What is the best way of parsing command-line arguments in C++ if the program is specified to be run like this:
prog [-abc] [input [output]]
Is there some way of doing this built into the standard library, or do I need to write my own code?
Related:
The suggestions for boost::program_options and GNU getopt are good ones.
However, for simple command line options I tend to use std::find
For example, to read the name of a file after a -f command line argument. You can also just detect if a single-word option has been passed in like -h for help.
#include <algorithm>
char* getCmdOption(char ** begin, char ** end, const std::string & option)
{
char ** itr = std::find(begin, end, option);
if (itr != end && ++itr != end)
{
return *itr;
}
return 0;
}
bool cmdOptionExists(char** begin, char** end, const std::string& option)
{
return std::find(begin, end, option) != end;
}
int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
if(cmdOptionExists(argv, argv+argc, "-h"))
{
// Do stuff
}
char * filename = getCmdOption(argv, argv + argc, "-f");
if (filename)
{
// Do interesting things
// ...
}
return 0;
}
On thing to look out for with this approach you must use std::strings as the value for std::find otherwise the equality check is performed on the pointer values.
I hope it is okay to edit this response instead adding a new one, as this is based on the original answer. I re-wrote the functions slightly and encapsulated them in a class, so here is the code. I thought it might be practical to use it that way as well:
class InputParser{
public:
InputParser (int &argc, char **argv){
for (int i=1; i < argc; ++i)
this->tokens.push_back(std::string(argv[i]));
}
/// @author iain
const std::string& getCmdOption(const std::string &option) const{
std::vector<std::string>::const_iterator itr;
itr = std::find(this->tokens.begin(), this->tokens.end(), option);
if (itr != this->tokens.end() && ++itr != this->tokens.end()){
return *itr;
}
static const std::string empty_string("");
return empty_string;
}
/// @author iain
bool cmdOptionExists(const std::string &option) const{
return std::find(this->tokens.begin(), this->tokens.end(), option)
!= this->tokens.end();
}
private:
std::vector <std::string> tokens;
};
int main(int argc, char **argv){
InputParser input(argc, argv);
if(input.cmdOptionExists("-h")){
// Do stuff
}
const std::string &filename = input.getCmdOption("-f");
if (!filename.empty()){
// Do interesting things ...
}
return 0;
}
You can use GNU GetOpt (LGPL) or one of the various C++ ports, such as getoptpp (GPL).
A simple example using GetOpt of what you want (prog [-ab] input) is the following:
// C Libraries:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>
// Namespaces:
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int opt;
string input = "";
bool flagA = false;
bool flagB = false;
// Retrieve the (non-option) argument:
if ( (argc <= 1) || (argv[argc-1] == NULL) || (argv[argc-1][0] == '-') ) { // there is NO input...
cerr << "No argument provided!" << endl;
//return 1;
}
else { // there is an input...
input = argv[argc-1];
}
// Debug:
cout << "input = " << input << endl;
// Shut GetOpt error messages down (return '?'):
opterr = 0;
// Retrieve the options:
while ( (opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ab")) != -1 ) { // for each option...
switch ( opt ) {
case 'a':
flagA = true;
break;
case 'b':
flagB = true;
break;
case '?': // unknown option...
cerr << "Unknown option: '" << char(optopt) << "'!" << endl;
break;
}
}
// Debug:
cout << "flagA = " << flagA << endl;
cout << "flagB = " << flagB << endl;
return 0;
}
GNU GetOpt.
A simple example using GetOpt:
// C/C++ Libraries:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>
// Namespaces:
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int opt;
bool flagA = false;
bool flagB = false;
// Shut GetOpt error messages down (return '?'):
opterr = 0;
// Retrieve the options:
while ( (opt = getopt(argc, argv, "ab")) != -1 ) { // for each option...
switch ( opt ) {
case 'a':
flagA = true;
break;
case 'b':
flagB = true;
break;
case '?': // unknown option...
cerr << "Unknown option: '" << char(optopt) << "'!" << endl;
break;
}
}
// Debug:
cout << "flagA = " << flagA << endl;
cout << "flagB = " << flagB << endl;
return 0;
}
You can also use optarg if you have options that accept arguments.
If you just want to process command line options yourself, the easiest way is to put:
vector<string> args(argv + 1, argv + argc);
at the top of your main(). This copies all command-line arguments into a vector of std::strings. Then you can use == to compare strings easily, instead of endless strcmp() calls. For example:
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
vector<string> args(argv + 1, argv + argc);
string infname, outfname;
// Loop over command-line args
// (Actually I usually use an ordinary integer loop variable and compare
// args[i] instead of *i -- don't tell anyone! ;)
for (auto i = args.begin(); i != args.end(); ++i) {
if (*i == "-h" || *i == "--help") {
cout << "Syntax: foomatic -i <infile> -o <outfile>" << endl;
return 0;
} else if (*i == "-i") {
infname = *++i;
} else if (*i == "-o") {
outfname = *++i;
}
}
}
[EDIT: I realised I was copying argv[0], the name of the program, into args -- fixed.]
There are these tools in the GNU C Library, which includes GetOpt.
If you are using Qt and like the GetOpt interface, froglogic has published a nice interface here.
There are a number of good libraries available.
Boost Program Options is a fairly heavyweight solution, both because adding it to your project requires you to build boost, and the syntax is somewhat confusing (in my opinion). However, it can do pretty much everything including having the command line options override those set in configuration files.
SimpleOpt is a fairly comprehensive but simple command line processor. It is a single file and has a simple structure, but only handles the parsing of the command line into options, you have to do all of the type and range checking. It is good for both Windows and Unix and comes with a version of glob for Windows too.
getopt is available on Windows. It is the same as on Unix machines, but it is often a GPL library.
argstream is quite similar to boost.program_option: it permits to bind variables to options, etc. However it does not handle options stored in a configuration file.
I'd recommend boost::program_options if you can use the Boost lib.
There's nothing specific in STL nor in the regular C++/C runtime libs.
A simple solution is to put argv into a std::map for easy lookups:
map<string, string> argvToMap(int argc, char * argv[])
{
map<string, string> args;
for(int i=1; i<argc; i++) {
if (argv[i][0] == '-') {
const string key = argv[i];
string value = "";
if (i+1 < argc && argv[i+1][0] != '-') {
value = string(argv[i+1]);
i++;
}
args[key] = value;
}
}
return args;
}
Example usage:
#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
map<string, string> argvToMap(int argc, char * argv[])
{
map<string, string> args;
for(int i=1; i<argc; i++) {
if (argv[i][0] == '-') {
const string key = argv[i];
string value = "";
if (i+1 < argc && argv[i+1][0] != '-') {
value = string(argv[i+1]);
i++;
}
args[key] = value;
}
}
return args;
}
void printUsage()
{
cout << "simple_args: A sample program for simple arg parsing\n"
"\n"
"Example usage:\n"
" ./simple_args --print-all --option 1 --flag 2\n";
}
int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
auto args = argvToMap(argc, argv);
if (args.count("-h") || args.count("--help")) {
printUsage();
}
else if (args.count("--print-all")) {
for (auto const & pair: args)
cout << "{" << pair.first << ": " << pair.second << "}\n";
}
return 0;
}
Output:
$ ./simple_args --print-all --option 1 --flag "hello world"
{--flag: hello world}
{--option: 1}
{--print-all: }
There are definitely significant limitations to this approach, but I found it struck a good balance of simplicity and utility.