ncurses installed... but won't compile code

I've recently returned to Xubuntu 22.04 after a brief stint on Fedora. Under Fedora, I seemed to be able to install ncurses okay. I could then simply write code and compile with commands like:

$gcc -lncurses main.c

Now, when I try that, it gives me:

/usr/bin/ld: /tmp/cczC1PpK.o: in function `main':
main.c:(.text+0x9): undefined reference to `initscr'
/usr/bin/ld: main.c:(.text+0x1d): undefined reference to `printw'
/usr/bin/ld: main.c:(.text+0x24): undefined reference to `stdscr'
/usr/bin/ld: main.c:(.text+0x2c): undefined reference to `wgetch'
/usr/bin/ld: main.c:(.text+0x31): undefined reference to `endwin'
/usr/bin/ld: warning: creating DT_TEXTREL in a PIE
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

I have tried installing using the following:

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev
sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev  libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev
sudo apt-get install libncurses5 libncurses5:i386
sudo apt-get install libncurses5:i386

All appear to install well with no errors or warnings.

And yet, my code simply doesn't recognise the ncurses function.

The code is as follows:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ncurses.h>


int main()
{
    initscr();
    
    printw("Hello World!");
    getch();
    
    endwin();   
    return 0;
}

It's so simple, and yet it fails.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Try gcc main.c -lncurses instead. As from man page,

the placement of the -l option is significant.