Easily change text color

If you are running a Win32 console app, I've made a header file which defines most text color schemes, for example... the API command to change the console text color to red is

Code:

SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), FOREGROUND_RED);

So I simply #defined it like so

Code:

#define text_red SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), FOREGROUND_RED);

I went off on a tangent and ended up defining pretty much every color combination I could think of, and it took a long while to do, so for convienence, I put it here (it's actually 140 combinations )

So now you can do this

Code:

#include "def_colors.h";
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
text_white_red;
std::cout << "This text is white on red!";
text_lightgrey_cyan;
std::cout << "This text is light grey on cyan!";
text_grey;
std::cout << "This text is plain old grey on black...";

return 0;
}

text_foreground_background

Maybe I'm just wasting time.... oh well, I know it helped me since I prefer using API commands for console manipulation

You're a life saver! I was looking for something just like this.

Thanx

what's with _HA NDLE? .. thx helped a lot though I used to use a function like textcolor(int) oh and is there something less platform-specific for changing colours in console? I know pascal does :P

Originally Posted by Ruski

what's with _HA NDLE?

Thatis just what happens when the board displays a long string without a space. It inserts its own.

Originally Posted by d00b

Maybe I'm just wasting time....

Well I'm sure it will help a lot of noobs

why #define? why not inline functions? why the repetitive code? why not wrap it up into a console_colour object or similar.Small example but could be much better refactored.

Yes. Please bundle your code up behind at least twenty-five layers of abstraction because I'm incapable of doing this in a manner that suits me.

Its not about 25 layers of abstraction, its about writing correct code that wont break. #defines are brittle and can easily cause problems. Why should you have to write GetStdHandle(STANDARD_OUTPUT_HANDLE) over and over. It need only be done once.heres an article that should give some ideas on a better way of doing this.

Heres an example of easier code...

Code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

HANDLE hOUT = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

void setColor (bool forIntense, bool backIntense, int color) 
{
   SetConsoleTextAttribute (hOUT, 
                           (forIntense ? FOREGROUND_INTENSITY : 0) |
                           (backIntense ? BACKGROUND_INTENSITY : 0) | 
                           (color));
}

int main () {
   setColor (1,0,FOREGROUND_RED);
   cout << "TEST!" << endl;
   setColor (1,0,FOREGROUND_BLUE);
   cout << "TEST!" << endl;
   setColor (1,1,BACKGROUND_RED);
   cout << "TEST!" << endl;

   cin.get();
   return 0;
}

Where is FOREGROUND_RED declared? In windows.h?

Or even good ol sang-drax. http://www.cprogramming.com/snippets...ount=30&page=0

Originally Posted by dwks

Where is FOREGROUND_RED declared? In windows.h?

Yes they are in windows.h