What is causing these strange colors in the console when using WriteConsoleOutputAttribute? - c++

Question

I am currently trying to format a console window with characters in certain positions with color-coding to make things fun. All was fine and simple until I tried to perform a simple coloring operation to a line of text on row 4, which resulted in many odd background colors and foreground colors being mixed. What could be the cause of this?
I have created a simple reproducible example:
#define UNICODE
#include <iostream>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <string>
#pragma comment(lib, "User32.lib")
using namespace std;
int main()
{
HANDLE hStdOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
HANDLE hStdIn = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
HANDLE hStdErr = GetStdHandle(STD_ERROR_HANDLE);
SMALL_RECT consoleCoords{0, 0, 79, 19};
COORD sbSize{80, 20};
if(!SetConsoleWindowInfo(hStdOut, TRUE, &consoleCoords)) /* HANDLE hConsoleOutput, BOOL bAbsolute, const SMALL_RECT* lpConsoleWindow */
{
wcout << L"SetConsoleWindowInfo failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!SetConsoleScreenBufferSize(hStdOut, sbSize)) /* HANDLE hConsoleOutput, COORD dwSize */
{
wcout << L"SetConsoleScreenBufferSize failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
DWORD cCharsWritten{};
DWORD attrsWritten{};
CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO bufferInfo{};
DWORD dwConsoleSz{};
system("pause");
if(!GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hStdOut, &bufferInfo))
{
wcout << L"GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << '\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
dwConsoleSz = bufferInfo.dwSize.X * bufferInfo.dwSize.Y; /* X (character cells) * Y (character cells) */
COORD cursorHome{0, 0};
/* Now we fill the entire screen with blanks. */
if(!FillConsoleOutputCharacter(
hStdOut,
L' ',
dwConsoleSz,
cursorHome,
&cCharsWritten
)
)
{
wcout << L"FillConsoleOutputCharacter failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << '\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!SetConsoleCursorPosition(hStdOut, cursorHome))
/*Research is needed regarding this function as it does not seem to move the cursor. */
{
wcout << L"SetConsoleCursorPosition failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << '\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
wchar_t topmiddlebottomRow[] = L"================";
wchar_t separatorString[] = L"================================================================================";
LPCWSTR writeRow = topmiddlebottomRow;
LPCWSTR writeSeparator = separatorString;
WORD S_attr = FOREGROUND_GREEN;
if(!WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW(hStdOut, writeRow, 16, COORD{64, 0}, &cCharsWritten))
{
wcout << L"WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW(hStdOut, writeRow, 16, COORD{64, 1}, &cCharsWritten))
{
wcout << L"WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW(hStdOut, writeRow, 16, COORD{64, 2}, &cCharsWritten))
{
wcout << L"WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW(hStdOut, writeSeparator, 80, COORD{0, 4}, &cCharsWritten))
{
wcout << L"WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
if(!WriteConsoleOutputAttribute(hStdOut, &S_attr, 80, COORD{0, 4}, &attrsWritten))
{
wcout << L"WriteConsoleOutputAttribute failed. Error Code: " << GetLastError() << L'\n';
system("pause");
return 0;
}
while(1)
{
}
return 0;
}
The #pragma comment preprocessor line may be unnecessary - I am still learning.