How to Programatically Terminate an MFC Application

ID: Q117320

The information in this article applies to:

The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), included with:
- Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, 16-bit edition, versions 1.0, 1.5, 1.51, 1.52
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 4.0

SUMMARY

Under certain conditions, you may want to terminate an MFC application programatically. MFC does not provide a public function to gracefully exit an application.

MORE INFORMATION

A method for dealing with this is to create a function in your application like the following:


   void ExitApp()
   {
        // same as double-clicking on main window close box
        ASSERT(AfxGetApp()->m_pMainWnd != NULL);
        AfxGetApp()->m_pMainWnd->SendMessage(WM_CLOSE);
   }

As you can see, this is implemented as a global function, which can be called from anywhere in your application. It simply sends a WM_CLOSE message to your application's mainframe window. This initiates an orderly shutdown of the application.

If you are using MFC, version 2.5 or later, you can take advantage of a new global MFC function, "AfxGetMainWnd", to simplify the code:


   void ExitMFCApp()
   {
        // same as double-clicking on main window close box
        ASSERT(AfxGetMainWnd() != NULL);
        AfxGetMainWnd()->SendMessage(WM_CLOSE);
   }

NOTE: Always call CDocument::SetModifiedFlag() after changing your document data. This will ensure that the framework prompts the user to save before shutdown. If you need more extensive control over the shutdown procedure, you can override CDocument::SaveModified().

Additional query words: kbinf 1.00 1.50 1.51 1.52 2.00 2.10 2.50 2.51 2.52 3.00 3.10 4.00

Keywords :
Version : 1.00 1.50 1.51 1.52 | 1.00 2.00
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Issue type :