C++, setting up include with Cmake - c++

Question

I want to use the ICU package and I tried installing with and without vcpkg, and with vcpkg I do not get a directory for where it was installed like I see in tutorials, so I had to manually find it nor did I get a Cmake toolchain paste line from installing with vcpkg. As for the Cmake file, I try following this tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBzSYiWkEU
but when I go to the configuration manager in Visual Studio I am brought to a json file with no option to change the toolchain, and when I try to go to the settings json file in Visual Studio Code instead, I instead find three different settings json files, none of which have the toolchain file option to change like with Visual Studio. I have had similar difficulties with the Cmake file when trying to install other packages for C++ and have no idea what I am missing from tutorials that seems to no matter what have the Cmakefile.txt never work for me.
I would like to just be able to use the ICU package without having to use Visual Studio and just be able to statically link the package with my .cpp file in the same folder that VS Code uses, and just g++ compile from cmd, however I am in over my head every time I try to get the CMake file to work. If all I know for sure is that I have the latest ICU package downloaded with vcpkg, how would I go about setting up the CMake file?

Answer 1

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
project(MyICUProject)
find_package(ICU REQUIRED)
add_library(MyLibUsingICU lib.cpp)
target_link_libraries(MyLibUsingICU PRIVATE ICU::i18n) # or whatever you use from icu. check https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindICU.html
have a manifest (vcpkg.json) along the sources
{
"name": "MyICUProject",
"description": "<description>",
"dependencies": ["icu"]
}
Invoke with (if you are in the source dir):
cmake -G "Ninja" -B "build" -S . -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<path_to_vcpkg_toolchain>/vcpkg.cmake