Competitive Coding Setup for C++ and Python in VS Code using Python Script

Last Updated : 08 Sep, 2020

Most of us struggle with using heavy software to run C++ and python code and things become more complicated when we have too many files in a folder. In this blog, we are going to create a python script with VS-code-editor that works out to do all your works.

It creates the folder + numbers of files required by the user in that folder with proper extension and the best feature is you can easily run your c++ and python files with one single command. I am also providing the best user-snippets for c++ and python and how to add them to your VS-code-editor.

Requirement

VS Code editor
C++ compiler
Python installed with the path of the environment variable.

Note: You can search for tutorials on Google if you don't know how to set a path in your system.

Step 1: Clone or download the git repository from the link:- https://github.com/AkhilRautela/Competitive-Coding-Helpful-Script-for-VScode-

Step 2: After cloning or downloading it open the folder in your VS Code editor. Make sure there is no .vscode folder in the above directories. This will give you multiple build options.

**All the files downloaded can be seen on the left side**

Step 3: Once the file is downloaded, open the terminal and create a folder and files using the command Terminal→New Terminal. This will give you a new terminal at the bottom of the VSCode editor.

Syntax: python cp.py {folder-name} {number-of-files} {cpp/py}
- Example for c++ files :- python cp.py div2_126 3 cpp
- Example for python files:- python cp.py div1_123 5 py
Both the above commands will create 2 folders one naming div2_126 with 3 files A, B, and C with cpp extension and div1_123 with files A to E with py extension.
You can create your own custom folder, it's not necessary to use the script for creating a folder.
With code, you can only create up to 26 files (A-Z) (usually preferred during the contest) with the command but you can create any number of files manually.

**You can see the files created on the left side**

After that, you can start coding in your required file.
You can easily use the snippet by calling lets for c++ and pystart for python. You can change the prefix name in the .snippets file in the .vscode folder. Before that lets set up the layout as in our snippet our code will take input from input.txt and output to output.txt.
You can split the vs code by going to View->EditorLayout. Let's first split the current window to left then the right window to down.

Now our setup is ready now you can put your input.txt in the top right cell, output.txt to the bottom-right cell, and main code in the left cell by dragging them from the files from the left file menu.
I have dragged the py file to the left cell.
To use snippet write pystart and we will get the snippet.
If you are using c++ then use lets keyword for the snippet.
Write input to the input.txt.
Write the code in the py file and press Ctrl+Shift+B to execute it. This will execute my script that will run the python or c++ file automatically without asking for any build selection.