Preventing console window from closing on Visual Studio C/C++ Console application

Question

This is a probably an embarasing question as no doubt the answer is blindingly obvious.

I\'ve used Visual Studio for years, but this is the first time I\'ve done any

Answer 1

A somewhat better solution:

atexit([] { system("PAUSE"); });

at the beginning of your program.

Pros:

• can use std::exit()
• can have multiple returns from main
• you can run your program under the debugger
• IDE independent (+ OS independent if you use the cin.sync(); cin.ignore(); trick instead of system("pause");)

Cons:

• have to modify code
• won't pause on std::terminate()
• will still happen in your program outside of the IDE/debugger session; you can prevent this under Windows using:

---

extern "C" int __stdcall IsDebuggerPresent(void);
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    if (IsDebuggerPresent())
        atexit([] {system("PAUSE"); });
    ...
}

Answer 2

add “| pause” in command arguments box under debugging section at project properties.

Answer 3

Go to Setting>Debug>Un-check close on end.

Answer 4

try to call getchar() right before main() returns.

Answer 5

Here is a way for C/C++:

#include <stdlib.h>

#ifdef _WIN32
    #define WINPAUSE system("pause")
#endif

Put this at the top of your program, and IF it is on a Windows system (#ifdef _WIN32), then it will create a macro called WINPAUSE. Whenever you want your program to pause, call WINPAUSE; and it will pause the program, using the DOS command. For other systems like Unix/Linux, the console should not quit on program exit anyway.

Answer 6

Currently there is no way to do this with apps running in WSL2. However there are two work-arounds:

1. The debug window retains the contents of the WSL shell window that closed.

2. The window remains open if your application returns a non-zero return code, so you could return non-zero in debug builds for example.