CIS 1.5
Introduction to Programming Using C++
Capturing Output
The Issue
Your cout output is sent to a Command Prompt window, which disappears after your program terminates.
However, I need to be able to see the output of your program.
The Solution
We will eventually solve this problem, but until then, this page will show you how you can manually capture
and submit your output to me (the process of grabbing the output for subsequent viewing/use is known as capturing
-- you may have heard of the term screen capture where
a snapshot of your computer or video screen is taken; or video capture where video camera output is captured
to a computer).
I am assuming you are running Code::Blocks; but the approach is similar for Dev/C++ as well.
- Run your program, producing output which is sent to a Command Prompt window (click image to enlarge them):
- Position the cursor on the title bar of the Command Prompt window, right-click the mouse, move down to the
Edit menu item-- exposing the edit submenu and click the Select Allsub menu item
(click image to enlarge):
- The contents of the window should become highlighted-- it'll appear in reverse coloring
:
- Simply press the
Enter
key on the keyboard-- the highlighting will go away. The contents of the window has now been copied
:
- Create a new (empty) file in the CodeBlocks editor, and paste (either
Ctl-v or
Edit/Paste) the content sof the window you've copied into the empty file.
- Save the file (suggestion-- use a file extension of
.txt -- e.g. output.txt), and
you're all set to go.