how to simulate press any key to continue?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to do a C++ program where when user enter any character from keyboard it should move to next line of code.

Here is my code:

char c;

cin>>c;

cout<<"Something"<<endl;

but this is not working because it only move to next line when i input some character and then press ENTER.

OR

If i use this

cin.get() or cin.get(c)

it move to next line of instruction when i press Enter.

But i wanted it to move to next line on any key pressed on the keyboard, how this can be done?

Answer 1

To achieve this functionality you could use ncurses library which was implemented both on Windows and Linux (and MacOS as far as I know).

Answer 2

If you're on Windows, you can use kbhit() which is part of the Microsoft run-time library. If you're on Linux, you can implement kbhit thus (source):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

int kbhit(void)
{
  struct termios oldt, newt;
  int ch;
  int oldf;

  tcgetattr(STDIN_FILENO, &oldt);
  newt = oldt;
  newt.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO);
  tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &newt);
  oldf = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_GETFL, 0);
  fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_SETFL, oldf | O_NONBLOCK);

  ch = getchar();

  tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &oldt);
  fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_SETFL, oldf);

  if(ch != EOF)
  {
    ungetc(ch, stdin);
    return 1;
  }

  return 0;
}

I'm not sure if this'll work on OS X, but it's worth a try.

Answer 3

You can use the getchar routine.

From the above link:

/* getchar example : typewriter */
#include <stdio.h>

int main ()
{
  char c;
  puts ("Enter text. Include a dot ('.') in a sentence to exit:");
  do {
    c=getchar();
    putchar (c);
  } while (c != '.');
  return 0;
}

Answer 4

I looked into what you are trying to achieve, because I remember I wanted to do the same thing. Inspired by Vinay I wrote something that works for me and I sort of understand. But I am not an expert, so please be careful.

I don't know how Vinay knows you are using Mac OS X. But it should work kind of like this with most unix-like OS. Really helpful as resource is opengroup.org

Make sure to flush the buffer before using the function.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <termios.h>     //termios, TCSANOW, ECHO, ICANON
#include <unistd.h>  //STDIN_FILENO


void pressKey()
{
    //the struct termios stores all kinds of flags which can manipulate the I/O Interface
    //I have an old one to save the old settings and a new 
    static struct termios oldt, newt;
    printf("Press key to continue....\n");

    //tcgetattr gets the parameters of the current terminal
    //STDIN_FILENO will tell tcgetattr that it should write the settings
    // of stdin to oldt
    tcgetattr( STDIN_FILENO, &oldt);
    //now the settings will be copied 
    newt = oldt;

    //two of the c_lflag will be turned off
    //ECHO which is responsible for displaying the input of the user in the terminal
    //ICANON is the essential one! Normally this takes care that one line at a time will be processed
    //that means it will return if it sees a "\n" or an EOF or an EOL
    newt.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO );   

    //Those new settings will be set to STDIN
    //TCSANOW tells tcsetattr to change attributes immediately. 
    tcsetattr( STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &newt);

    //now the char wil be requested
    getchar();

    //the old settings will be written back to STDIN
    tcsetattr( STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &oldt);

}


int main(void)
{
  pressKey();
  printf("END\n");
  return 0;
}

O_NONBLOCK seems also to be an important flag, but it didn't change anything for me.

I appreciate if people with some deeper knowledge would comment on this and give some advice.

Answer 5

system("pause");

will output "Press any key to continue..." and obviously, wait for any key to be pressed. I hope thats what you meant