Run C Program In Visual Studio Code

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What you need to do to run a program depends on what you're starting from, what type of program, app, or service it is, and whether you want to run it under the debugger or not. In the simplest case, when you have a project open in Visual Studio, build and run it by pressing Ctrl+F5 (Start without debugging) or F5 (Start with debugging), or press the green arrow (Start Button) on the main Visual Studio toolbar.

I found out that I needed to download a C compiler to run C programs on VS-Code, so I downloaded Visual Studio with C from the Microsoft website, which basically installed Visual Studio 2019. The heading on the link said 'Develop C and C applications', so I figured it would at least let me program in C. The Visual Studio Code C# extension can generate the assets you need to build and debug. If you missed the prompt when you first opened a new C# project, you can still perform this operation through the Command Palette ( View Command Palette) by typing '.NET', and running.NET: Generate Assets for Build and Debug.

Starting from a project

If you have a C# project (.csproj file), then you can run it, if it is a runnable program. If a project contains a C# file with a Main method, and its output is an executable (EXE), then most likely it will run if it builds successfully.

If you already have the code for your program in a project in Visual Studio, open the project. To open the project, double-click or tap on the .csproj from the Windows File Explorer, or from Visual Studio, choose Open a project, browse to find the project (.csproj) file, and choose the project file.

After the projects loads in Visual Studio, press Ctrl+F5 (Start without debugging) or use the green Start button on the Visual Studio toolbar to run the program. If there are multiple projects, the one with the Main method must be set as the startup project. To set the startup project, right-click on a project node, and choose Set as startup project.

Visual Studio attempts to build and run your project. If there are build errors, you see the build output in the Output window and the errors in the Error List window.

If the build succeeds, the app runs in a way that's appropriate for the type of project. Console apps run in a terminal window, Windows desktop apps start in a new window, web apps start in the browser (hosted by IIS Express), and so on.

Starting from code

If you're starting from a code listing, code file, or a small number of files, first make sure the code you want to run is from a trusted source and is a runnable program. If it has a Main method, it is likely intended as a runnable program that you can use the Console App template to create a project to work with it in Visual Studio.

Code listing for a single file

Start Visual Studio, open an empty C# console project, select all the code in the .cs file that's in the project already, and delete it. Then, paste the contents of your code into the .cs file. When you paste the code, overwrite or delete the code that was there before. Rename the file to match the original code.

Code listings for a few files

Start Visual Studio, open an empty C# console project, select all the code in the .cs file that's in the project already, and delete it. Then, paste the contents of the first code file into the .cs file. Rename the file to match the original code.

For a second file, right-click on the project node in Solution Explorer to open the shortcut menu for the project, and choose Add > Existing Item (or use the key combination Shift+Alt+A), and select the code files.

Multiple files on disk

Create a new project of the appropriate type (use C# Console App if you're not sure).
Right-click on the project node, se Add > Existing Item to select the files and import them into your project.

Starting from a folder

When you're working with a folder of many files, first see if there's a project or solution. If the program was created with Visual Studio, you should find a project file or a solution file. Look for files with the .csproj extension or .sln extension and in the Windows File Explorer, double-click on one of them to open them in Visual Studio. See Starting from a Visual Studio solution or project.

If you don't have a project file, such as if the code was developed in another development environment, then open the top-level folder by using the Open folder method in Visual Studio. See Develop code without projects or solutions.

Starting from a GitHub or Azure DevOps repo

If the code you want to run is in GitHub or in an Azure DevOps repo, you can use Visual Studio to open the project directly from the repo. See Open a project from a repo.

Run the program

To start the program, press the green arrow (Start button) on the main Visual Studio toolbar, or press F5 or Ctrl+F5 to run the program. When you use the Start button, it runs under the debugger. Visual Studio attempts to build the code in your project and run it. If that succeeds, great! But if not, continue reading for some ideas on how to get it to build successfully.

Troubleshooting

Your code might have errors, but if the code is correct, but just depends on some other assemblies or NuGet packages, or was written to target a different version of .NET, you might be able to easily fix it.

Add references

To build properly, the code must be correct and have the right references set up to libraries or other dependencies. You can look at the red squiggly lines and at the Error List to see if the program has any errors, even before you compile and run it. If you're seeing errors related to unresolved names, you probably need to add a reference or a using directive, or both. If the code references any assemblies or NuGet packages, you need to add those references in the project.

Visual Studio tries to help you identify missing references. When a name is unresolved, a light bulb icon appears in the editor. If you click the light bulb, you can see some suggestions on how to fix the issue. Fixes might be to:

add a using directive
add a reference to an assembly, or
install a NuGet package.

Missing using directive

For example, in the following screen, you can choose to add using System; to the start of the code file to resolve the unresolved name Console:

Missing assembly reference

.NET references can be in the form of assemblies or NuGet packages. Usually, if you find source code, the publisher or author will explain what assemblies are required and what packages the code depends on. To add a reference to a project manually, right-click on the References node in the Solution Explorer, choose Add Reference, and locate the required assembly.

You can find assemblies and add references by following the instructions in Add or remove references by using the reference manager.

Missing NuGet package

If Visual Studio detects a missing NuGet package, a light bulb appears and gives you the option to install it:

If that doesn't solve the issue and Visual Studio can't locate the package, try searching for it online. See Install and use a NuGet package in Visual Studio.

Use the right version of .NET

Because different versions of the .NET Framework have some degree of backward compatibility, a newer framework might run code written for an older framework without any modifications. But, sometimes you need to target a specific framework. You might need to install a specific version of the .NET Framework or .NET Core, if it's not already installed. See Modify Visual Studio.

