Press anykey to continue in Linux C++ - c++

Question

I am not sure if being in linux makes any different, but i have found online that this:
cout << "Press Enter to Continue...";
cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(),'\n');
Should be sufficient, with #include<limits> in the header of course.
However, it does not seem to work in my program.
It compiles, it runs, but it does not wait.
Basically, i have a menu, which lead to a method call to display a list of people on the screen. I wish to pause that list before the system goes back to the menu.
Here is my code from the menu:
//Manager's Menu
void SelectionPage::showManagerMenu(){
char option;
while(true)
{
system("clear"); //Clears the terminal
cout<<" Flat Manager's Menu"<<endl<<endl; //Display manager's menu
cout << "Select Manager option" << endl;
cout << "a) Add a new Flat Member" << endl;
cout << "b) Delete an existing Flat Member" << endl;
cout << "c) List Flat Members" << endl;
cout << "d) Duties" <<endl;
cout << "e) Resources" <<endl;
cout << "f) Reset System" <<endl;
cout << "q) Exit" << endl;
cout << "make selection: ";
cin >> option;
switch(option) { //Takes the user to the corresponding menu or method
case 'a': system("clear");
memberList.addNewFlatMember(points);
break;
case 'b': system("clear");
memberList.deleteFlatMember();
break;
case 'c': system("clear");
memberList.listFlatMembers();
break;
case 'd': system("clear");
showDutiesMenu();
break;
case 'e': system("clear");
showResourcesMenu();
break;
case 'f': //reset();
break;
case 'q': exit(0);
default: cout << "Option not recognised: " << option << endl;
showManagerMenu();
}
}
}
the option i wish to select is c) which leads to:
//Show the current flat population
void MemberManagement::listFlatMembers(){
cout<<" Member List"<<endl<<endl;
importFlatMembers(); //get flat member info from file
for( int count = 0; count<flatMemberList.size(); count++){
cout << count+1<<". "<<flatMemberList[count].getName() << endl;
}
cout << "Press any key to Continue...";
cin.ignore(numeric_limits<streamsize>::max(),'\n');
return;
}
if you want to see any other bit of my code, feel free to let me know.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Couldn't you just use cin.get() (get one character)?

Answer 2

In *nix, terminals usually wait for a whole line of input before sending anything to the program. Which is why the example code you posted said "Press Enter to Continue...";, and then discarded everything until the next newline.
To avoid that, you should put your terminal in non-canonical mode, which can be done using the POSIX termios(3) functions, as explained in How to check if a key was pressed in Linux?.

Answer 3

Here is a snippet from my code. It works in both windows and linux.
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
// Clear and pause methods
#ifdef _WIN32
// For windows
void clearConsole() {
system("cls");
}
void waitForAnyKey() {
system("pause");
}
#elif __linux__
// For linux
void clearConsole() {
system("clear");
}
void waitForAnyKey() {
cout << "Press any key to continue...";
system("read -s -N 1"); // Continues when pressed a key like windows
}
#endif
int main() {
cout << "Hello World!\n";
waitForAnyKey();
clearConsole();
return 0;
}