Multiple command line arguments with switches

Is it possible to have more than just one type of command line arguments? What I mean by that is, for example: If I wanted to make a program that replaces words in some files, input in command line would look something like this:

Code:

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replace -f [file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt] -w [ten, twenty] -n [10, 20]

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"replace" is the name of a program, "-f" would represent file name parameters , "-w" would represent words that need to be replaced, "-n" would represent words with which "-w" parameters were to be replaced.

I now that for just one set of parameters I can use:

Code:

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

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But what if I want to differentiate few kinds of parameters by adding switches?

You still use the same parameters to main, you just have to parse them more strictly. So you would check an argument to see if it starts with '-'. If it does then get the next character to see what argument type it is. So if it is f, then each argument after that is a file until you find an argument that starts with '-' again.

With enough logic you can do what you want.

There's a nice function in some gnu library called getopt(). Look up that, it might be helpful.

Ok, thank you both.

Well with a text substitution program i'd rather supply a list of words to replace and their replacements in the form of a file, to be honest.

could be really simple:

"10","ten"
"20","twenty"
foo,bar
Riker, Shana


what have you.

In general if the CLI can stay simple, then that makes for a easier to use program.