I can never remember how I do this because it comes up so infrequently for me. But in C or C++, what is the best way to read a character from standard input without waiting for a newline (press enter).
Also ideally it wouldn't echo the input character to the screen. I just want to capture keystrokes with out effecting the console screen.
This question is related to
c++
c
inputstream
C and C++ take a very abstract view of I/O, and there is no standard way of doing what you want. There are standard ways to get characters from the standard input stream, if there are any to get, and nothing else is defined by either language. Any answer will therefore have to be platform-specific, perhaps depending not only on the operating system but also the software framework.
There's some reasonable guesses here, but there's no way to answer your question without knowing what your target environment is.
Assuming Windows, take a look at the ReadConsoleInput function.
On Linux (and other unix-like systems) this can be done in following way:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>
char getch() {
char buf = 0;
struct termios old = {0};
if (tcgetattr(0, &old) < 0)
perror("tcsetattr()");
old.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
old.c_lflag &= ~ECHO;
old.c_cc[VMIN] = 1;
old.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
if (tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &old) < 0)
perror("tcsetattr ICANON");
if (read(0, &buf, 1) < 0)
perror ("read()");
old.c_lflag |= ICANON;
old.c_lflag |= ECHO;
if (tcsetattr(0, TCSADRAIN, &old) < 0)
perror ("tcsetattr ~ICANON");
return (buf);
}
Basically you have to turn off canonical mode (and echo mode to suppress echoing).
The closest thing to portable is to use the ncurses library to put the terminal into "cbreak mode". The API is gigantic; the routines you'll want most are
initscr and endwincbreak and nocbreakgetchGood luck!
CONIO.H
the functions you need are:
int getch();
Prototype
int _getch(void);
Description
_getch obtains a character from stdin. Input is unbuffered, and this
routine will return as soon as a character is available without
waiting for a carriage return. The character is not echoed to stdout.
_getch bypasses the normal buffering done by getchar and getc. ungetc
cannot be used with _getch.
Synonym
Function: getch
int kbhit();
Description
Checks if a keyboard key has been pressed but not yet read.
Return Value
Returns a non-zero value if a key was pressed. Otherwise, returns 0.
libconio http://sourceforge.net/projects/libconio
or
Linux c++ implementation of conio.h http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-conioh
If you are on windows, you can use PeekConsoleInput to detect if there's any input,
HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
DWORD events;
INPUT_RECORD buffer;
PeekConsoleInput( handle, &buffer, 1, &events );
then use ReadConsoleInput to "consume" the input character ..
PeekConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
if(events > 0)
{
ReadConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
return buffer.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode;
}
else return 0
to be honest this is from some old code I have, so you have to fiddle a bit with it.
The cool thing though is that it reads input without prompting for anything, so the characters are not displayed at all.
#include <conio.h>
if (kbhit() != 0) {
cout << getch() << endl;
}
This uses kbhit() to check if the keyboard is being pressed and uses getch() to get the character that is being pressed.
ncurses provides a nice way to do this! Also this is my very first post (that I can remember), so any comments at all are welcome. I will appreciate useful ones, but all are welcome!
to compile: g++ -std=c++11 -pthread -lncurses .cpp -o
#include <iostream>
#include <ncurses.h>
#include <future>
char get_keyboard_input();
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
initscr();
raw();
noecho();
keypad(stdscr,true);
auto f = std::async(std::launch::async, get_keyboard_input);
while (f.wait_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(20)) != std::future_status::ready)
{
// do some work
}
endwin();
std::cout << "returned: " << f.get() << std::endl;
return 0;
}
char get_keyboard_input()
{
char input = '0';
while(input != 'q')
{
input = getch();
}
return input;
}
The closest thing to portable is to use the ncurses library to put the terminal into "cbreak mode". The API is gigantic; the routines you'll want most are
initscr and endwincbreak and nocbreakgetchGood luck!
works for me on windows:
#include <conio.h>
char c = _getch();
The following is a solution extracted from Expert C Programming: Deep Secrets, which is supposed to work on SVr4. It uses stty and ioctl.
#include <sys/filio.h>
int kbhit()
{
int i;
ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &i);
return i; /* return a count of chars available to read */
}
main()
{
int i = 0;
intc='';
system("stty raw -echo");
printf("enter 'q' to quit \n");
for (;c!='q';i++) {
if (kbhit()) {
c=getchar();
printf("\n got %c, on iteration %d",c, i);
}
}
system("stty cooked echo");
}
You can do it portably using SDL (the Simple DirectMedia Library), though I suspect you may not like its behavior. When I tried it, I had to have SDL create a new video window (even though I didn't need it for my program) and have this window "grab" almost all keyboard and mouse input (which was okay for my usage but could be annoying or unworkable in other situations). I suspect it's overkill and not worth it unless complete portability is a must--otherwise try one of the other suggested solutions.
