Set Up Visual Studio Code As a C++ IDE

1. Overview

This document will help you to set up Visual Studio Code as a C++ IDE. This guide shows you how to deal with not only single cpp file but also multiple cpp files. At the end of this article, there is a video which shows you how to run debug for C/C++ by Visual Studio Code on Windows.

However, I don’t recommend that you should use this method for a real and big C/C++ project. Instead, you should use some build system such as GNU Make, CMake,

2. Assumption

Assume that you have already

Installed Visual Studio Code on Windows.
Installed "MinGW" toolchain on Windows.
Set up Environment variable to use "MinGW". (Tutorial here)

3. Notes

In this document, I assume that bin directory of MinGW is C:\MinGW\bin. If you didn’t install or didn’t set up environment variable for MinGW, please do it, following some other documents.
Paths which I mentioned in this document is suitable for me, you should use your own paths.

4. Step by step

4.1. Install `C/C++` extension

Click ‘extension’ button and search for C/C++ extension. Install it.

install c extension

After installing C/C++ extension, a "run" button will appears every time you open an cpp file.

run button

4.2. Set up `tasks.json` for 1 `cpp` file

4.2.1. Use

This file has configs for building an executable file from source code.

4.2.2. Add `task` to `tasks.json` properly

Assume that your current root directory doesn’t have tasks.json (or it exists but you don’t have suitable task to run C/C++ file)
Assume that you open a cpp file which defines main function.
click “down arrow” button > Select “Run C/C++ File”.

run button

VSC will prompt you to select some action which is detected automatically by VSC > Select g++.exe.

select task

Code files will be compiled and run. And a .vscode/tasks.json file will be created if successfully.

select task

4.2.3. Example of `tasks.json`

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: gcc.exe build active file",
            "command": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gcc.exe",
            "args": [
                "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        },
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file",
            "command": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\g++.exe",
            "args": [
                "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": "build",
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        }
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

Explanation of example

There are 2 tasks
- The first is for “C/C++: gcc.exe build active file”.
  - Command: "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gcc.exe"
- The second is for “C/C++: g++.exe build active file”
  - Command: "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\g++.exe"
Remarks:
- We use double slash \\ instead of \ because in JSON, \ is a escape character. \ will remove special meaning of the character which follow it. So the first \ will remove special meaning of the second \.

4.3. Set up `tasks.json` for multiple `cpp` files

If you want to compile several cpp files, please use the following example of the file tasks.json.

Example

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: gcc.exe build active file",
            "command": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gcc.exe",
            "args": [
                "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
                "-g",
                "${fileDirname}\\*.cpp",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        },
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file",
            "command": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\g++.exe",
            "args": [
                "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
                "-g",
                "${fileDirname}\\*.cpp",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": "build",
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        }
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

Explanation of example

"${file}" was replaced by "${fileDirname}\\*.cpp" (this pattern allow the compiler to compile all cpp file in the directory which contains the current cpp file.) `

4.4. `launch.json` (optional)

Indeed, you can compile and run your program on Linux without this file, therefore you don’t need to read this section if you are using Linux. However, if you are using Windows or you want to customize “Run and Debug” configs, please follow this section.

If there is no “launch.json” file, default configs will be applied for “debugger”.

4.4.1. Use

A launch.json file is used to configure the debugger in Visual Studio Code. (Reference: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/launch-json-reference)

4.4.2. Create `launch.json` properly

Assume that you added task (in section 4.3)
Assume that you open a cpp file which defines main function.
Click “Add debug configuration” button

select task

VSC will prompt you to select a valid task which should be run to build executable file. Here, I will choose "g++" for compiling c++.

alt text

A "launch.json" file will be created if it hasn’t exist before. New configs of debugger will be added to the file.

alt text

Example of `launch.json`

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "C/C++: g++.exe build and debug active file",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gdb.exe",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                },
                {
                    "description": "Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel",
                    "text": "-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file"
        },
        {
            "name": "C/C++: gcc.exe build and debug active file",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gdb.exe",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                },
                {
                    "description": "Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel",
                    "text": "-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "C/C++: gcc.exe build active file"
        }
    ]
}

Explanation of the example

There are 2 elements of configs
- name “C/C++: g++.exe build and debug active file”
  - “preLaunchTask”: “C/C++: g++.exe build active file” -> it means that the task "C/C++: g++.exe build active file" will be run to build *.exe file before launching *.exe file.
- name “C/C++: gcc.exe build and debug active file”
  - “preLaunchTask”: “C/C++: g++.exe build active file” ->-> it means that the task "C/C++: gcc.exe build active file" will be run to build *.exe file before launching *.exe file.

The source code cannot be run proplerly on Windows?

If you put some C/C++ code for user to input charaters, maybe you will find out that the terminal won’t display as your expectation. To fix it, modify the “launch.json” file, changing “externalConsole” from "false" to "true". Watch the following clip for details:

Clip "debug C by Visual Studio Code on Windows

Coder Tiger