Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010 Pro for simple C programming, I would like to know how I can provide input to the program without having to manually do so. The enviroment I am used to working is your standard commandline Unix enviroment. Once I compile a C file call “inputsInts” it becomes “a.out” and to test input I would type:

The easy way

echo 1 2 3 4| ./a.out //to provide input
The number of ints input was 4 //output

The easier way

more input.txt| ./a.out //to provide input
The number of ints input was 4 //output

The tedious way

./a.out
//now I would manually type
1 2 3 4 s //in this case I have to type a letter to move on
The number of ints input was 4 //output

Hard is how I have to do it in Visual Studio 2010. I would like to be able to just input in an area the input ahead of time or at least have it read a text file. Obviously I can’t test large sets of data by manually typing it in. At the moment I am just doing the coding in VS2010 and going to the unix enviroment to do most testing. I would like to stay in the VS2010 enviroment until I am ready to do a final test in Unix.

I have altered the question quite a bit since I first posted, so the original answers may seem off a bit. Again I appretiate everyone’s time and help.

This is just the simple code for an example:
#include

int main ()  {
    int x, n = 0;
    while (scanf("%d", &x)==1)
        n++;
    printf("The number of ints input was %d\n", n);
    return(0);
}

Answer 1

You need to create a “Console Application” when you start a new Visual Studio project. This will give you a program that runs from a Windows Command Prompt window, otherwise known as the Cmd window after the name of the shell program that runs underneath it. The command window is located under Programs->Accessories in Windows XP, not sure about other versions of Windows. Once you open a command window, things will work similarly to what you’re used to on Linux.

cd MyProject
echo 1 2 3 4|.\MyProject.exe
MyProject.exe <input.txt