By the way, this will give you key press and release events separately, if you're into that.
Here's a version that doesn't shell out to the system (written and tested on macOS 10.14)
#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
char* getStr( char* buffer , int maxRead ) {
int numRead = 0;
char ch;
struct termios old = {0};
struct termios new = {0};
if( tcgetattr( 0 , &old ) < 0 ) perror( "tcgetattr() old settings" );
if( tcgetattr( 0 , &new ) < 0 ) perror( "tcgetaart() new settings" );
cfmakeraw( &new );
if( tcsetattr( 0 , TCSADRAIN , &new ) < 0 ) perror( "tcssetattr makeraw new" );
for( int i = 0 ; i < maxRead ; i++) {
ch = getchar();
switch( ch ) {
case EOF:
case '\n':
case '\r':
goto exit_getStr;
break;
default:
printf( "%1c" , ch );
buffer[ numRead++ ] = ch;
if( numRead >= maxRead ) {
goto exit_getStr;
}
break;
}
}
exit_getStr:
if( tcsetattr( 0 , TCSADRAIN , &old) < 0) perror ("tcsetattr reset to old" );
printf( "\n" );
return buffer;
}
int main( void )
{
const int maxChars = 20;
char stringBuffer[ maxChars+1 ];
memset( stringBuffer , 0 , maxChars+1 ); // initialize to 0
printf( "enter a string: ");
getStr( stringBuffer , maxChars );
printf( "you entered: [%s]\n" , stringBuffer );
}
works for me on windows:
#include <conio.h>
char c = _getch();
I always wanted a loop to read my input without pressing return key. this worked for me.
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
char ch;
system("stty raw");//seting the terminal in raw mode
while(1)
{
ch=getchar();
if(ch=='~'){ //terminate or come out of raw mode on "~" pressed
system("stty cooked");
//while(1);//you may still run the code
exit(0); //or terminate
}
printf("you pressed %c\n ",ch); //write rest code here
}
}
C and C++ take a very abstract view of I/O, and there is no standard way of doing what you want. There are standard ways to get characters from the standard input stream, if there are any to get, and nothing else is defined by either language. Any answer will therefore have to be platform-specific, perhaps depending not only on the operating system but also the software framework.
There's some reasonable guesses here, but there's no way to answer your question without knowing what your target environment is.
Here's a version that doesn't shell out to the system (written and tested on macOS 10.14)
#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
char* getStr( char* buffer , int maxRead ) {
int numRead = 0;
char ch;
struct termios old = {0};
struct termios new = {0};
if( tcgetattr( 0 , &old ) < 0 ) perror( "tcgetattr() old settings" );
if( tcgetattr( 0 , &new ) < 0 ) perror( "tcgetaart() new settings" );
cfmakeraw( &new );
if( tcsetattr( 0 , TCSADRAIN , &new ) < 0 ) perror( "tcssetattr makeraw new" );
for( int i = 0 ; i < maxRead ; i++) {
ch = getchar();
switch( ch ) {
case EOF:
case '\n':
case '\r':
goto exit_getStr;
break;
default:
printf( "%1c" , ch );
buffer[ numRead++ ] = ch;
if( numRead >= maxRead ) {
goto exit_getStr;
}
break;
}
}
exit_getStr:
if( tcsetattr( 0 , TCSADRAIN , &old) < 0) perror ("tcsetattr reset to old" );
printf( "\n" );
return buffer;
}
int main( void )
{
const int maxChars = 20;
char stringBuffer[ maxChars+1 ];
memset( stringBuffer , 0 , maxChars+1 ); // initialize to 0
printf( "enter a string: ");
getStr( stringBuffer , maxChars );
printf( "you entered: [%s]\n" , stringBuffer );
}
ncurses provides a nice way to do this! Also this is my very first post (that I can remember), so any comments at all are welcome. I will appreciate useful ones, but all are welcome!
to compile: g++ -std=c++11 -pthread -lncurses .cpp -o
#include <iostream>
#include <ncurses.h>
#include <future>
char get_keyboard_input();
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
initscr();
raw();
noecho();
keypad(stdscr,true);
auto f = std::async(std::launch::async, get_keyboard_input);
while (f.wait_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(20)) != std::future_status::ready)
{
// do some work
}
endwin();
std::cout << "returned: " << f.get() << std::endl;
return 0;
}
char get_keyboard_input()
{
char input = '0';
while(input != 'q')
{
input = getch();
}
return input;
}
Assuming Windows, take a look at the ReadConsoleInput function.
