CONSOLESCREENBUFFERINFO

CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO is a structure used in the Windows Console API to describe the state and geometry of a console screen buffer. It is filled by the operating system when querying a console handle and is commonly used by console-based applications to inspect or adjust the display state, cursor position, and window dimensions.

Fields include: dwSize, a COORD indicating the size of the screen buffer in character columns (X) and rows (Y). dwCursorPosition, a COORD that identifies the current cursor location within the buffer. wAttributes, a WORD representing the current text attributes (foreground and background colors, intensity, etc.). srWindow, a SMALL_RECT that defines the portion of the buffer currently visible in the console window. dwMaximumWindowSize, a COORD indicating the maximum allowable window size for the current buffer.

Typical usage involves calling GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo with a handle to the console screen buffer (for example, obtained via GetStdHandle). The function fills a CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO structure with the current buffer size, cursor position, attributes, window rectangle, and maximum window size. Applications can use this information to render custom UI, reposition the cursor, or compute safe regions for drawing.

Relation to other types: The structure uses COORD and SMALL_RECT, while the visible characters are stored in a separate screen buffer as an array of CHAR_INFO that can be read with ReadConsoleOutput or written with WriteConsoleOutput. The CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO itself provides metadata about that data buffer and the viewport.

The structure is defined in Wincon.h and Windows.h as part of the Win32 console API and is Windows-specific.