C++ Go back a line

Question

I'm writing a multiple lines system, like this:

string readLines(string x)
{
    string temp = "a";
    vector<string> lines(0);
    string result;

    while (1)
    {
        cout << x;
        getline(cin, temp)

        if(temp != "")
        {
            result = result + "\n" + temp;
            lines.push_back(temp);
        }
        else
            break;
    }
    return result;
}

Is working fine, but I want be able to edit the previous line, for example, I'm typing something like this:

Helo,
World

I want to back on helo and fix my typo. How can I do this?

You want platform specific interactions with the terminal. (AKA, Windows is different from Linux is different from.....). `ncurses` is a popular library that abstracts the platform specific bits away. — druckermanly, Jul 16 '17 at 23:31
Just the previous line? Or any earlier line? And do you want to preserve "World" while you do your editing of "Helo"? — Beta, Jul 16 '17 at 23:37
@FelipeNascimento First of all you need to remember your previous lines in a different manner, e.g. something like `std::vector` instead of a single `std::string` with linebreaks. — user0042, Jul 16 '17 at 23:44
@FelipeNascimento *It's a simple change* -- What is a "simple change"? You basically want the console to act like a word processor or text editor? Neither of those two types of applications are "simple". — PaulMcKenzie, Jul 17 '17 at 00:00
@PaulMcKenzie a "simple change" is use `std::vector` instead of a single `std::string`. I want something like a text editor and I know that it isn't simple. — Felipe Nascimento, Jul 17 '17 at 00:03

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 17 '17 at 18:23

There is no portable way to go back one line in C++.

You can go to the beginning of the line by printing \r, but moving to the previous line requires platform dependent code.

If don't want to use libraries like Curses, you can try ANSI escape codes. Depending on the terminal, cout << "\033[F" will move the cursor one line up.

On Windows, there is also the SetConsoleCursorPosition API.

C++ Go back a line

1 Answers1

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