debug exe in IDE vs outside IDE

Perhaps, your exe needs something that not exists outside the IDE?

Let me clarify a little:
This program exercises and tests database operations, checking return values for accuracy. It's not accessing a separate database file... the test program does everything in memory.

The debug version run from within the IDE successfully completes all tests and finishes without errors.

The debug version run stand-alone (outside the IDE) gets through about 2/3 of the database tests then fails and terminates.

I can understand differences between debug and release, but this is debug vs debug, again same exe, same binary, same instruction set.

One difference between running the exe from within the IDE and without is, that IDE sets the current directory of the exe to the project folder (where you have all those cpp & h files) and running the exe normally (e.g. double-click) the current directory is the current directory :). This can have some unsuspected effects if you are using relative paths like

CString StrFilePath = _T(".\\my_file.xml");

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Usman.

The debug version run from within the IDE successfully completes all tests and finishes without errors.

The debug version run stand-alone (outside the IDE) gets through about 2/3 of the database tests then fails and terminates.Your application has a bug, plain and simple.

"My app works on one machine, but not another"
"My app works when I uninstall <whatever>, but not otherwise"
"My app worked yesterday, but today it crashes".

etc...etc...

Your situation is just a variation on the same theme. You run it in one environment, works, another environment doesn't work.

This sounds like a memory overwrite in your application, or some other issue that isn't obvious (threading maybe?). But the bottom line is that your situation is not unique, as it happens to every programmer at some point.

Regards,

Paul McKenzie