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10 Command Line Arguments 2015

Main arguments can be passed to programs through command line arguments. The main function receives these as arguments (argc and argv). Argc is the number of arguments and argv is an array of character strings for each argument. Command line arguments allow reducing program prompts and passing data into programs from the command line when running them. They provide flexibility to run programs with different input values without recompiling the code. Example programs are shown that print command line arguments, calculate the sum of numbers passed, and parse a full name string into components.

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85 views

10 Command Line Arguments 2015

Main arguments can be passed to programs through command line arguments. The main function receives these as arguments (argc and argv). Argc is the number of arguments and argv is an array of character strings for each argument. Command line arguments allow reducing program prompts and passing data into programs from the command line when running them. They provide flexibility to run programs with different input values without recompiling the code. Example programs are shown that print command line arguments, calculate the sum of numbers passed, and parse a full name string into components.

Uploaded by

Abhishek Chatterjee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Command Line Arguments

Command Line Arguments


All the programs that we have seen so far have no arguments for the function main. It is possible for the
operating system to pass arguments to the function main. Such arguments are appended to the command
for executing the program and are known as command line arguments. Using command line
arguments, we can reduce the number of input prompts in the program.

The function main can be called with two arguments as follows


main (int argc, char *argv[ ])

where argc (argument count) is the number of command line arguments present on the command
line. argv (argument vector) is a pointer to an array of character strings. Therefore, argv[0] is a
pointer to the first command line string and argv[argc–1] is a pointer to the last command line string.

Example:
#include<stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{ int i;
printf("My Executable File Name is %s\n",argv[0]);
for(i=1; i<argc; i++)
printf("Argument %d = %s\n", i, argv[i]);
return 0;
}

RUN:
./a.out I am Mr. K. Lakshmi Narayana you C Programming Instructor

Program1: Print the Sum of given Numbers by using Command Line Arguments
#include<stdio.h>
int main (int argc, char *argv[ ])
{ int j, sum=0;
for(j=1;j<argc;j++)
sum += atoi(argv[j]);
printf("SUM = %d",sum);
return 0;
}

RUN:
./a.out 10 25 55
SUM=90

By: K. L . Narayana 1
Command Line Arguments

Example:
#include<stdio.h>
int main (int argc, const char **argv)
{ int i;
double sum = 0;
for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
sum += atof(*(argv+i));
printf("Sum=%d\n", sum);
return 0;
}

Run in Linux: Run in Windows:


./a.out 4.5 10.0 20.25 C:\tc\BIN>progname 4.5 10.0 20.25
SUM=34.75 SUM=34.75

Program2: Read Full name from the user and print the First, middle and last names
#include<stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{ int i;
if(argc==2)
printf("First Name :: %s\n", argv[1]);
else if(argc==3)
{
printf("First Name :: %s\n", argv[1]);
printf("Last Name :: %s\n", argv[2]);
}
else if(argc >3)
{
printf("First Name :: %s\n", argv[1]);
printf(“Middle Name ::");
for(i=2; i < argc-1; i++)
printf("%s ", argv[i]);
printf("\nLast Name :: %s\n", argv[argc-1]);
}
return 0;
}

RUN
./a.out Maharaj Shri Krushna Chandra Gajapati
First Name :: Maharaj
Middle Name :: Shri Krushna Chandra
Last Name :: Gajapati

By: K. L . Narayana 2

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