Instant Keyboard Input Questions

I am starting to use the basic graphics in C, and I am trying to get keyboard input to work right. I want something like getch() to recognize what key I pressed and save it in a variable so I can use that variable to control an object's movement on the screen. Here I have a basic box moving code.

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <graphics.h>
using namespace std;int main(void)
{
    int gd=DETECT,gm;
    initgraph(&gd, &gm, "C:\\TC\\BGI");
    int ch;
    ch=getch();/*can i use this to bind getch() to a variable?*/
    int x=200, y=300, x2=400, y2=400;
   
   
    while(1==1){
    getch();
    cleardevice();
    if(ch==/*need help here*/){
    x+=5;
    y-=10;
    x2+=5;
    y2-=10;             
}
    else if(ch==/*need help here*/){
    x-=5;
    y+=10;
    x2-=5;
    y2+=10;
}
    rectangle(x,y,x2,y2);
}
}

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I put comments in the code to show you where I need help. I don
t know if I can even bind a variable to getch(). I have searched the web for this and haven't found a good answer.

Can I have some help with this?

It seems like what you need to do is assign the return value of getch() to 'ch' inside the loop then evaluate it. For example:

Code:

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while(1) {
    ch = getch();
    if(ch == 'a') {
      // update
    }
    else if(ch == 'd') {
      // update
    }
    // do other stuff like reprint screen?
}

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thanks a ton, it does make sense that you have to make the variable equal to getch() each time you want to change it