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 it. Quoted from here, here it is:
#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;
}
Update: The above function works on OS X (at least, on OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard, so I would expect it to work on more recent versions of OS X). This gist can be saved as kbhit.c
and compiled on both Linux and OS X with
gcc -o kbhit kbhit.c
When run with
./kbhit
It prompts you for a keypress, and exits when you hit a key (not limited to Enter or printable keys).
@Johnsyweb - please elaborate what you mean by "detailed canonical answer" and "all the concerns". Also, re "cross-platform": With this implementation of kbhit()
you can have the same functionality in a C++ program on Linux/Unix/OS X/Windows - which other platforms might you be referring to?
Further update for @Johnsyweb: C++ applications do not live in a hermetically sealed C++ environment. A big reason for C++'s success is interoperability with C. All mainstream platforms are implemented with C interfaces (even if internal implementation is using C++) so your talk of "legacy" seems out of place. Plus, as we are talking about a single function, why do you need C++ for this ("C with classes")? As I pointed out, you can write in C++ and access this functionality easily, and your application's users are unlikely to care how you implemented it.