 Visual Studio Team System 2008 Edition If you re using a different version some of your screenshots will vary from those shown here In addition you may find that your edition requires slightly different menu commands to perform 716 Understanding the Project Types tasks or that your version has fewer capabilities Even with these differ ences the examples in this minibook should work fine with any version of Visual Studio Understanding the Project Types Figure 1 1 You use the New Project dialog box to create a new empty project with nothing in it One of the first things you ll notice is that Visual C offers a lot of different projects all of which interact with Windows To see the projects that Visual C has to offer choose File New Project in Visual Studio You see the New Project dialog box shown in Figure 1 1 The templates used to create new projects appear in the Visual C folder New Project Project types Templates NET Framework 3 5 v be Business Intelligence Projects __Visual Studio installed templates H Visual Basic Visual C Hj Custom wizard Gai Test Project Visual C Gl Windows Forms Applicati
13. he version number as shown here ifndef _WIN32_WINNT define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501 endif Using a version number of 0x0501 means that you re targeting Windows XP If you d wanted to target Windows 2000 you would have used a value of 0x0500 Windows Server 2003 uses a version number value of 0x0502 The application will use standard input and output functionality so you need to open the stdafx h file next You might wonder why Microsoft uses this separate file to store headers Using a centralized location for declara tions you plan to use for the entire application makes sense because you need to make changes only once To the standard header declarations you add include lt iostream gt as shown here pragma once include targetver h include lt stdio h gt include lt tchar h gt include lt iostream gt It s time to add the code to the Hello World cpp file Here s the simple code used for this example include stdafx h using namespace std int _tmain int argc _TCHAR argv Display the message cout lt lt Hello World lt lt endl Pause so you can see it in the debugger system PAUSE return 0 Book VII Chapter 1 s oafoig pue AGI 8002 9 JEnsIA au IM BUDO 720 Creating a New Win32 Console Application ar Figure 1 3 The Output window shows the steps used to compile the application In most respects this code doesn t look much different from code
14. jects as previously men tioned It s helpful to see the hierarchy of solution project and associated files and Solution Explorer provides this view Figure 1 7 shows the hierar chy for the sample console application in this chapter Solution Explorer Solution Hello World 1 project ai 2 E 5Q lod Solution Hello World 1 project 3 E Hello World S Gy Header Files n stdafx h h targetver h Lj Resource Files Gy Source Files c Hello World cpp stdafx cpp ReadMe txt Notice how Visual Studio organizes the application content for you The solution and its name appear at the top followed by the project both of which are named Hello World in this case Under the project you see three folders containing headers resources and source files In this case the proj ect contains two header files and two source files The ReadMe txt file contains information about the project that the template creates for you This file doesn t add anything to the application However it does contain useful information that can help you remember the purpose of default files in the application Solution Explorer can also help you interact with your project When you right click an object in Solution Explorer you see a list of tasks you can perform with that object Upcoming chapters in this minibook will point out Book VII Chapter 1 s oafoig pue AGI 8002 9 Jensi A ay IM funoM 72 4 Using the Standard T
15. og box to change both toolbars and menus Modifying the IDE Appearance 127 to satisfy special needs and then hide the standard items from view Using this approach makes it easy to restore the standard menu or toolbar later to interact with others You can change menus and toolbars in many ways However the easiest method is to right click anywhere in the menu or toolbar area and choose Customize from the context menu You see the Customize dialog box shown in Figure 1 9 Customize EIEI Toolbars Commands Toolbars am _ Class Designer Context Menus Crystal Reports Insert Crystal Reports Main Data Compare Data Design _ Data Generator Reset Database Diagram Debug Debug Location Devke Dialog Editor Distributed System Designers Formatting v O Use large icons v Show ScreenTips on toolbars C Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips The Toolbars tab shows a complete list of all the toolbars that Visual Studio supports Place a checkmark next to any toolbar you want to display or remove the checkmark next to any toolbar you no longer need When you don t see the toolbar you want click New to display the New Toolbar dialog box type a name in the Toolbar Name field and click OK Visual Studio auto matically displays the new toolbar so that you can add commands to it You can also use the featu
