masking user input...

Hello.

Im wondering does anyone know how to mask a users input in a C++ program. For example if someone was to type in a password you wouldnt want it not to appear in *'s.

Any ideas or help is appreciated, thank you.

- rootnix :confused:

you can use a combination of getch() to get a char from the keyboard and putchar('*').
getch() is a nonstandard function but almost every compiler has it although it may be called _getch() or even __getch().Itusually lives in conio.h .consult your help files.

Using _getch (from conio.h) you will take a character from stdin and not echo it. So you put a '*' out in its place after storing the character, example:

Code:

---

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <conio.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
        char ch[30] = {0};

        cout << "Please enter password: ";
        for ( int i = 0;30 > i;i++ )                //make sure we don't pass the end of the array
        {
                ch[ i ] = _getch( );
                if( '\r' == ch[i] )              //break on carriage return
                        break;
                cout << '*';
        }
       
        cout << endl;

        //do what you want with password in the case I'll display it
        cout << "The password is: " << ch << endl;
               
       
        return 0;
}

---

I'm sure there are more clever ways of do it but this should get you started.

char pword[16];
.
.
.
cout<<"Password: ";
getch(pword);
putch('*');

i dont have my help files im running MS Vis c++ 6.0. i get an error that getch() doesnt take 1 parameter(s).... :confused:

thanks,

- rootnix

Quote:

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i dont have my help files im running MS Vis c++ 6.0. i get an error that getch() doesnt take 1 parameter(s)....

---

An online version of the help files (MSDN) is available at the MS site.

Check Dang's example above on how to use getch().