Utilising Arrow Keys in C++

Question

I have a question (finally) !

What would be the standard way of controlling console program flow via arrow keys on C++? As far as I have progressed, I have been successful in using getch() to get the program to respond in various ways to arrow keys upon press, but I would like to know better ways which wouldn't need getch(), or an actual counterpart to getch() which works exactly the same way.

@Kenyatta has provided an alternative of using getchar(). I'll just leave this here for extra input.

Answer 1

@Mr.Robot I did a lookup on getchar() and it's from <cstdio>, formally known as <stdio.h> in C.

Answer 2

Hi. I'm feeling some exception here because...especially for IoT...a "good" answer requires distinction between ANSI escapes, ASCII, scancodes, ports, portability, terminal types and environment. I did work on that but I need to step away for a while and...maybe you'd just rather I cut through it with this:

Which OS "standard"? There really isn't one. Portability's weird; it's all hacks.
If you don't want to use a hack, try these:
Linux/Android/OSX: "ncurses" for normalizing KEY_UP...etc.
Windows: http://pdcurses.sourceforge.net/

If that's not the ticket, I can come back with a link and some careful attention to getting to the point.

Answer 3

@rei cool😊

Answer 4

#define KEY_UP 72

#define KEY_DOWN 80

#define KEY_LEFT 75

#define KEY_RIGHT 77

if you don't want to display the character you press on the screen, use c = getch();.
else use c = getchar();

then simply compare c with those macros.
if(c == KEY_UP)
// Do something

Answer 5

      This Code Might Help You
  char ch;
ch=getch();
                       if(kbhit())                                            //check
if a key is pressed

                                {
if(ch==57). //move upwards
{

if(ch==61) //move left
{

}

if(ch==63) //move right
{

}

if(ch==62) //move downward
{

}
}

           I have used ASCII values in 'if'

Answer 6

Getch() comes under the conio.h header file. Whereas getchar() comes under which header file?

Answer 7

Instead of getch() you could use WinApi (if you are using Windows ofc). And use events provided in this API, here is comment on how to do it:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/24709138

Answer 8

<stdio.h>