How do I get user input without using scanf in a console app? - objective-c

Question

I'm trying to allow users to simply hit Enter without typing anything, and use this to mean accepting a default value. scanf isn't doing what I want and the app still 'blocks': the next line of code doesn't run.
The only way is to actually type something THEN press Enter.
I tried using NSFileHandle and fileHandleWithStandardInput; however, it seems that the user is now forced to hit Ctrl-D to indicate EOF.
Someone suggested using fgets, but I cannot work out what to pass as 3rd parameter (of FILE* type). Tried stdin but it doesn't 'block'.
How do I accept input from a user, using Objective-C, and at the same time allow the user to simply hit Enter without being forced to type anything? How do I read a single line, even if that line is blank?

Answer 1

Assuming the code doesn't block and the next line runs immediately (as you seemed to indicate early in the question and in a comment), you have a common problem when mixing non-line-based and line-based input.
What happens is you have a newline left in the buffer, and fgets sees that, reads it, and returns, instead of doing what you really want: ignoring it, and then reading a line.
The solution is to simply do the ignoring part yourself, and then call fgets:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
FILE* ignoreline(FILE* stream) {
for (int c; (c = fgetc(stream)) != EOF;) {
if (c == '\n') break;
}
return stream;
}
void example_use() {
char buf[1000];
ignoreline(stdin);
fgets(buf, sizeof buf, stdin);
// or, since it returns the stream, can be more compact:
fgets(buf, sizeof buf, ignoreline(stdin));
}
int main() { // error handling omitted
int n;
printf("Enter a number: ");
scanf("%d", &n);
char buf[1000];
printf("Enter a line: ");
ignoreline(stdin); // comment this line and compare the difference
fgets(buf, sizeof buf, stdin);
*strchr(buf, '\n') = '\0';
printf("You entered '%s'.\n", buf);
return 0;
}
Note that it is also common and encouraged to "pair" the ignoreline with the scanf (or other non-line-based input) to turn that into line-based input. You may want to modify it, in that case, so you can tell the difference between input of "42 abc" and "42" (in the "Enter a number" case). Some people just use fgets everywhere, then parse that line with sscanf, and while that works, it's not necessary.

Answer 2

I use getch(); in library conio.h
simply the program waits for any key to be pressed

Answer 3

If you're using Windows, you can use the ReadConsoleInput function (see MSDN for more on this) :
INPUT_RECORD keyin;
DWORD r;
while (ReadConsoleInput(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE),&keyin,1,&r)) {
if (keyin.EventType!=KEY_EVENT) continue;
if (keyin.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode==VK_SPACE) break; ///use these VK codes to get any key's input
if (keyin.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode==VK_F1)
{
printf("You pressed F1\n");
}
if (keyin.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode==VK_F2)
{
printf("You pressed F2\n",);
}
}//end while loop
You don't need to hit enter after each key then.This works like a dream for me...

Answer 4

use getchar() to take input without using scanf function...