Boost.Program_options is a Boost library to parse and respond to command-line arguments.

Example

The example below shows a (demonstration) program that responds to either '--help' or '--filename [my_filename]':


#include <iostream>

#include <boost/program_options.hpp>



int main(int argc, char* argv[])

{

  // Declare the supported options.

  boost::program_options::options_description d("Allowed options for [my_program]");

  d.add_options()

      ("help",

        "produce this help message")

      ("filename",

         boost::program_options::value<std::string>(),

         "load from file 'arg'");



  boost::program_options::variables_map m;

  boost::program_options::store(

    boost::program_options::parse_command_line(

      argc, argv, d), m);

  boost::program_options::notify(m);



  //If one of the options is set to 'help'...

  if (m.count("help"))

  {

    //Display the options_description

    std::cout << d << "\n";

  }



  if (m.count("filename"))

  {

    std::cout

      << "Filename is set to '"

      << m["filename"].as<std::string>()

      << "'\n";

  }

  else

  {

    std::cout

      << "No filename set\n";

  }

}

Note for Qt Creator users

Add the following line to your Qt project file (to prevent link errors:


LIBS += -lboost_program_options

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(C++) Boost.Program_options

Example

Note for Qt Creator users