Producing Beep Sound with C++

**ron4ldk** · 04-30-2004

Hello everyone,

Just wondering, I read from a C++ book, that there is this special character:

\a

which the book said it will produce a beep sound. Being curious,
I fired up my Microsoft VC++ and tried like this:

cout << "\a\a\a\a\" << endl;

in which I hope the computer will beep several times, but it didn't.

So my question is, can this character
really produce a beep sound?
If yes, how would we use it in the C++ program?

Cheers

Ronald

ps: I also noticed in the book, there is this ASCII character
^G (BEL) --> is this the same thing as above?

FYI
===
OS : Windows XP
Compiler : Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0

**blue_gene** · 04-30-2004

....but this is giving multiple beeps in my system.

Code:

#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()

{
int k =0;

while(k<10)
{

	cout<<'\a'<<endl;

	k++;
}

}

you need to flush the stream . either use "endl" or use "flush".

**jinx** · 04-30-2004

try removing the quotes

Code:

cout << \a \a \a \a << endl;

or something. Personally I've never used this in c++ (or even heard of this); The only command I know for this is "beep" in BASIC...

**Phylter** · 04-30-2004

You may have one of the newer computers that do not have a pc speaker hooked up. Open the case and look to see if there is a single speaker on the case that is connected to your motherboard.

**adrianxw** · 04-30-2004

Use the Beep() API function, control the pitch and duration that way.

**major_small** · 04-30-2004

it's supposed to be in quotes... it's just a mobo beep... not really anythign interesting... and if you put several together they beep so fast you can barely hear the pauses in between... at least on my system...

**Phylter** · 04-30-2004

Then you need to use other functions to slow down the process of beeping. You can get real fancy with timers but you probably only need a simple pause between each beep.

**jverkoey** · 04-30-2004

if you are under windows XP, you can set the volume of the beeper on your puter in the volume control. You might have it muted, causing you not to hear the sounds. Just double click your volume control and make sure the "PC Speaker" isn't muted and that the volume is all the way up.

note-
and for making beep sounds, use the Beep function, found in windows.h i believe....

Beep(frequency, duration);

so Beep(1000,500); would play a beep at pitch 1000 for half a second 500/1000 milliseconds.

**Salem** · 05-01-2004

> in which I hope the computer will beep several times, but it didn't.
But did it beep at all?

cout << '\a\a'
is only likely to produce a slightly longer beep than
cout << '\a'

If you want distinct beeps, then you're going to have to use a loop, and insert a delay between each one.

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