Inputs in SDL (on key pressed)

Question

Hello. I would like to know how can I detect the press of a key or release of a key in a while loop in SDL. Now, I know you can get the events with SDL like OnKeyPressed, OnKeyReleased, OnKeyHit, etc, but I want to know how to build functions like 'KeyPressed' that returns a boolean, instead of being an event. Example:

while not KeyHit( KEY_ESC ) { //Code here }

Thanks.

Answer 1

You should have 2 tables of booleans for keys. One table, in which you set keys true or false based on the SDL keydown/keyup events, and another one, that you initialize with false. When checking keyPressed, you just compare the second table key with the first table key, and if different, if second table key is false, then it was pressed, else it was released. After that, you do secondTable[key] := not secondTable[key]. Works!

Answer 2

I know you have already selected an answer.. but here is some actual code of how I typically do it with one array. :)

first define this somewhere.

bool KEYS[322];  // 322 is the number of SDLK_DOWN events

for(int i = 0; i < 322; i++) { // init them all to false
   KEYS[i] = false;
}

SDL_EnableKeyRepeat(0,0); // you can configure this how you want, but it makes it nice for when you want to register a key continuously being held down

Then later, create a keyboard() function which will register keyboard input

void keyboard() {
        // message processing loop
        SDL_Event event;
        while (SDL_PollEvent(&event)) {
            // check for messages
            switch (event.type) {
                // exit if the window is closed
            case SDL_QUIT:
                game_state = 0; // set game state to done,(do what you want here)
                break;
                // check for keypresses
            case SDL_KEYDOWN:
                KEYS[event.key.keysym.sym] = true;
                break;
            case SDL_KEYUP:
                KEYS[event.key.keysym.sym] = false;
                break;
            default:
                break;
            }
        } // end of message processing
}

Then when you actually want to use the keyboard input i.e. a handleInput() function, it may look something like this:

void handleInput() {
    if(KEYS[SDLK_LEFT]) { // move left
        if(player->x - player->speed >= 0) {
            player->x -= player->speed;
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_RIGHT]) { // move right
        if(player->x + player->speed <= screen->w) {
            player->x += player->speed;
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_UP]) { // move up
        if(player->y - player->speed >= 0) {
            player->y -= player->speed;
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_DOWN]) { // move down
        if(player->y + player->speed <= screen->h) {
            player->y += player->speed;
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_s]) { // shoot 
        if(SDL_GetTicks() - player->lastShot > player->shotDelay) {
            shootbeam(player->beam);
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_q]) {
        if(player->beam == PLAYER_BEAM_CHARGE) {
            player->beam = PLAYER_BEAM_NORMAL;
        } else {
            player->beam = PLAYER_BEAM_CHARGE;
        }
    }
    if(KEYS[SDLK_r]) {
        reset();
    }

    if(KEYS[SDLK_ESCAPE]) {
        gamestate = 0;
    }
}

And of course you can easily do what you're wanting to do

while(KEYS[SDLK_s]) {
    // do something
    keyboard(); // don't forget to redetect which keys are being pressed!
}