CONIO.H
the functions you need are:
int getch();
Prototype
int _getch(void);
Description
_getch obtains a character from stdin. Input is unbuffered, and this
routine will return as soon as a character is available without
waiting for a carriage return. The character is not echoed to stdout.
_getch bypasses the normal buffering done by getchar and getc. ungetc
cannot be used with _getch.
Synonym
Function: getch
int kbhit();
Description
Checks if a keyboard key has been pressed but not yet read.
Return Value
Returns a non-zero value if a key was pressed. Otherwise, returns 0.
libconio http://sourceforge.net/projects/libconio
or
Linux c++ implementation of conio.h http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-conioh
The closest thing to portable is to use the ncurses library to put the terminal into "cbreak mode". The API is gigantic; the routines you'll want most are
initscr and endwincbreak and nocbreakgetchGood luck!
I found this on another forum while looking to solve the same problem. I've modified it a bit from what I found. It works great. I'm running OS X, so if you're running Microsoft, you'll need to find the correct system() command to switch to raw and cooked modes.
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
// Output prompt
cout << "Press any key to continue..." << endl;
// Set terminal to raw mode
system("stty raw");
// Wait for single character
char input = getchar();
// Echo input:
cout << "--" << input << "--";
// Reset terminal to normal "cooked" mode
system("stty cooked");
// And we're out of here
return 0;
}
The following is a solution extracted from Expert C Programming: Deep Secrets, which is supposed to work on SVr4. It uses stty and ioctl.
#include <sys/filio.h>
int kbhit()
{
int i;
ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &i);
return i; /* return a count of chars available to read */
}
main()
{
int i = 0;
intc='';
system("stty raw -echo");
printf("enter 'q' to quit \n");
for (;c!='q';i++) {
if (kbhit()) {
c=getchar();
printf("\n got %c, on iteration %d",c, i);
}
}
system("stty cooked echo");
}
If you are on windows, you can use PeekConsoleInput to detect if there's any input,
HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
DWORD events;
INPUT_RECORD buffer;
PeekConsoleInput( handle, &buffer, 1, &events );
then use ReadConsoleInput to "consume" the input character ..
PeekConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
if(events > 0)
{
ReadConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
return buffer.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode;
}
else return 0
to be honest this is from some old code I have, so you have to fiddle a bit with it.
The cool thing though is that it reads input without prompting for anything, so the characters are not displayed at all.
Assuming Windows, take a look at the ReadConsoleInput function.
The following is a solution extracted from Expert C Programming: Deep Secrets, which is supposed to work on SVr4. It uses stty and ioctl.
#include <sys/filio.h>
int kbhit()
{
int i;
ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &i);
return i; /* return a count of chars available to read */
}
main()
{
int i = 0;
intc='';
system("stty raw -echo");
printf("enter 'q' to quit \n");
for (;c!='q';i++) {
if (kbhit()) {
c=getchar();
printf("\n got %c, on iteration %d",c, i);
}
}
system("stty cooked echo");
}
CONIO.H
the functions you need are:
int getch();
Prototype
int _getch(void);
Description
_getch obtains a character from stdin. Input is unbuffered, and this
routine will return as soon as a character is available without
waiting for a carriage return. The character is not echoed to stdout.
_getch bypasses the normal buffering done by getchar and getc. ungetc
cannot be used with _getch.
Synonym
Function: getch
int kbhit();
Description
Checks if a keyboard key has been pressed but not yet read.
Return Value
Returns a non-zero value if a key was pressed. Otherwise, returns 0.
libconio http://sourceforge.net/projects/libconio
or
Linux c++ implementation of conio.h http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-conioh
I found this on another forum while looking to solve the same problem. I've modified it a bit from what I found. It works great. I'm running OS X, so if you're running Microsoft, you'll need to find the correct system() command to switch to raw and cooked modes.
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
// Output prompt
cout << "Press any key to continue..." << endl;
// Set terminal to raw mode
system("stty raw");
// Wait for single character
char input = getchar();
// Echo input:
cout << "--" << input << "--";
// Reset terminal to normal "cooked" mode
system("stty cooked");
// And we're out of here
return 0;
}
Assuming Windows, take a look at the ReadConsoleInput function.
C and C++ take a very abstract view of I/O, and there is no standard way of doing what you want. There are standard ways to get characters from the standard input stream, if there are any to get, and nothing else is defined by either language. Any answer will therefore have to be platform-specific, perhaps depending not only on the operating system but also the software framework.
There's some reasonable guesses here, but there's no way to answer your question without knowing what your target environment is.
