Question

Im doing a game in C on console application and I need to print a timer while the user play the game at the same time, I don’t know how to program that well, actually I just start using this compiler so I don’t know a lot of multithreads and stuff but this is the far as I get, here is an example of two functions the first one is the “timer” and the second its just some question, my doubt is if I can run these 2 functions at the same time, and how I can print the timer while I can answer those 2 question without interrupting the console.

EXAMPLE:

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>


DWORD WINAPI Timer(int limit)
{
    int secs = 1;
    time_t unix;

    struct tm * timeinfo;
    time(&unix);
    timeinfo = localtime(&unix);

    int t1 = timeinfo->tm_sec;
    int t2 = timeinfo->tm_sec;
    int i = 0;

    while(1 == 1)
    {
       time(&unix);
       timeinfo = localtime(&unix);
       if((t1 + i)  == timeinfo->tm_sec)
       {
              system("cls");
              printf("time left %d seconds\n", timeinfo->tm_sec - t2 - limit);
              i++;
       }
       if(timeinfo->tm_sec >= (t1 + limit))
       {
            break;
            printf("Your time its done");
       }
    }
    return 0;
}

DWORD WINAPI Questionary()
{
    puts("testing\n\n");

    int age, height;
    printf("Please write your age: ");
    scanf("%d", &age);
    printf("Please write your height: ");
    scanf("%d", &height);
    printf("\n\nThe numbers written are %d y %d", age, height);
    return NULL;
}
int main()
{
    int i, limit;
    HANDLE tempo;
    HANDLE questions;
    DWORD ThreadId;

    printf("\nHow much time would you like for your timer countdown? ");
    scanf("%d", &limit);

    //Funcion Handle
    questions= CreateThread(NULL,0,Questionary,1,0,&ThreadId);
    WaitForSingleObject(preguntas,INFINITE);

    tempo= CreateThread(NULL,0,Timer(limit),1,0,&ThreadId);
    WaitForSingleObject(tiempofinal,limit*40);


    return 0;
}

Answer 1

You can print the question, and instead of waiting for an answer in a blocking call (like scanf) you loop while polling for new input, and use ANSI escape codes to print the time at another position.

Something like the following pseudo-code:

print(question)
while (current_time < timer_end)
{
    if (have_input())
        break

    save_current_cursor_position()
    move_cursor_position(x, y)
    print(timer)
    restore_saved_cursor_position()

    very_short_sleep()
}