To change the target framework, see Change the target framework. For more information, see Troubleshooting .NET Framework targeting errors.

Next steps

Explore the Visual Studio development environment by reading Welcome to the Visual Studio IDE.

Prerequisites for running a C program in Visual Studio Code

We should have a basic knowledge of C programming.
The Visual Studio Code Editor must be installed in the system.
Download the C/C++ Extension. It is an extension provided by Microsoft that support visual studio code. It helps in IntelliSence, debugging and code browsing of the programming code in the visual studio.
Download the C/C++ compilers. There are some popular compilers are:
1. GCC on Linux
2. GCC via Mingw-w64 on Windows
3. Microsoft C++ compiler on windows
4. Clang for XCode on MacOS

We have already installed the Visual Studio Code in our system. The user interface of VS code look like the following:

Download & Install the C/C++ Extension

1. We need to click on the extension button that displays a sidebar for downloading and installing the C/C++ extension in the visual studio code. In the sidebar, type C Extension.

2. After that, click on the C/C++

In this image, click on the Install button to install the C/C++ extension.

3. After clicking the Install button, it shows the below image.

In this image, we can see it shows the Uninstall button that means the C/C++ extension has been successfully downloaded in the visual studio code.

Download and Install Compiler Extension

A MinGW is an advanced GCC compiler software used to compile and execute code. It is software that supports only the window operating system.

Download the MinGW-w64 Compiler

1. Go to the https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw We land on the following page.

2. After that, click on the Download button, then it starts the downloading of the MinGW GCC compiler, as we can see in the below image.

3. MinGW software has been successfully downloaded into the system.

4. Now we double-click on the MinGW set up to install the compiler.

As we can see, it shows that it is a harmful file click on the Run button to proceed with installing the setup.

5. Click on the Install

6. Set it defaults, or we can change the storage location of the setup. After that, click on the Continue

7. After clicking the continue button, it shows step 2 of MinGW Installation Manager.

8. As we click on the Continue, it shows the below image. In the MinGW Installation Manager, we need to check the Mingw32-base package and Ming32-gcc-g++ package to run and compile the C/ C++ program in the visual studio code editor.

9. After selecting the checkbox, click on the Installation tab (at the top left corner of the dialog box).

Here we click on Apply Changes to set the package's installation in MinGW, as given below.

How To Run Graphics Program In C In Visual Studio Code

10. After click on the Apply button, it shows the below image.

11. After downloading the packages, it shows the installation process of the package, as shown below.

Here we can see all the changes have been successfully applied and then click on the Close button.

Set the Environment Path for the MinGW Set Up

After downloading and installing the MinGW compiler, we now set the environment path to include the C/C++ compiler directory.

1. Go to the installation directory of the MinGW Set Up. Here we installed the setup at the C drive, as shown below.

2. Double click on the MinGW folder. It shows the below image.

3. After that, click on the bin folder and then copy the directory path, as shown below.

Here is the path of the MinGW folder path: C:MinGWbin

4. After copying the directory path, go to This PC -> Right Click on This PC -> Select/ Click on the Properties. It shows the below image.

5. After that, click on the Advanced system settings to display a popup box of System Properties, as shown below.

6. Click on the Environment Variables to set the directory path, as shown below.

First, we have to click on the System Variables Path and then click on the Edit button, as shown in the above image.

7. As we click on the Edit button, it shows a popup window to set a new path, as shown below.

In the above image, first, we click on the New button and then paste the C:MinGWbin path; after that, click the OK button.

8. Similarly, click the OK button to the Environment Variables and System Properties.

9. If we want to check that the MinGW has been successfully installed in the system: go to the Command Prompt or cmd, write the gcc -version, and press the Enter

Start Coding in the Visual Studio Code Editor

1. Here we created a C Program folder to store all program code. We can create a folder with any name in any directory.

How To Run C Program In Visual Studio Code In Windows

2. Go to the VS Code and click on the Add Folder.

3. As we click on the Add Folder, it shows a popup dialog box to select the folder to store the program.

4. After selecting the folder, click on the Add The selected folder appears in the explorer section, as we have shown below.

5. Move the mouse over the C PROGRAM folder; it shows a + Click on the button and write the file name as JavaTpoint.c, as shown below.

Now write and understand simple C programming in the VS Code editor.

JavaTpoint.c

After writing the code, right-click on the program, as shown below.

Click on the Run Code option or press Ctrl + Alt + N from the button. It shows the following output.

Let's write a program to calculate the area and perimeter of the rectangle in the VS Code editor.

Rectangle.c

We can click on the Run button or press the Ctrl + Alt + N from the keyboard. It displays the below output.

C Programming Visual Studio Code

Let's write another C program to take an input from the user in the Visual Studio Code Editor.

Rectangle2.c

When we click on the Run button or press the Ctrl + Alt + N, it displays the below output.

In the above program, we take length and breadth as input from the keyboard. As the program is compiled, it produces the below statement.

Here Output tab is read-only, and hence we cannot take any input from the user. So, we need to add some steps in the code editor to take user inputs from the console/user.

Following are the steps to take input from the user.

Visual Studio Code Compiler

First of all, we need to stop the background running the c program by pressing the Alt + Ctrl + M from the keyboard.
After stopping the C file, go & click the File button at the top left corner of the Visual Studio Code Editor, and select the Settings via Preferences, as shown below image.
After clicking the Settings, it shows the image below.
In this image, select the extension button to set the settings for the C Compiler.
Click on the Extension button and scroll the drop-down box to select the Run Code Configuration.
Now scroll the right-side pane and Tick on the Run In Terminal.
Go to the c and again execute the program by clicking on the Run, it produces the following results, as shown below.