>Reading events from the event queue is done with either <A
HREF="sdlpollevent.html"
><TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PollEvent</TT
></A
> or <A
HREF="sdlpeepevents.html"
><TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PeepEvents</TT
></A
>. We'll use <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PollEvent</TT
> and step through an example.</P
><P
>First off, we create an empty <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>SDL_Event</SPAN
> structure.
<PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>SDL_Event test_event;</PRE
>
<TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PollEvent</TT
> removes the next event from the event queue, if there are no events on the queue it returns <SPAN
CLASS="RETURNVALUE"
>0</SPAN
> otherwise it returns <SPAN
CLASS="RETURNVALUE"
>1</SPAN
>. We use a <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>while</TT
> loop to process each event in turn.
<PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>while(SDL_PollEvent(&test_event)) {</PRE
>
The <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PollEvent</TT
> function take a pointer to an <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>SDL_Event</SPAN
> structure that is to be filled with event information. We know that if <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PollEvent</TT
> removes an event from the queue then the event information will be placed in our <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>test_event</SPAN
> structure, but we also know that the <I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>type</I
> of event will be placed in the <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>type</I
></TT
> member of <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>test_event</SPAN
>. So to handle each event <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>type</I
></TT
> seperately we use a <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>switch</TT
> statement.
<PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
> switch(test_event.type) {</PRE
>
We need to know what kind of events we're looking for <I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>and</I
> the event <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>type</I
></TT
>'s of those events. So lets assume we want to detect where the user is moving the mouse pointer within our application. We look through our event types and notice that <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SDL_MOUSEMOTION</TT
> is, more than likely, the event we're looking for. A little <A
HREF="sdlmousemotionevent.html"
>more</A
> research tells use that <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SDL_MOUSEMOTION</TT
> events are handled within the <A
HREF="sdlmousemotionevent.html"
><SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>SDL_MouseMotionEvent</SPAN
></A
> structure which is the <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>motion</I
></TT
> member of <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>SDL_Event</SPAN
>. We can check for the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SDL_MOUSEMOTION</TT
> event <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>type</I
></TT
> within our <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>switch</TT
> statement like so:
<PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
> case SDL_MOUSEMOTION:</PRE
>
All we need do now is read the information out of the <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>motion</I
></TT
> member of <SPAN
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>test_event</SPAN
>.
<PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
> printf("We got a motion event.\n");
printf("Current mouse position is: (%d, %d)\n", test_event.motion.x, test_event.motion.y);
break;
default:
printf("Unhandled Event!\n");
break;
}
}
printf("Event queue empty.\n");</PRE
></P
><P
>It is also possible to push events onto the event queue and so use it as a two-way communication path. Both <A
HREF="sdlpushevent.html"
><TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PushEvent</TT
></A
> and <A
HREF="sdlpeepevents.html"
><TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>SDL_PeepEvents</TT
></A
> allow you to place events onto the event queue. This is usually used to place a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SDL_USEREVENT</TT
> on the event queue, however you could use it to post fake input events if you wished. Creating your own events is a simple matter of choosing the event type you want, setting the <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
><I
>type</I
></TT
> member and filling the appropriate member structure with information.
