Walkthrough: Compiling a C++ Program that Targets the CLR in Visual Studio

The latest version of this topic can be found at Compiling a C++ Program that Targets the CLR.

You can create Visual C++ programs that use .NET classes and compile them by using the Visual Studio Development Environment.

For this procedure you can type your own Visual C++ program or use one of the sample programs. The sample program that we use in this procedure creates a text file named textfile.txt and saves it to the project directory.

Prerequisites

These topics assume that you understand the fundamentals of the C++ language.

To create a new project in Visual Studio and add a new source file

1. Create a new project. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project….

2. From the Visual C++ project types, click CLR, and then click CLR Empty Project.

3. Type a project name.

   By default, the solution that contains the project has the same name as the new project, but you can enter a different name. You can enter a different location for the project if you want.

   Click OK to create the new project.

4. If Solution Explorer is not visible, click Solution Explorer on the View menu.

5. Add a new source file to the project:

   • Right-click the Source Files folder in Solution Explorer, point to Add and click New Item….

   • Click C++ File (.cpp) and type a file name and then click Add.

   The .cpp file appears in the Source Files folder in Solution Explorer and a tabbed window appears where you type the code you want in that file.

6. Click in the newly created tab in Visual Studio and type a valid Visual C++ program, or copy and paste one of the sample programs.

   For example, you can use the How to: Write a Text File (C++/CLI) sample program (in the File Handling and I/O node of the Programming Guide).

   If you use the sample program, notice that you use the gcnewkeyword instead of new when creating a .NET object, and that gcnew returns a handle (^) rather than a pointer (*):

   StreamWriter^ sw = gcnew StreamWriter(fileName);

   For more information on the new Visual C++ syntax, see Component Extensions for Runtime Platforms.

7. On the Build menu, click Build Solution.

   The Output window displays information about the compilation progress, such as the location of the build log and a message that indicates the build status.

   If you make changes and run the program without doing a build, a dialog box might indicate that the project is out of date. Select the checkbox on this dialog before you click OK if you want Visual Studio to always use the current versions of files instead of prompting you each time it builds the application.

8. On the Debug menu, click Start without Debugging.

9. If you used the sample program, when you run the program a command window is displayed that indicates the text file has been created. Press any key to close the command window.

   The textfile.txt text file is now located in your project directory. You can open this file by using Notepad.

   Note

   Choosing the empty CLR project template automatically set the /clr compiler option. To verify this, right-click the project in Solution Explorer and clicking Properties, and then check the Common Language Runtime support option in the General node of Configuration Properties.

What's Next

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See Also

Visual C++ Guided Tour
C++ Language Reference
Building C/C++ Programs