#include <conio.h>
if (kbhit() != 0) {
cout << getch() << endl;
}
This uses kbhit() to check if the keyboard is being pressed and uses getch() to get the character that is being pressed.
I use kbhit() to see if a char is present and then getchar() to read the data. On windows, you can use "conio.h". On linux, you will have to implement your own kbhit().
See code below:
// kbhit
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h> // For FIONREAD
#include <termios.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
int kbhit(void) {
static bool initflag = false;
static const int STDIN = 0;
if (!initflag) {
// Use termios to turn off line buffering
struct termios term;
tcgetattr(STDIN, &term);
term.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
tcsetattr(STDIN, TCSANOW, &term);
setbuf(stdin, NULL);
initflag = true;
}
int nbbytes;
ioctl(STDIN, FIONREAD, &nbbytes); // 0 is STDIN
return nbbytes;
}
// main
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
char c;
//setbuf(stdout, NULL); // Optional: No buffering.
//setbuf(stdin, NULL); // Optional: No buffering.
printf("Press key");
while (!kbhit()) {
printf(".");
fflush(stdout);
sleep(1);
}
c = getchar();
printf("\nChar received:%c\n", c);
printf("Done.\n");
return 0;
}
I always wanted a loop to read my input without pressing return key. this worked for me.
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
char ch;
system("stty raw");//seting the terminal in raw mode
while(1)
{
ch=getchar();
if(ch=='~'){ //terminate or come out of raw mode on "~" pressed
system("stty cooked");
//while(1);//you may still run the code
exit(0); //or terminate
}
printf("you pressed %c\n ",ch); //write rest code here
}
}
The following is a solution extracted from Expert C Programming: Deep Secrets, which is supposed to work on SVr4. It uses stty and ioctl.
#include <sys/filio.h>
int kbhit()
{
int i;
ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &i);
return i; /* return a count of chars available to read */
}
main()
{
int i = 0;
intc='';
system("stty raw -echo");
printf("enter 'q' to quit \n");
for (;c!='q';i++) {
if (kbhit()) {
c=getchar();
printf("\n got %c, on iteration %d",c, i);
}
}
system("stty cooked echo");
}
You can do it portably using SDL (the Simple DirectMedia Library), though I suspect you may not like its behavior. When I tried it, I had to have SDL create a new video window (even though I didn't need it for my program) and have this window "grab" almost all keyboard and mouse input (which was okay for my usage but could be annoying or unworkable in other situations). I suspect it's overkill and not worth it unless complete portability is a must--otherwise try one of the other suggested solutions.
By the way, this will give you key press and release events separately, if you're into that.
If you are on windows, you can use PeekConsoleInput to detect if there's any input,
HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
DWORD events;
INPUT_RECORD buffer;
PeekConsoleInput( handle, &buffer, 1, &events );
then use ReadConsoleInput to "consume" the input character ..
PeekConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
if(events > 0)
{
ReadConsoleInput(handle, &buffer, 1, &events);
return buffer.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode;
}
else return 0
to be honest this is from some old code I have, so you have to fiddle a bit with it.
The cool thing though is that it reads input without prompting for anything, so the characters are not displayed at all.
I use kbhit() to see if a char is present and then getchar() to read the data. On windows, you can use "conio.h". On linux, you will have to implement your own kbhit().
See code below:
// kbhit
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h> // For FIONREAD
#include <termios.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
int kbhit(void) {
static bool initflag = false;
static const int STDIN = 0;
if (!initflag) {
// Use termios to turn off line buffering
struct termios term;
tcgetattr(STDIN, &term);
term.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
tcsetattr(STDIN, TCSANOW, &term);
setbuf(stdin, NULL);
initflag = true;
}
int nbbytes;
ioctl(STDIN, FIONREAD, &nbbytes); // 0 is STDIN
return nbbytes;
}
// main
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
char c;
//setbuf(stdout, NULL); // Optional: No buffering.
//setbuf(stdin, NULL); // Optional: No buffering.
printf("Press key");
while (!kbhit()) {
printf(".");
fflush(stdout);
sleep(1);
}
c = getchar();
printf("\nChar received:%c\n", c);
printf("Done.\n");
return 0;
}
The closest thing to portable is to use the ncurses library to put the terminal into "cbreak mode". The API is gigantic; the routines you'll want most are
initscr and endwincbreak and nocbreakgetchGood luck!
C and C++ take a very abstract view of I/O, and there is no standard way of doing what you want. There are standard ways to get characters from the standard input stream, if there are any to get, and nothing else is defined by either language. Any answer will therefore have to be platform-specific, perhaps depending not only on the operating system but also the software framework.
There's some reasonable guesses here, but there's no way to answer your question without knowing what your target environment is.
Source: Stackoverflow.com