Are you sure you want to use the
getch() function? It's part of the
curses library functions, not a typical new-to-C programming sort of thing; perhaps you're thinking of
getc(),
getchar() or maybe
gets() functions?
The
getch() function is a demonstration function found in
The C Programming Language, both the first and second editions, on page 79 (yup, same page in both editions). It's not something that you'd actually use in practice, but here it is:
Code:
#include <stdio.h> /* needed for printf) */
#define BUFSIZE 100
char buf [BUFSIZE]; /* buffer for ungetch() */
int bufptr = 0; /* next free position in buf */
int getch (void) /* get a (possibly pushed back) character */
{
return (bufptr > 0) ? buf [--bufptr] : getchar ();
}
void ungetch (int c) /* push character back on input */
{
if (bufptr >= BUFSIZE)
printf ("ungetch: too many characters\n");
else
buf [bufptr++] = c;
return;
}
Bear in mind that you would not actually use this function; it's for illustration only.
Here's a small example of
getchar():
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main (void)
{
int c;
while ((c = getchar ()) != EOF) /* EOF is Ctrl^D */
(void) putchar (c);
exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
And
getc():
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main (void)
{
int c;
FILE *helpfile; /* create a file named "instructions" with some text in it */
if ((helpfile = fopen ("instructions", "r")) == (FILE *) NULL) {
(void) fprintf (stderr, "Can't append to instructions\n");
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
while ((c = getc (helpfile)) != EOF)
(void) putchar (c);
(void) fclose (helpfile);
exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
And, finally,
gets() (this function is depreciated and shouldn't really be used; use
fgets() instead):
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main (void)
{
char buf [BUFSIZ];
FILE *temp;
if ((temp = tmpfile ()) == (FILE *) NULL) {
(void) fprintf (stderr, "can't create temp file\n");
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
(void) fputs ("Some data written to a temporary file!\n", temp);
(void) rewind (temp);
(void) fgets (buf, sizeof (buf), temp);
(void) fputs (buf, stdout);
exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
See the manual page for
getc for more information about this family of functions.
Hope this helps some.
