Question

The statement below is not a required part of a C++ program.

system("pause");

However, students using the DEV C++ IDE almost always put it in their main function definition just before the return statement. What does this statement do AND what is its purpose in the program?

Answer 1

The 'system('pause');' statement is a command that is used on the Windows operating system to pause the execution of a program.

It is used in the DEV C++ IDE just before the return statement in the main function definition to pause the program and give the user a chance to view the output before the program ends.

This is usually done for debugging and testing purposes.