C Input getch(), skip when nothing pressed like Snake (game)

Question

I have to program a game in C in the console. For example I want to count something up when I press the space key. But only while I press the key. When I release the key again it should stop counting and start again when I press it again. I want it like snake, I mean it doesn't stop for the input it gets the input when the user pressed it.

I have tried with kbhit, it counts up and when I press something it prints nothing for ever, even if I press a key again.

while (1) {
        h = kbhit();
        fflush(stdin);
        if (h) {

            printf("%d\n", a);
            a += 1;

        } else {
            printf("nothing\n");
        }

    }

I expect nothing nothing nothing presses a key 0 nothing presses key again 1 hold on key 2 3 4

Thanks

Answer 1

From your code, you did not store the key pressed into a variable. Please have a go with this method.

The first 3 lines shows how to store a keyboard hit variable into h. The rest will be incrementing the a value.

while (1) {

    /* if keyboard hit, get char and store it to h */
    if(kbhit()){

        h = getch();
    }

    /*** 
        If you would like to control different directions, there are two ways to do this.
        You can do it with if or switch statement.
        Both of the examples are written below.
    ***/

    /* --- if statement version --- */
    if(h == 0){

        printf("%d\n", a);
        a += 1;
    }
    else{

        printf("nothing\n");
    }

    /* --- switch statement version --- */
    switch(h)
    {
        case 0:
            printf("%d\n", a);
            a += 1;
        break;

        default: printf("nothing\n");
        break;
    }
}