How to disable the on key press exiting

Question

I like to code and am trying a new language. C++ is new to me but I have 1 question. How do I change the fact that when I build and run my C++ console app it asks me to press any key to quit but I only want it to quit when I press the ESC key. How do I disable the thing that makes me press any key to quit? I am using Visual Studio 2022 with the C++ Console Application template.

Here is my code:

#include <iostream>
#include <winuser.h>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

void main () {

  char message[21] = "Hello There!";
  cout << message;

  if (GetAsyncKeyState(VK_ESCAPE))
  {
      exit(0);
  }
}

Answer 1

Your problem is that GetAsyncKeyState() returns immediately. You are asking it to see if the ESC key is currently pressed. It returns 0 or 1, then the code carries on, so you exit from main() any way. What you want is this:

void main() {

    char message[21] = "Hello There!";
    cout << message;

    while (!GetAsyncKeyState(VK_ESCAPE))
    {
        Sleep(500);

    }
}