Thread: Anyone? (MSVC++)help Plz.

For general console help, browse my tutorial here. It covers things like moving the cursor, changing the colours etc., and when I have converted all parts of it, will cover things like mouse usage.

How are you "opening" this console and what are you wanting to read? It sounds to me as if you have gone to the command line interpreter and entered a text editing program.

You're not using system() are you?

Adrianxw your tutorial is awesome, but I wish I would have looked at along time ago, because I have already figure out most of the things you covered. (I didn't know you could change the cursor size.)

Though, this;

Code:

BOOL FillConsoleOutputCharacter(
  HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
  TCHAR cCharacter,
  DWORD nLength,
  COORD dwWriteCoord,
  LPDWORD lpNumberOfCharsWritten
);

was something I didn't know how to use but knew was there.

I understand exactly what the console is, how the characters work, setting the cursor position, getting the cursor position, changeing the text color, clearing the screen, etc.

How are you "opening" this console and what are you wanting to read? It sounds to me as if you have gone to the command line interpreter and entered a text editing program.

I was just describeing how the "edit" program in DOS/Window32 Console is able to draw a menu which overwrites some of the text that was written to the console and then replaces the exact text that was there when ever the menu closes as if it hadn't overwrote what was there. (This is so hard to explain, but would be so easy to understand if I could show you.) (I was just useing the "edit" program as an example.)

Ok, let me rephrase the question.
How do I retrieve the text that is currently in the console window/my console program?

For example; Let say the character "K" is at coord (40,10), and it is the default console color.

Lets pretend I didn't know "K" was there, but I wanted to find out what was at coord (40,10) in the console window.

Ok, if I draw an ascii window that may overwrite what was at (40,10)... I need to know what was at (40,10) to replace what was there before the ascii window overwrote that area after the ascii window closes.

It would be better if I could retrieve what character is at a specific coord as well as the foreground&background color it had.

>>> find out what was at coord (40,10) in the console window.

Have you tried the...

Code:

BOOL ReadConsoleOutputCharacter(
  HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
                      // handle to a console screen buffer
  LPTSTR lpCharacter, // address of buffer to receive characters
  DWORD nLength,      // number of character cells to read from
  COORD dwReadCoord,  // coordinates of first cell to read from
  LPDWORD lpNumberOfCharsRead 
                      // address of number of cells read from
);

... and...

Code:

BOOL ReadConsoleOutputAttribute(
  HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
                      // handle to a console screen buffer
  LPWORD lpAttribute, // address of buffer to receive attributes
  DWORD nLength,      // number of character cells to read from
  COORD dwReadCoord,  // coordinates of first cell to read from
  LPDWORD lpNumberOfAttrsRead 
                      // address of number of cells read from
);

... functions?

If you are not interested in the values, just pass the address of a dummy int.

I am interested in the values, I just don't understand what they are or how to use them.

If you start at (0,0) and ask it to read 5 characters, then the value returned there will be 5. No surprises there. However, if you ask it to return 1000000 characters, then it can not, because you have asked for more characters then there are in the screen buffer. This will not generate an error, the routine will return the number of characters actually read in the last parameter.

This program sets the FOREGROUND_RED and FOREGROUND_GREEN bits to give yellow text. Then calls ReadConsole OutputAttribute, which returns the value 6 as expected, FR is defined to be 0x0004 an FG as 0x0002, 2+4=6. You should always use the symbols rather than the number, MS may, (unlikely but a reserved right), change them at some later date.

Code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream.h>

int main()
{
    HANDLE hOut;
    unsigned short Attribute;
    COORD Where;
    unsigned long NumRead;

    hOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

    SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut,
                            FOREGROUND_RED | 
                            FOREGROUND_GREEN);

    cout << "This text is yellow." << endl;

    Where.X = 0;
    Where.Y = 0;
    ReadConsoleOutputAttribute(hOut,
                               &Attribute,
                               1,
                               Where,
                               &NumRead);

    cout << "Attribute is " << Attribute << endl;

    return 0;
}