16. on TACLR Console Appication ATL Win32 Console Application EAT Project aR dia MFC Application Gimakefile Project General ATL Smart Device Project Class Library MEC TEJCLR Empty Project Ml Emoty Project Smart Device HE MFC ActiveX Control HEME DLL m AMFC Smart Device ActiveX Control IFC Smart Device Application Win32 4 yi MF vice DLL Win32P Uist buted Sai J MFC Smart Device DU v in 32 Project z A Vin32 Smart Device Project i Windows Forms Control Library Other Project Types windows Service Test Projects My Templates El Search Online Templates A project for creating a Win32 console application Name lt Enter_name gt Location D 0245 Source Code Book VII Chapter0 v Browse Solution Name lt Enter_name gt Create directory for soluton Figure 1 1 shows all the templates installed on the target system Note that you can add new projects to the list by clicking Search Online Templates It s also possible to create your own templates or to modify existing templates to meet your needs However creating a new template requires quite a bit of skill so the chapter doesn t discuss this option in any detail The list in Figure 1 1 could be overwhelming Microsoft categorizes these projects according to task For example when you select the Visual C Win32 folder you see two templates Win32 Console Application Win32 Project Creating a New Win32 Console Application 717 Some templates create
17. oolbars several ways to use context menus For now just realize that you can per form a number of tasks with each object in Solution Explorer Across the top of Solution Explorer you see four buttons These buttons provide quick access to some application features as described in the follow ing list not every button is enabled for every object in the Solution Explorer hierarchy Properties Displays information associated with the file or other object Show All Files By default Solution Explorer displays only essential files to keep the display from becoming cluttered This option displays all the files so that you can modify less used files such as a project file View Code Opens a source code file for editing View Class Diagram Creates a class diagram for an application that contains classes Although this button is always available it produces a result only when working with an application that creates objects Using the Standard Toolbars You can quickly become confused by the plethora of toolbars that Visual Studio provides Fortunately you work with only a few of these toolbars at any given time In fact the toolbar you need normally pops up in response to the task you want to perform This minibook doesn t show you how to use every toolbar It focuses mainly on the three toolbars described in the fol lowing list Build The Build toolbar contains just three buttons The first builds the project you hav
18. r the example but it s important to know that other options exist Win32 Application Wizard Hello World Overview Application type Add common header files for Application Settings Windows application Oan Application Settings MFC O Static lbrary Additional options C Empty project V Precompiled header 8 Click Finish The wizard creates a new solution and project that contains four files Normally you won t care about stdafx cpp which contains a list of standard headers for your project You ll add any headers you need for your project to the stdafx h file The targetver h file contains special code that tells the compiler which version of Windows to target for the application you can find the acceptable values for the Windows versions at http msdn microsoft com en us library 6sehtctf aspx The final file Hello World cpp contains the application source code MBER KV amp Creating a New Win32 Console Application 719 Adding code One of the first things you must decide is which version of Windows to target with your application Open the targetver h file and you ll see an explanation of its purpose Microsoft always assumes that you ll want to target the latest version of Windows and will ignore anything older which isn t a reasonable approach Consequently you normally need to change this file to match the version of Windows you want to work with All you need to do is change t
19. res on this tab to rename or remove custom toolbars you create you can t delete standard toolbars and reset standard toolbars to their original state The three options at the bottom of the Toolbars tab help you control the appearance of the toolbar The following list describes each option Use Large Icons Displays toolbar icons in a larger size to make them easier to see Show ScreenTips on Toolbars Displays the name of the icon as a tool tip when you hover the mouse cursor over the icon Show Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips Displays the shortcut for executing the command when a shortcut is available along with the icon name when you hover the mouse cursor over the icon Book VII Chapter 1 s oafoig pue 301 8002 9 IEnsIA ay YIM unom 128 Modifying the IDE Appearance Figure 1 10 The Commands tab shows all the commands you can execute in Visual Studio ar The Commands tab displays a categorized list of commands that you can execute using either a menu entry or a toolbar icon as shown in Figure 1 10 The Categories list helps you locate a command more quickly Customize Toolbars Commands Categories Commands A Add NET Framework Launch Condition Addins Analyze Add Action Build Class Diagram Crystal Reports Add Custom Action Cube Data Add Dialog Data Source View Database Add Fie Launch Condition Add Assembly Database Diagram es Debug Add File Search Diagram Add
