c# - Console App Mouse-Click X Y Coordinate Detection/Comparison

Question

I have a game that I am working on in a C# console application, purely as practice before going on to better methods. As opposed to using something such as a Windows Forms App, which has button functionality built in, I am endeavoring to grab the cursor position (which I know how to do) and compare it to a number of area's inside a console application as defined by perhaps pixel location, but I also do not know if there is some sort of built in unit of space other than pixels (this last bit is the part I am unable to figure).

P.S. I know this is in general terms, with no code already provided, but I do not feel that it is needed as all I am asking for is a brief explanation of how to grab X Y coordinates inside a console application, and stick them in int variables.

Many Thanks in advance! :D

Answer 1

After searching for a long time I finally found this example. Download the example program on the page. It gives you, among other things, the mouse location in the console window (character-based).

EDIT: This is my ConsoleListener class (with part of my NativeMethods class).
You can attach a handler to the MouseEvent (after calling the Start() method).

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;
using static ConsoleLib.NativeMethods;

namespace ConsoleLib
{
    public static class ConsoleListener
    {
        public static event ConsoleMouseEvent MouseEvent;

        public static event ConsoleKeyEvent KeyEvent;

        public static event ConsoleWindowBufferSizeEvent WindowBufferSizeEvent;

        private static bool Run = false;


        public static void Start()
        {
            if (!Run)
            {
                Run = true;
                IntPtr handleIn = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
                new Thread(() =>
                {
                    while (true)
                    {
                        uint numRead = 0;
                        INPUT_RECORD[] record = new INPUT_RECORD[1];
                        record[0] = new INPUT_RECORD();
                        ReadConsoleInput(handleIn, record, 1, ref numRead);
                        if (Run)
                            switch (record[0].EventType)
                            {
                                case INPUT_RECORD.MOUSE_EVENT:
                                    MouseEvent?.Invoke(record[0].MouseEvent);
                                    break;
                                case INPUT_RECORD.KEY_EVENT:
                                    KeyEvent?.Invoke(record[0].KeyEvent);
                                    break;
                                case INPUT_RECORD.WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_EVENT:
                                    WindowBufferSizeEvent?.Invoke(record[0].WindowBufferSizeEvent);
                                    break;
                            }
                        else
                        {
                            uint numWritten = 0;
                            WriteConsoleInput(handleIn, record, 1, ref numWritten);
                            return;
                        }
                    }
                }).Start();
            }
        }

        public static void Stop() => Run = false;


        public delegate void ConsoleMouseEvent(MOUSE_EVENT_RECORD r);

        public delegate void ConsoleKeyEvent(KEY_EVENT_RECORD r);

        public delegate void ConsoleWindowBufferSizeEvent(WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_RECORD r);

    }


    public static class NativeMethods
    {
        public struct COORD
        {
            public short X;
            public short Y;

            public COORD(short x, short y)
            {
                X = x;
                Y = y;
            }
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
        public struct INPUT_RECORD
        {
            public const ushort KEY_EVENT = 0x0001,
                MOUSE_EVENT = 0x0002,
                WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_EVENT = 0x0004; //more

            [FieldOffset(0)]
            public ushort EventType;
            [FieldOffset(4)]
            public KEY_EVENT_RECORD KeyEvent;
            [FieldOffset(4)]
            public MOUSE_EVENT_RECORD MouseEvent;
            [FieldOffset(4)]
            public WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_RECORD WindowBufferSizeEvent;
            /*
            and:
             MENU_EVENT_RECORD MenuEvent;
             FOCUS_EVENT_RECORD FocusEvent;
             */
        }

        public struct MOUSE_EVENT_RECORD
        {
            public COORD dwMousePosition;

            public const uint FROM_LEFT_1ST_BUTTON_PRESSED = 0x0001,
                FROM_LEFT_2ND_BUTTON_PRESSED = 0x0004,
                FROM_LEFT_3RD_BUTTON_PRESSED = 0x0008,
                FROM_LEFT_4TH_BUTTON_PRESSED = 0x0010,
                RIGHTMOST_BUTTON_PRESSED = 0x0002;
            public uint dwButtonState;

            public const int CAPSLOCK_ON = 0x0080,
                ENHANCED_KEY = 0x0100,
                LEFT_ALT_PRESSED = 0x0002,
                LEFT_CTRL_PRESSED = 0x0008,
                NUMLOCK_ON = 0x0020,
                RIGHT_ALT_PRESSED = 0x0001,
                RIGHT_CTRL_PRESSED = 0x0004,
                SCROLLLOCK_ON = 0x0040,
                SHIFT_PRESSED = 0x0010;
            public uint dwControlKeyState;

            public const int DOUBLE_CLICK = 0x0002,
                MOUSE_HWHEELED = 0x0008,
                MOUSE_MOVED = 0x0001,
                MOUSE_WHEELED = 0x0004;
            public uint dwEventFlags;
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        public struct KEY_EVENT_RECORD
        {
            [FieldOffset(0)]
            public bool bKeyDown;
            [FieldOffset(4)]
            public ushort wRepeatCount;
            [FieldOffset(6)]
            public ushort wVirtualKeyCode;
            [FieldOffset(8)]
            public ushort wVirtualScanCode;
            [FieldOffset(10)]
            public char UnicodeChar;
            [FieldOffset(10)]
            public byte AsciiChar;

            public const int CAPSLOCK_ON = 0x0080,
                ENHANCED_KEY = 0x0100,
                LEFT_ALT_PRESSED = 0x0002,
                LEFT_CTRL_PRESSED = 0x0008,
                NUMLOCK_ON = 0x0020,
                RIGHT_ALT_PRESSED = 0x0001,
                RIGHT_CTRL_PRESSED = 0x0004,
                SCROLLLOCK_ON = 0x0040,
                SHIFT_PRESSED = 0x0010;
            [FieldOffset(12)]
            public uint dwControlKeyState;
        }

        public struct WINDOW_BUFFER_SIZE_RECORD
        {
            public COORD dwSize;
        }

        public const uint STD_INPUT_HANDLE = unchecked((uint)-10),
            STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = unchecked((uint)-11),
            STD_ERROR_HANDLE = unchecked((uint)-12);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(uint nStdHandle);


        public const uint ENABLE_MOUSE_INPUT = 0x0010,
            ENABLE_QUICK_EDIT_MODE = 0x0040,
            ENABLE_EXTENDED_FLAGS = 0x0080,
            ENABLE_ECHO_INPUT = 0x0004,
            ENABLE_WINDOW_INPUT = 0x0008; //more

        [DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern bool GetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleInput, ref uint lpMode);

        [DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern bool SetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleInput, uint dwMode);


        [DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        public static extern bool ReadConsoleInput(IntPtr hConsoleInput, [Out] INPUT_RECORD[] lpBuffer, uint nLength, ref uint lpNumberOfEventsRead);

        [DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        public static extern bool WriteConsoleInput(IntPtr hConsoleInput, INPUT_RECORD[] lpBuffer, uint nLength, ref uint lpNumberOfEventsWritten);

    }
}

To make it work properly, you probably want to execute this code first:

IntPtr inHandle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
uint mode = 0;
GetConsoleMode(inHandle, ref mode);
mode &= ~ENABLE_QUICK_EDIT_MODE; //disable
mode |= ENABLE_WINDOW_INPUT; //enable (if you want)
mode |= ENABLE_MOUSE_INPUT; //enable
SetConsoleMode(inHandle, mode);

With this file header:

using System;
using static ConsoleLib.NativeMethods;