C++ Registering A Single Mouse Click - c++

Question

I have a question about registering a single mouse click on a hotspot - it's been giving me all sorts of problems, and I cannot seem to find the answer here, in any of my books, or on Google. I've only been at programming for a couple months, so bear with me.
I have managed to create an (albeit primitive and not very elegant) hotbox where someone rolls over a button and their icon changes. If they click on the button, it populates a vector on another screen and plays a sound. That's all fine. However, the code I'm using counts the MouseLButton down action - which means, because of the loop, the MouseLButton down keeps being registered. How would I make this code count the action as a single click and do nothing afterward until a user clicks again:
OfficeManager.cpp:
void Hire::hireScreenNavigation()
{
if ((input->getMouseLButton()) && (input->getMouseX() > 900 && input->getMouseX() < 940) && (input->getMouseY() > 154 && input->getMouseY() < 174))
{
audio->playCue (CLICK_EXPAND);
hire = true;
Office.push_back (HireRecruitmentPool[0]);
--officeCapacity;
}
if ((hireScreenSwitch==true) && (input->getMouseX() > 900 && input->getMouseX() < 940) && (input->getMouseY() > 154 && input->getMouseY() < 174))
{
SetCursor(LoadCursor(NULL,IDC_HAND));
}
}
This is the code in the Game class above (Game.cpp):
if(initialized)
{
switch( msg )
{
case WM_DESTROY:
PostQuitMessage(0);
return 0;
case WM_KEYDOWN: case WM_SYSKEYDOWN:
input->keyDown(wParam);
return 0;
case WM_KEYUP: case WM_SYSKEYUP:
input->keyUp(wParam);
return 0;
case WM_CHAR:
input->keyIn(wParam);
return 0;
case WM_MOUSEMOVE:
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_INPUT:
input->mouseRawIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_LBUTTONDOWN:
input->setMouseLButton(true);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
clicked = true;
return 0;
case WM_LBUTTONUP:
input->setMouseLButton(false);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_MBUTTONDOWN:
input->setMouseMButton(true);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_MBUTTONUP:
input->setMouseMButton(false);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_RBUTTONDOWN:
input->setMouseRButton(true);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
case WM_RBUTTONUP:
input->setMouseRButton(false);
input->mouseIn(lParam);
return 0;
}
}
return DefWindowProc( hwnd, msg, wParam, lParam );
If anyone has any examples on how to code it so that the hire functionality above counts a single click within those coordinates (instead of mouse down), I would be extremely appreciative. Keep in mind the coordinates for the hotspots will be different for each button in the game.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Generally a "click" involves both a down action and an up action, and in fact some people only consider the up event when determining a click. What you might try:
1. On button down, record the position so you know where on the screen the user pressed down. More specifically, record the item that was "hit".
2. Do nothing until the up event. At that time, check that the mouse position is still over the item that was originally hit. If so, consider that a successful click on the item and do whatever processing you need.