[c] Moving the cursor in console mode

[Quboid]

I'm writing a simple game for the Windows 2000 command prompt - the biggest problem at present is that when I need to update one character anywhere on the screen, I need to redraw the entire screen resulting in serious flicker.

There must be some way to move the cursor to a given x,y co-ordinate on the screen. Anyone know how this is done?

[neowin_hipster]

here's the declaration, its not standard i believe but it may be found in conio or in pc. I know its in djgpp (gcc for dos) atleast.

void ScreenSetCursor(int row, int column);

[Quboid]

That function and neither of those libraries don't seem to exist under Visual C++ 6.0 :(

[underscorebios]

You can use the api setcursorpos on vb

and also the getcursorpos the get the current mouse x and y

Public Declare Function SetCursorPos Lib "user32" (ByVal X As Long, ByVal Y As Long) As Long

Call SetCursorPos(x, y)

Public Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As PointAPI) As Long

Public Type PointAPI

X As Long

Y As Long

End Type

dim mouse as pointapi

'mouse.x returns the current mouse x

'mouse.y returns the current mouse y

[Quboid]

underscorebios, what are you talking about? That looks like:

• Visual Basic, not C
  
• Referring to mouse position, not the cursor
  
• For the Windows APIs, not for DOS style console programs
  
• For getting the position rather than moving it
  

???

[azcodemonkey]

There are a set of console functions in the Win32 API that may help.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dl....asp?frame=true

[Quboid]

I've discovered this:

SetConsoleCursorPosition

The SetConsoleCursorPosition function sets the cursor position in the specified console screen buffer.

BOOL SetConsoleCursorPosition(

 HANDLE hConsoleOutput,  // handle to console screen buffer

 COORD dwCursorPosition   // new cursor position coordinates

);

Parameters

hConsoleOutput

Handle to a console screen buffer. The handle must have GENERIC_WRITE access.

dwCursorPosition

Specifies a COORD structure containing the new cursor position. The coordinates are the column and row of a screen buffer character cell. The coordinates must be within the boundaries of the screen buffer.

I can get this added so it compiles, but I can't run it because I don't know what it means for the first paramater. What is handle? How do I get the handle for the DOS console the program is being run on?

[Quboid]

Woohoo!

weenur, that page gave a little bit more info on the function I found, including a link to how to get the handle. For people who actually use the search function, here's how it's done:

/* A simple program to move the cursor */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>

int main( void )
{
	COORD newPosition = { 0, 0 };

	system("cls");

	printf("Hello World\n");

	SetConsoleCursorPosition( GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), newPosition );

	printf("!\n");

	return 0;
}

This will clear the screen, print Hello World and then writing a pling ("!") over the H. Change newPosition.X and newPosition.Y to change the position on the screen...