20. ssible to bend Visual Studio to your will If you don t like how Microsoft arranged the display change it You can add or remove menus and toolbars create new menus or toolbars change the position of win dows hide windows from view or make windows disappear completely You re the master of everything to do with the appearance of your Visual Studio setup Because the IDE is so flexible your screen may not always precisely match the screenshots in this minibook The important thing is to look for the fea ture or option illustrated in the figure rather than a precise match of every figure element The following sections describe how to work with toolbars menus and windows Changing toolbars and menus You can modify any menu or toolbar that Visual Studio provides In addition you can create new menus and toolbars as needed Most developers leave the Visual Studio menus alone and work exclusively with toolbars because toolbars are easier to use However you have the option of performing any kind of change you want to the IDE It s important to modify menus and toolbars with care In most cases you don t want to remove existing commands from menus or toolbars because people won t be able to help you with problems For example if you remove the File menu someone won t be able to tell you how to create a new project of a specific type Experienced developers create custom menus or toolbars Figure 1 9 Use the Customize dial
21. uration select a new value from the drop down list box It s possible to change any blank property value such as Description or a prop erty value that appears in bold type However you can t change a dimmed property such as Path Property names won t always tell you enough about a property to change its value In this case you can rely on the lower half of the Properties Window for additional information The text description of Active config shown in 726 Modifying the IDE Appearance ar Figure 1 8 is usually enough to jog your memory However if you still don t understand the purpose of the property you can press F1 for additional information Highlighting a new property always changes the property infor mation in the lower half of the Properties Window As you change selections in Solution Explorer the content of the Properties Window changes to reflect the properties of the newly selected object Some objects such as the Header Files folder won t have any properties you can modify but it s helpful to look at the property values anyway to understand how the Solution Explorer object works Visual Studio normally opens the Properties Window by default However if you don t see the Properties Window you can open it using any of the fol lowing techniques Click Properties Window on the Standard toolbar Choose View Properties Window Press F4 Modifying the IDE Appearance EMBER ANG RS It s po
22. y Word Completion automatically completes text you re typing when IntelliSense can figure it out The second section contains buttons that change the indentation of code in your application You can also use one of two buttons to com ment or uncomment code you ve written The third section contains a series of buttons for working with bookmarks A bookmark is simply a means of marking your place in the source code much as you use a bookmark in a book Changing Application Properties Visual Studio includes a Properties Window see Figure 1 8 that you can use for a number of purposes This chapter looks at only one use changing application properties However you ll see the Properties Window in most of the chapters in this minibook Hello World Solution Properties Figure 1 8 SIE Book VII The Name Hello World Chapter 1 Properties Debug Win32 5 Description Window s S ject Hello World lets you tartup projec jel lo 2 Si 2 change the 265 UU fa properties at nHs associated 2S2 E S a with the 2s Active config Oo selected The configuration to build for the solution Access the Property Pages dialog box for the solution to modify m a the solution s configurations object The Properties Window has two main sections The upper section contains a list of properties and their values You see the Active config property selected in Figure 1 8 It currently has a value of Debug Win32 To change the active config
23. you type in CodeBlocks The example begins by including stdafx h which contains the list of common declarations for the example as described earlier As with any C application you must also include a namespace declaration The body of the example application looks similar to other examples in this book The basic idea is to output some text to the command prompt and then pause until the user presses Enter The big difference is the use of _tmain rather than main The _ tmain function declaration appears in tchar h If you look at this file you ll see that using _tmain expands to either main when working with ANSI characters or wmain when working with Unicode characters In short _tmain is simply a convenience that lets you compile your code for either ANSI or Unicode use as needed without having to change your application code Microsoft provides a number of _t declarations in the tchar h file and you may want to look at them at some point Running the application At this point your application is ready to compile and run To compile an application using Visual C you choose Build Build Solution In the Output window you see a series of build messages like the ones shown in Figure 1 3 If there are any errors when you compile your application you see them in the Error List window simply click the Error List tab shown in Figure 1 3 to see the errors Show output from Build gt i x Sl Build starte
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