Thread: Checking to see what is being pressed on the Keyboard

I am an amateur programmer fluent in QBasic and trying to convert to C/C++. In QBasic there is something called INKEY$ which returns the code of whatever is being pressed on the keyboard at that particualer moment that the line of code runs. Is there something like this in C++? Right now I'm using a Borland compiler but I'll have Visual C++ soon. I couldn't seem to find anything on the FAQ board, the tutorials, or even in the couple of books I have. Please help, as I feel this was one of the most basic lessons of QBasic, and I find it very useful. =P

-Joe

Well, you could do it this way, but you'll need to include conio.h

Code:

int letter = 0;

if(kbhit())             //Was a key pressed?
{
    letter = getch();  //Get the value of the key that was pressed

    //Do whatever with it
    switch(letter)
    {
         case 0:
         case 1:
         //....
    }
}

thank you! I knew about kbhit(), but i was confused, at first I thought it was just like QBasic's INKEY$, but now I see that it is simply either zero or nonzero... and getch()... well, that still confuses me a little, but I think I can figure it out from here.

Thanks a lot!

getch is for "get char". so if you say key = _getch(); you can print out key to see what value each key has.

I'm pretty sure they're non-standard though. There are many standard ways of doing this... http://cboard.cprogramming.com/images/top_search.gif

Hey! I just got this great idea to make things easier for myself and other former QBasic proggies. I made a function making use of kbhit() and getch() that just returns the ASCII code of whatever is being pressed whenever you want, and called it inkey() just to make it easier for myself. =D I have yet to actually try it, but it SHOULD work. Of course you'd need conio.h.

Code:

int inkey()
{
	if (kbhit()!=0)
	{
		return getch();
	}
	else
	{
		return 0;
	}
}

Eh? Eh?

if (kbhit()!=0)

You don't need to have the !=0 thing. C automatically interprets a zero value as false and a nonzero value as true.

So, you could just use

if(kbhit())

Which is a tad clearer imo