How to Read Direct Mouse and Keyboard Events in C++ Console App?

Usually console applications are not associated with interactivity. Most of console apps accept some parameters via command line, do their job and exit. If the interactivity is needed, one has an option to build simple letters-controlled menu. While it is OK for simple applications, it is not enough for interactive applications. An alternative would be to create windowed application, which has richer keyboard and mouse control functionality out-of-the-box. But what to do if you want to stick with console application? Windows can enable your app to receive direct events related to mouse and keyboard sent to your console window.

The function that does the job is ReadConsoleInput. It does access to console's windows input buffer. Each time a console window is created, direct keyboard and mouse inputs are disabled. To ensure that the window receives all types of input events, the following code example uses the SetConsoleMode API to enable keyboard and mouse input. Main loop reads 500 input events. When the user presses a key, the console shows "Keyboard event" message. When the user moves or clicks the mouse, the "Mouse event" message is displayed.

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

HANDLE hStdin;
DWORD fdwSaveOldMode;

VOID ErrorExit(LPCSTR);
VOID KeyEventProc(KEY_EVENT_RECORD);
VOID MouseEventProc(MOUSE_EVENT_RECORD);
VOID ResizeEventProc(WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_RECORD);

int main(VOID)
{
    DWORD cNumRead, fdwMode, i;
    INPUT_RECORD irInBuf[128];
    int counter = 0;

    // Get the standard input handle. 

    hStdin = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
    if (hStdin == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        ErrorExit("GetStdHandle");

    // Save the current input mode, to be restored on exit. 

    if (!GetConsoleMode(hStdin, &fdwSaveOldMode))
        ErrorExit("GetConsoleMode");

    // Enable the window and mouse input events. 

    fdwMode = ENABLE_WINDOW_INPUT | ENABLE_MOUSE_INPUT | ENABLE_INSERT_MODE | ENABLE_EXTENDED_FLAGS;
    if (!SetConsoleMode(hStdin, fdwMode))
        ErrorExit("SetConsoleMode");

    // Loop to read and handle the next 500 input events. 

    while (counter++ <= 500)
    {
        // Wait for the events. 

        if (!ReadConsoleInput(
            hStdin,      // input buffer handle 
            irInBuf,     // buffer to read into 
            128,         // size of read buffer 
            &cNumRead)) // number of records read 
            ErrorExit("ReadConsoleInput");

        // Dispatch the events to the appropriate handler. 

        for (i = 0; i < cNumRead; i++)
        {
            switch (irInBuf[i].EventType)
            {
            case KEY_EVENT: // keyboard input 
                KeyEventProc(irInBuf[i].Event.KeyEvent);
                break;

            case MOUSE_EVENT: // mouse input 
                MouseEventProc(irInBuf[i].Event.MouseEvent);
                break;

            case WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_EVENT: // scrn buf. resizing 
                ResizeEventProc(irInBuf[i].Event.WindowBufferSizeEvent);
                break;

            case FOCUS_EVENT:  // disregard focus events 

            case MENU_EVENT:   // disregard menu events 
                break;

            default:
                ErrorExit("Unknown event type");
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    // Restore input mode on exit.

    SetConsoleMode(hStdin, fdwSaveOldMode);

    return 0;
}

VOID ErrorExit(LPCSTR lpszMessage)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", lpszMessage);

    // Restore input mode on exit.

    SetConsoleMode(hStdin, fdwSaveOldMode);

    ExitProcess(0);
}

VOID KeyEventProc(KEY_EVENT_RECORD ker)
{
    printf("Key event: ");

    if (ker.bKeyDown)
        printf("key pressed\n");
    else printf("key released\n");
}

VOID MouseEventProc(MOUSE_EVENT_RECORD mer)
{
#ifndef MOUSE_HWHEELED
#define MOUSE_HWHEELED 0x0008
#endif
    printf("Mouse event: ");

    switch (mer.dwEventFlags)
    {
    case 0:

        if (mer.dwButtonState == FROM_LEFT_1ST_BUTTON_PRESSED)
        {
            printf("left button press \n");
        }
        else if (mer.dwButtonState == RIGHTMOST_BUTTON_PRESSED)
        {
            printf("right button press \n");
        }
        else
        {
            printf("button press\n");
        }
        break;
    case DOUBLE_CLICK:
        printf("double click\n");
        break;
    case MOUSE_HWHEELED:
        printf("horizontal mouse wheel\n");
        break;
    case MOUSE_MOVED:
        printf("mouse moved\n");
        break;
    case MOUSE_WHEELED:
        printf("vertical mouse wheel\n");
        break;
    default:
        printf("unknown\n");
        break;
    }
}

VOID ResizeEventProc(WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_RECORD wbsr)
{
    printf("Resize event\n");
    printf("Console screen buffer is %d columns by %d rows.\n", wbsr.dwSize.X, wbsr.dwSize.Y);
}

For more information see here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/readconsoleinput