Changing specific character's color in c++ console

Question

I'm making a calendar program for my c++ class and I was just wondering if there was a way to change color of certain days in the program (for example, christmas, new years, weekends, would all be different colors) if it is not possible can i at least bold or something...

here is my code

char *month_name[12] = {"January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"};
char *month_underline[12] = {"-------", "--------", "-----", "-----", "---", "----", "----", "------", "---------", "-------", "--------", "--------"};
char *week_name[7] = {"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"};
int days = 1;
int days_max;
int i, j, k;

for(i = 0; i < 12; i++)
{
    cout << "--------------------------------------------------------------------------------";

    cout << '\n' << month_name[i] << '\n';
    cout << month_underline[i] << "\n\n";

    for (j = 0; j < 7; j++)
    {
        cout << week_name[j] << "     ";
    }



    cout << "\n\n";

    if (i == 0 || i == 2 || i == 4 || i == 6 || i == 7 || i == 9 || i == 11) //i is the number of the month minus 1 (jan = 0, feb = 1, etc.)
        days_max = 32;
    else if (i == 3 || i == 5 || i == 8 || i == 10)
        days_max = 31;
    else if (i == 1)
        days_max = 29;

    for (days = 1; days < days_max; days++)
    {
        if (i == 0 || i == 9)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "                        ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else if (days == 6 || days == 13 || days == 20 || days == 27)
            {    
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }


        if (i == 1 || i == 2 || i == 10)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "                                                            ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }                
            else if (days == 3 || days == 10 || days == 17 || days == 24 || days == 31)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }

        if (i == 3 || i == 6)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "            ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }                
            else if (days == 7 || days == 14 || days == 21 || days == 28)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }

        if (i == 4)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "                                    ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }                
            else if (days == 5 || days == 12 || days == 19 || days == 26)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }

        if (i == 5)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "                                                                        ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }                
            else if (days == 2 || days == 9 || days == 16 || days == 23 || days == 30)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }

        if (i == 7)
        {
            if (days == 1)
            {
                cout << "                                                ";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }                
            else if (days == 4 || days == 11 || days == 18 || days == 25)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }

        if (i == 8 || i == 11)
        {           
            if (days == 8 || days == 15 || days == 22 || days == 29)
            {
                cout << "\n\n";
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
            }
            else 
                cout << setw(4) << days << "        ";
        }


    }
        cout << "\n";
}

cout << "--------------------------------------------------------------------------------";


system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer 1

This works in Windows 10/11 and Linux (You can use it also in Python). Does not work in Windows 8.1:

cout << "Normal text" << "\033[1;31;40m Red text \033[0m" << "Normal text";

Answer 2

In text mode you have some limitations to do that. But there is some portable libraries which can handle your purpose such as coloring.

Read this question: Portable text based console manipulator and follow the link. It is portable at least between (Windows and ANSI-Escape supported OSs)

You can change the color like below code:

#include <iostream>
#include "rlutil.h"  // <-- Get it from the link
int main()
{
    rlutil::setColor(2); // 2 for Green

    std::cout << "Hello! I am green!" << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Answer 3

There is no C++ "standard" way to do this. You can either find a library, as suggested by Masoud - this will allow your code to be portable to other systems. Or you can use for example ANSI Escape sequences directly [that's PROBABLY what the portable solution does behind the scenes, but there are other ways].

This page gives some information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code

Bear in mind however that this is non-portable, and will not work on all platforms.