How to remove scrollbars in console windows C++

Question

I have been checking out some Rogue like games (Larn, Rogue, etc) that are written in C and C++, and I have noticed that they do not have the scrollbars to the right of the console window.

How can I accomplish this same feature?

Solution 1

To remove the scrollbar, simply set the screen buffer height to be the same size as the height of the window:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{                
    // get handle to the console window
    HANDLE hOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

    // retrieve screen buffer info
    CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO scrBufferInfo;
    GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hOut, &scrBufferInfo);

    // current window size
    short winWidth = scrBufferInfo.srWindow.Right - scrBufferInfo.srWindow.Left + 1;
    short winHeight = scrBufferInfo.srWindow.Bottom - scrBufferInfo.srWindow.Top + 1;

    // current screen buffer size
    short scrBufferWidth = scrBufferInfo.dwSize.X;
    short scrBufferHeight = scrBufferInfo.dwSize.Y;        

    // to remove the scrollbar, make sure the window height matches the screen buffer height
    COORD newSize;
    newSize.X = scrBufferWidth;
    newSize.Y = winHeight;

    // set the new screen buffer dimensions
    int Status = SetConsoleScreenBufferSize(hOut, newSize);
    if (Status == 0)
    {
        cout << "SetConsoleScreenBufferSize() failed! Reason : " << GetLastError() << endl;
        exit(Status);
    }

    // print the current screen buffer dimensions
    GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hOut, &scrBufferInfo);
    cout << "Screen Buffer Size : " << scrBufferInfo.dwSize.X << " x " << scrBufferInfo.dwSize.Y << endl;

    return 0;
}

Solution 2

You need to make the console screen buffer the same size as the console window. Get the window size with GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo, srWindow member. Set the buffer size with SetConsoleScreenBufferSize().

Solution 3

Using #include <winuser.h>, you can simply do

ShowScrollBar(GetConsoleWindow(), SB_VERT, 0);

You can specify which scroll bar to hide using different parameters.

Solution 4

To remove scrollbars from the console, we can make the console screen buffer the same size as the console window. This can be done as follows:

#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO screenBufferInfo; 

    // Get console handle and get screen buffer information from that handle.
    HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hConsole, &screenBufferInfo);

    // Get rid of the scrollbar by setting the screen buffer size the same as 
    // the console window size.
    COORD new_screen_buffer_size;

    // screenBufferInfo.srWindow allows us to obtain the width and height info 
    // of the visible console in character cells.
    // That visible portion is what we want to set the screen buffer to, so that 
    // no scroll bars are needed to view the entire buffer.
    new_screen_buffer_size.X = screenBufferInfo.srWindow.Right - 
    screenBufferInfo.srWindow.Left + 1; // Columns
    new_screen_buffer_size.Y = screenBufferInfo.srWindow.Bottom - 
    screenBufferInfo.srWindow.Top + 1; // Rows

    // Set new buffer size
    SetConsoleScreenBufferSize(hConsole, new_screen_buffer_size);

    std::cout << "There are no scrollbars in this console!" << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

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Comments

[karlphillip]

The idea is correct. However, the code is not currently compilable because hConsole was not declared. There's also a comment that refers to temp_screenBufferInfo which is not defined on the code but I'm guessing you meant to say screenBufferInfo.

[Sean Xie]

Thanks for the heads-up! I had used the code in another context. I've updated it.