CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++ioconsole
mmimaa
mmimaa

Reputation: 45

Read from certain coordinates?

Is there a way thorough which I can see what character occupies a certain coordinate. Let's say I have the following output:

Hello World !

I want to able to to see the x character on the y line. Something like:

readCoordinates(0,3);

This function should return 'l' , because the 4th character (because I started counting from 0) from the 1st line is 'l'. Can I do this type of readings in C++ from an already printed string ?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 226

Answers (3)

LihO
LihO

Reputation: 42103

"Can I do this type of readings in C++ from an already printed string ?"

Good approach would be to store output of your program in memory so that your function readCoordinates could access random character in O(1). I would definitely use std::vector<std::string> outputBuffer which would allow you something like this: outputBuffer[0][3].

Example:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

std::vector<std::string> outputBuffer;

char readCoordinates(int line, int character)
{
    if (line < outputBuffer.size() && character < outputBuffer[line].size())
        return outputBuffer[line][character];
    return 0;
}

int main()
{
    std::string myOutput("Hello World !");
    outputBuffer.push_back(myOutput);
    std::cout << myOutput << std::endl;

    if (char c = readCoordinates(0, 3))
        std::cout << c << std::endl;
}

output:

Hello World !
l

Upvotes: 0

Larry Watanabe
Larry Watanabe

Reputation: 10184

You could do this from the string that is printed, but after it is printed it is just pixels on a screen, or ink on a printer. So, the answer is no, unless you have e.g. a vision system to look around and see where it was printed, recognize the letters and lines, and figure out the coordinates.

Upvotes: 0

user1131435
user1131435

Reputation:

You might consider defining your own custom print function, which logs in a vector everything you've already outputted to the console. That way, you could easily grab a character, or string, from the console.

It might take up a lot of memory, however, if you're outputting thousands of lines.

Upvotes: 1

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