[trevster344]

Often I see the question "How do I check for a key press without stopping my code from being run?". I came up with a solution using threading, and timers. My program counts each second until a key is pressed, to which it displays the key pressed and restarts counting. It's not very complex at all, and granted there are probably many other ways to get it done than mine, I chose my method just to simply demonstrate it being done. Thank you.

Imports System.Threading.Thread

Module Module1
    Private Second As Integer = 1
    Private Tick As New Timers.Timer(1000)

    Sub Main()

        AddHandler tick.Elapsed, AddressOf Ticker 'Event for the timer tick

        Dim NewThread As System.Threading.Thread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf LookForKeyPress) 'New thread to check for key press
        NewThread.Start() 'Start thread

        Console.WriteLine("Now awaiting key presses...")
        tick.Enabled = True 'Enable the timer
    End Sub

    Private Sub Ticker()
        'every tick this sub is called and the seconds are displayed till a key is pressed
        Console.WriteLine(Second)
        Second += 1

    End Sub

    Private Sub LookForKeyPress()

        While True
            Dim k As ConsoleKeyInfo = Console.ReadKey() 'read for a key press
            If Not k.Key.ToString.Length <= 0 Then 'check the length of the key string pressed, mainly because the key in this case will be apart of the system.consolekey
                Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine & "Key Pressed: " & k.Key.ToString) 'display the key pressed
                Second = 1 'restart the timer
            End If
        End While

    End Sub

End Module

[Israel]

Nice! I'd like to see this in more languages.

[AdamSpeight2008]

Very basic tutorial, lack depth. What if I want to do something based on the key pressed? How do I that?

Note: If your use .net4.0 or higher I strongly suggest using the task based approach rather that threads. url="http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet5821.htm"]See snippet.[/url]

[trevster344]

Thanks Adam I just wanted to throw a basic example for those who google or search cause I see it come up a lot. Appreciate the input it's my first tutorial.

[sprintwatch]

Hi,

Great tutorials, it run smoothly. I ask a favor, how can do that like a simple game.

let say typing a words using timer like your sample program. the interval is 10 seconds and if the user
can type a certain words within the range of time they minus the given life a total of 3. at the same time has done, the total score will display.

Thanks in advance!!

[trevster344]

Hi there will discuss in private message later today.