NAME
SDL_Event - General event structure
STRUCTURE DEFINITION
typedef union{
Uint8 type;
SDL_ActiveEvent active;
SDL_KeyboardEvent key;
SDL_MouseMotionEvent motion;
SDL_MouseButtonEvent button;
SDL_JoyAxisEvent jaxis;
SDL_JoyBallEvent jball;
SDL_JoyHatEvent jhat;
SDL_JoyButtonEvent jbutton;
SDL_ResizeEvent resize;
SDL_ExposeEvent expose;
SDL_QuitEvent quit;
SDL_UserEvent user;
SDL_SysWMEvent syswm;
} SDL_Event;
STRUCTURE DATA
type The type of event
active Activation event
key Keyboard event
motion Mouse motion event
button Mouse button event
jaxis Joystick axis motion event
jball Joystick trackball motion event
jhat Joystick hat motion event
jbutton Joystick button event
resize Application window resize event
expose Application window expose event
quit Application quit request event
user User defined event
syswm Undefined window manager event
DESCRIPTION
The SDL_Event union is the core to all event handling is SDL, its
probably the most important structure after SDL_Surface. SDL_Event is a
union of all event structures used in SDL, using it is a simple matter
of knowing which union member relates to which event type.
Event type Event Structure
SDL_ACTIVEEVENT SDL_ActiveEvent
SDL_KEYDOWN/UP SDL_KeyboardEvent
SDL_MOUSEMOTION SDL_MouseMotionEvent
SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN/UP
SDL_MouseButtonEvent
SDL_JOYAXISMOTION SDL_JoyAxisEvent
SDL_JOYBALLMOTION SDL_JoyBallEvent
SDL_JOYHATMOTION SDL_JoyHatEvent
SDL_JOYBUTTONDOWN/UP
SDL_JoyButtonEvent
SDL_QUIT SDL_QuitEvent
SDL_SYSWMEVENT SDL_SysWMEvent
SDL_VIDEORESIZE SDL_ResizeEvent
SDL_VIDEOEXPOSE SDL_ExposeEvent
SDL_USEREVENT SDL_UserEvent
USE
The SDL_Event structure has two uses
· Reading events on the event queue
· Placing events on the event queue
Reading events from the event queue is done with either SDL_PollEvent
or SDL_PeepEvents. We’ll use SDL_PollEvent and step through an example.
First off, we create an empty SDL_Event structure.
SDL_Event test_event;
SDL_PollEvent removes the next event from the event queue, if there
are no events on the queue it returns 0 otherwise it returns 1. We use
a while loop to process each event in turn.
while(SDL_PollEvent(&test_event)) {
The SDL_PollEvent function take a pointer to an SDL_Event structure
that is to be filled with event information. We know that if
SDL_PollEvent removes an event from the queue then the event
information will be placed in our test_event structure, but we also
know that the type of event will be placed in the type member of
test_event. So to handle each event type seperately we use a switch
statement.
switch(test_event.type) {
We need to know what kind of events we’re looking for and the event
type’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 SDL_MOUSEMOTION is, more than likely, the
event we’re looking for. A little more research tells use that
SDL_MOUSEMOTION events are handled within the SDL_MouseMotionEvent
structure which is the motion member of SDL_Event. We can check for the
SDL_MOUSEMOTION event type within our switch statement like so:
case SDL_MOUSEMOTION:
All we need do now is read the information out of the motion member of
test_event.
printf("We got a motion event.
");
printf("Current mouse position is: (%d, %d)
", test_event.motion.x, test_event.motion.y);
break;
default:
printf("Unhandled Event!
");
break;
}
}
printf("Event queue empty.
");
It is also possible to push events onto the event queue and so use it
as a two-way communication path. Both SDL_PushEvent and SDL_PeepEvents
allow you to place events onto the event queue. This is usually used to
place a SDL_USEREVENT 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 type
member and filling the appropriate member structure with information.
SDL_Event user_event;
user_event.type=SDL_USEREVENT;
user_event.user.code=2;
user_event.user.data1=NULL;
user_event.user.data2=NULL;
SDL_PushEvent(&user_event);
SEE ALSO
SDL_PollEvent, SDL_PushEvent, SDL_PeepEvents