Question

My first time working with Visual C++ (new to the language, too) – experienced C# …so I have my first console app that I started in Visual Studio.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    int i;

    cin >> i;

    return 0;
}

How come the console window – thus the application – doesn’t close when I press enter? No other input – just enter …

More importantly, how can I make the app exit (don’t want to use exit()) properly if I just hit enter?

Answer 1

std::cin awaits one non-empty string from you and then tries to convert this string to integer.

When you press Enter std::cin only gets an empty string and continues to wait for some valid input. This is by design. std::cin is not meant for emulating other interaction.

To terminate the app on keypress, you have to use OS-specific facilities to read keyboard presses.

This is the kbhit() function from “conio.h” on DOS/console Windows and the termio functions on POSIX systems.

From your source I can conclude that you use the MSVC++ compiler, so try replacing

std::cin >> i

by

while(!kbhit()) {}

Do not forget to add the

#include <conio.h>

and remember this is a Windows-specific solution.