How to simulate "Press any key to continue?"

On Windows:

system("pause");

and on Mac and Linux:

system("read");

will output "Press any key to continue..." and obviously, wait for any key to be pressed. I hope thats what you meant

If you're on Windows, you can use kbhit() which is part of the Microsoft run-time library. If you're on Linux, you can implement kbhit thus (source):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

int kbhit(void)
{
  struct termios oldt, newt;
  int ch;
  int oldf;

  tcgetattr(STDIN_FILENO, &oldt);
  newt = oldt;
  newt.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO);
  tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &newt);
  oldf = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_GETFL, 0);
  fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_SETFL, oldf | O_NONBLOCK);

  ch = getchar();

  tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &oldt);
  fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_SETFL, oldf);

  if(ch != EOF)
  {
    ungetc(ch, stdin);
    return 1;
  }

  return 0;
}

Update: The above function works on OS X (at least, on OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard, so I would expect it to work on more recent versions of OS X). This gist can be saved as kbhit.c and compiled on both Linux and OS X with

gcc -o kbhit kbhit.c

When run with

./kbhit

It prompts you for a keypress, and exits when you hit a key (not limited to Enter or printable keys).

@Johnsyweb - please elaborate what you mean by "detailed canonical answer" and "all the concerns". Also, re "cross-platform": With this implementation of kbhit() you can have the same functionality in a C++ program on Linux/Unix/OS X/Windows - which other platforms might you be referring to?

Further update for @Johnsyweb: C++ applications do not live in a hermetically sealed C++ environment. A big reason for C++'s success is interoperability with C. All mainstream platforms are implemented with C interfaces (even if internal implementation is using C++) so your talk of "legacy" seems out of place. Plus, as we are talking about a single function, why do you need C++ for this ("C with classes")? As I pointed out, you can write in C++ and access this functionality easily, and your application's users are unlikely to care how you implemented it.

There is no completely portable solution.

Question 19.1 of the comp.lang.c FAQ covers this in some depth, with solutions for Windows, Unix-like systems, and even MS-DOS and VMS.

A quick and incomplete summary:

You can use the curses library; call cbreak() followed by getch() (not to be confused with the Windows-specific getch()function). Note that curses generally takes control of the terminal, so this is likely to be overkill.
You might be able to use ioctl() to manipulate the terminal settings.
On POSIX-compliant systems, tcgetattr() and tcsetattr() may be a better solution.
On Unix, you can use system() to invoke the stty command.
On MS-DOS, you can use getch() or getche().
On VMS (now called OpenVMS), the Screen Management (SMG$) routines might do the trick.

All these C solutions should work equally well in C++; I don't know of any C++-specific solution.

In windows, this short program accomplishes the goal: getch pauses the console until a key is pressed (https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-getchar-getch-getc-getche/)

#include<iostream.h>
#include<conio.h>

using namespace std;

void  check()
{
    char chk; int j;
    cout<<"\n\nPress any key to continue...";
    chk=getch();
    j=chk;
    for(int i=1;i<=256;i++)
      if(i==j) break;
    clrscr();
}

void main()
{
    clrscr();
    check();
    cout<<"\n\nIt works!";
    getch();
}

It should be noted that getch is not part of the standard library.

How to simulate "Press any key to continue?"

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