Returing string from main function in c++

Question

Is there any way to return string from main function in c++? i am mentioning the sample program below

string main(int argv, char* argc[])
{
  .
  .
  return "sucess";
}

Answer 1

The standard says:

3.6.1 Main function [basic.start.main]

2/ An implementation shall not predefine the main function. This function shall not be overloaded. It shall have a return type of type int , but otherwise its type is implementation-defined. All implementations shall allow both

• a function of () returning int and
• a function of (int, pointer to pointer to char) returning int

as the type of main. [...]

So no, you have to return an int.

From your comments on your post, you seem to want to simply output a string on the standard output, then you can do:

#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    std::cout << "Success" << std::endl;
    // No need for return 0; it is implicit in C++
}

---

As Kerrek SB said in the comments, the return 0; is implicit in C++ (standard § 3.6.1 /5 ):

[...] If control reaches the end of main without encountering a return statement, the effect is that of executing

 return 0; 

Answer 2

Nope, It's not standard compliant. You have to return an int in order to show to the caller how the program exited (good, with an error ?).

And why would you return a string ?

Answer 3

No you can't, you must always return an int . Thinking more deeply, a string would be difficult for a shell program to deal with: when would the memory be released, what kind of string would be returned &c.)

However you can write to standard output or standard error using std::cout or std::cerr . That's the normal thing to do when you want a console application to output string-like data.

Typically, you then rely on your OS shell to direct the standard output of your program to the input of another one (unix uses the pipe | for that).

Answer 4

No, you can't return string from main in c++, cause return value from main function is process return code (0 if success, not 0 if process failed). So OS is waiting proper signal of ending from your app.

Answer 5

You probably mean to write to the standard output :

#include <cstdio>

int main()
{
    // ...

    std::puts("success");

}   // no "return", success is implicit in C++

That's one of the standard way for processes to communicate data, and many tools are geared for being used in this way.