Readcharkey

Readcharkey is a programming function name encountered in tutorials and libraries that reads a single character key press from the user. The function typically does not require the user to press Enter and returns immediately after a key is pressed. readcharkey is not a standard API across languages; instead, it serves as a generic example or wrapper around lower-level input facilities.

In practice, implementations differ by platform. On Windows, similar functionality is provided by conio.h's getch(), which returns a single character without echo. On POSIX systems, terminals are usually in canonical mode by default, so libraries must switch to non-canonical mode (and often disable echo) using termios to read a single character. Projects may implement readcharkey as a cross-platform wrapper that hides these details.

Usage typically involves assigning the result to a variable, such as ch = readcharkey(). The return value may be a character, a byte, or a key code. Some environments differentiate ordinary character input from special keys (arrows, function keys), sometimes requiring additional reads or escape sequence parsing.

Related concepts include getchar(), getch(), kbhit(), and platform-specific input APIs. Because readcharkey is not standardized, implementations vary in error handling, encoding, and portability. In teaching materials and library code, it is often used to illustrate non-blocking or low-level input, simple interactive menus, or the handling of single-key events in console applications.