Is there a way to compile and run a single .cpp file in a Visual Studio Express '12 project?

c++, visual-studio-2012

Solution

All c++ programs start in the `main` function. Why don't you try calling `age()` from `main`?

Of course, in order to do so, you will need your main.cpp to be aware that there is a function called `age`. This is where header files come in.

In total, you will therefore need the following:

main.cpp

#include "age.h"

int main() {
    age();
    return 0;
}

age.h

#ifndef AGE_H
#define AGE_H

int age();

#endif

age.cpp

#include "age.h"

int age() {
    // Do age stuff.
    return 42;
}

Problem

I have just started learning c++ and I am using Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012. I started a project where I was planning to have all my .cpp files but I have now run into a problem where when I try to compile and run a specific .cpp file it doesn't work. VS seems to just compile and run the .cpp file with the main function in it and it makes a .exe and runs it. So since my first .cpp file (that holds the main()) is a simple hello world program I am only getting that one when I try to compile and run now. I have another .cpp file with a int age() function that is supposed to ask for a users age and then output it. It's very simple and I just want to run it to see it in action but I can't figure out how to compile that particular .cpp file in my project since it only seems to want to compile the main .cpp file with the main() function. How can I compile a specific .cpp in the project?

Original source