How to write to the Output window in Visual Studio?

Question

Which function should I use to output text to the \"Output\" window in Visual Studio?

I tried printf() but it doesn\'t show up.

Answer 1

If this is for debug output then OutputDebugString is what you want. A useful macro :

#define DBOUT( s )            \
{                             \
   std::ostringstream os_;    \
   os_ << s;                   \
   OutputDebugString( os_.str().c_str() );  \
}

This allows you to say things like:

DBOUT( "The value of x is " << x );

You can extend this using the __LINE__ and __FILE__ macros to give even more information.

For those in Windows and wide character land:

#include 
#include 
#include 

 #define DBOUT( s )            \
{                             \
   std::wostringstream os_;    \
   os_ << s;                   \
   OutputDebugStringW( os_.str().c_str() );  \
}