error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _WinMain

Question

While I am running the simple code as below I have two errors as following:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace::std;

template <class Type>
class Stack
{
public:
    Stack (int max):stack(new Type[max]), top(-1), maxsize(max){}
    ~Stack (void) {delete []stack;}
    void Push (Type &val);
    void Pop (void) {if (top>=0) --top;}
    Type& Top (void) {return stack[top];}
    //friend ostream& operator<< (ostream&, Stack&);
private:
    Type *stack;
    int top;
    const int maxSize;
};

template <class Type>
void Stack <Type>:: Push (Type &val)
{
    if (top+1<maxsize)
        stack [++top]=val;
}

Errors:

MSVCRTD.lib(crtexew.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _WinMain@16 referenced in function ___tmainCRTStartup

What Should I do?

Answer 1

If you use Unicode Character Set, but the entry wasn't set, you can specify /ENTRY:"wWinMainCRTStartup"

Answer 2

I'm not sure where to post this answer of mine but I think it's the right place. I came across this very error today and switching the subsystems didn't change a thing.

Changing the 64bit lib files to 32bit (x86) did the trick for me, I hope it will help someone out there !

Answer 3

Besides changing it to Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE) as others have said, you may need to change the entry point in Properties -> Linker -> Advanced -> Entry Point. Set it to mainCRTStartup.

It seems that Visual Studio might be searching for the WinMain function instead of main, if you don't specify otherwise.

Answer 4

As the others mentioned you can change the SubSystem to Console and the error will go away.

Or if you want to keep the Windows subsystem you can just hint at what your entry point is, because you haven't defined ___tmainCRTStartup. You can do this by adding the following to Properties -> Linker -> Command line:

/ENTRY:"mainCRTStartup"

This way you get rid of the console window.

Answer 5

Thats a linker problem.

Try to change Properties -> Linker -> System -> SubSystem (in Visual Studio).

from Windows (/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS) to Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE)

This one helped me