How to produce beep sound using "\a" escape character ?

Question

If I write the following program, then there is no beep sound on running the code.

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{ 
    printf("\a");
    return 0;
 }

Can you tell me how to use \a for producing beep sound using C program ?

Answer 1

The only thing wrong (half wrong) with your program is main signature.

To be 100% portable it should be int main(void) or int main(int argc, char **argv) or equivalent: int main() is not equivalent.

---

And I'd print a '\n' too, or flush the output buffer rather than relying on the runtime flushing all buffers for me automatically, but your program should sound the bell as it is. If it doesn't the problem is elsewhere, not with C.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
    printf("\a\n");
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

I agree with @Steve Jessop. People will go to great lengths to keep their computers quiet.

In Windows: As an alternative to "\a", you could use WinAPI's Beep command. If you are using Windows 7, this may not work as expected.

Beep Function (Windows)