visual studio 2012 c++ hello world - iostream not working

Question

I have an issue with Visual Studio's 2012. I am also using "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a day, 7th edition".

After using google to find the "best" compilers for C++, Visual Studios seemed to be the tool of choice.

So I downloaded and installed Visual Studios 2012. The very first lesson in the book is (and tells me to run it as a console app by going to File > New > Project >Visual C++ > Win32 > Console Application )

 #include <iostream>

int main()
{
 std::cout << “Hello World!” << std::endl;
 return 0;
}

which doesnt work, at all. it outputs an error message similiar to the following:

1>c:\users\nik\documents\visual studio 2012\projects\consoleapplication4\consoleapplication4\consoleapplication4.cpp(8): error C2065: '“Hello' : undeclared identifier 1> Generating Code... ========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped =========="

(there is more lines similiar to the first, but its rather long)

However, after googling and watching a video on youtube the following code works (using File > New > Project >Visual C++ > General > Empty Project )

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

using namespace std;

int main() {
cout << "Hello Nik" << endl;
_getch();

return 0;
}

Does Visual Studio's 2012 have a C++ compiler? or does it just have a visual c++ compiler (if thats even the issue, only reason I think it could be is I can see templates for Visual C++ but none for c++ by itself...) or do I need to download Visual Studio Express to download native c++ ??

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am feeling some-what out of my depth here...

Thanks.

Answer 1

Besides aphostrophes you may need to disable precompiler headers in project properties.

They are turned on by default in VS2012. If you are not familiar with precompiled headers turn them off.

1. Right click on project (not solution)
2. Click properties.
3. Expand "Configuration properties"
4. Expand "C/C++"
5. Choose "Precompiled headers"
6. Set "Precompiled header" to "Not Using Precompiled Headers"

More information about precompiled headers and stdafx.h file at Wikipedia

Answer 2

The apostrophes you used are wrong:

“Hello World!” 

should be

"Hello World!"

Notice even how SO recognizes the difference. You should at least type the code you see in the book instead of copying and pasting it. ;-)

Answer 3

The Win32 console application is actually quite different from the empty project. Win32 utilize a message (input) queue which you poll in a loop and your program respectively utilizes the Win32 API and performs certain operations.

The empty project is a bit less dependent on Win32 or anything that Windows provides in terms of API unless you make it dependent on it. This would be the simples hello world app in you empty project:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main() 
{
    cout << "Hello World" << endl;

    return 0;
}

Answer 4

Just try this::

"Hello World!" instead of “Hello World!”.