Print a Word Character By Character With Delay

Question

I'm trying to create a program where text is outputted to the console with a character by character delay. (Also, I'm pretty new to this, so I don't have a very great understanding on how cout works.)

int main() {
  std::cout << "L";
  waitms(1000); //function that pauses 1 second.
  std::cout << "l";
  waitms(1000);
  std::cout << "a";
  waitms(1000);
  std::cout << "m";
  waitms(1000);
  std::cout << "a";
}

When this code is ran, the console waits for four seconds and then prints Llama to the console.

This can work if you add \n characters to the end of the strings, but it produces an undesirable output.

Code: (waits four seconds) Llama

Undesired: L (does wait, but adds newlines.)
           l
           a
           m
           a

Desired: L (wait 1 second) l (wait) a (wait) m (wait) a
Llama

Is there any way to pop the stream without a newline?

You might want to read this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14105650/how-does-stdflush-work — Passer By, Aug 25 '17 at 01:40

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 25 '17 at 06:36

7

You need to flush your output, such as with std::flush:

std::cout << "L" << std::flush;
waitms(1000);
std::cout << "l" << std::flush;
// ... etc ...

std::cout usually buffers console output. Printing a newline via '\n' usually flushes the output, and std::endl always flushes. This is why you don't normally notice. But if you want to print things on one line with a delay, you need to flush the console output by hand.

edited Aug 25 '17 at 06:36

Remy Lebeau

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answered Aug 25 '17 at 01:39

Silvio Mayolo

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Works great! Thanks for your help! – kalkr Aug 25 '17 at 01:45
@kalkr If my answer solved your problem, please consider accepting it (click the little green arrow below the vote count) so that future readers will see it more readily. – Silvio Mayolo Aug 25 '17 at 02:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 13 '21 at 19:27

I figured out something similar, but using the #include <windows.h> header. But I'm looking for a faster way.. is there a function where you can write an entire string and have that function chop it up for you so you don't have to be writting all this code in between letters? I know there is, but I can't figure it out by myself... this is what I wrote:

cout << "R"; Sleep(300); cout << "E"; Sleep(300); cout << "C"; Sleep(300); cout << "U"; Sleep(300); cout << "R"; Sleep(300); cout << "S"; Sleep(300); cout << "I"; Sleep(300); cout << "V"; Sleep(300); cout << "E           "; Sleep(300); cout << "F"; Sleep(300); cout << "U"; Sleep(300); cout << "N"; Sleep(300); cout << "C"; Sleep(300); cout << "T"; Sleep(300); cout << "I"; Sleep(300); cout << "O"; Sleep(300); cout << "N" << endl;
Sleep(300);
cout << "***********************************************************";
Sleep(800); cout << endl << "What "; Sleep(800); cout << "Is "; Sleep(800); cout << "It?" << endl;
Sleep(2000);
cout << "      It is a function that calls itself. " << endl; Sleep(500); cout << "            To avoid having this function run indefinitely, you must inclue a termination condition" << endl << endl;
Sleep(1000); 
cout << "               (kinda reminds me of a for loop, doesn't it?)" << endl;

Print a Word Character By Character With Delay

2 Answers2