Is there a way to read input directly from the keyboard in standard C++?

Question

And I know there's std::cin, but that requires the user to enter a string, then press ENTER. Is there a way to simply get the next key that is pushed without needing to press ENTER to confirm

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered May 24 '09 at 00:41

10

What you're looking for is related to manipulating the console, and is OS-dependent. If you're in a UNIX-based OS, check out the curses library, and in Windows, there are getch() and kbhit() functions from <conio.h>.

answered May 24 '09 at 00:41

Jesse Beder

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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

1

It looks like the most upvoted answer is a bit outdated.

The ncurses library (based on the mentioned curses library) is a portable implementation available for unix and linux based operating systems, windows and others.

It supports a wide variety of terminal interfaces.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Community

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answered May 23 '16 at 16:41

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Dervin Thunk · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-24T00:50:20.757

0

You can use

#include <conio.h>

and then catch char with cases such as this

char c;
if (_kbhit())
{
  c = getch();
  switch(c)
  {
  case ‘\0H’ :
  cout << "up arrow key!" << endl;
  break;
  }
}

Beware: I have not tried it... and remember to put the whole thing into a "while(true)" to test.

edited May 24 '09 at 00:50

answered May 24 '09 at 00:43

Dervin Thunk

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I assume that and _kbhit() are windows/DOS specific? – camh May 24 '09 at 02:07
Also, hoe does '\OH' translate into up arrow? (As in, what are the values of the down, left, and right arrows?) – May 24 '09 at 02:31
@camh: yes, afaik @Kean64: if i remember correctly, there are constants like ARROW_KEY_UP, please try that. not in front of my devel computer... – Dervin Thunk May 24 '09 at 02:58
1

This is not standard C++ – bcsanches Nov 25 '11 at 17:08

Is there a way to read input directly from the keyboard in standard C++?

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