How to: Detect Whether a Gamepad Button Is Pressed

This topic describes how to determine whether a button is pressed, by using the A button on the Xbox One gamepad as an example. It assumes that you are familiar with how to use the gamepad API as described in Getting Started with the Gamepad API.

To detect whether the A button is pressed:

Use Gamepad.Gamepads to get all connected gamepads.

C++
```
auto gamepads = Gamepad::Gamepads;  
```

Use GetCurrentReading to get the gamepad reading object.

C++

// For simplicity, we assume there is only one connected Xbox One gamepad.
// Otherwise, check if the gamepads vector size is > 0 first, by using this: if (gamepads->Size > 0)
IGamepad^ gamepad0 = gamepads->GetAt(0);    
IGamepadReading^ reading = gamepads->GetAt(0)->GetCurrentReading();

Call IsAPressed to retrieve the status of the A button.

C++

if (reading->IsAPressed)
{
    // Add game logic for the A button currently pressed.  
}

Alternatively, you can use the Buttons property to check whether the A button is currently pressed, as shown below.

C++

    // Note: reading->Buttons returns a bit field that can have multiple bits set.
    if( ( reading->Buttons & GamepadButtons::A ) == GamepadButtons::A )
    {
        // Add game logic for A button currently pressed.
    }

To detect whether other controls are pressed

In the last step of the previous procedure, replace the IsAPressed with the corresponding property listed in the following table.

Control Name	Property Name
B button	IsBPressed
Back button	IsBackPressed
D-pad down	IsDPadDownPressed
D-pad left	IsDPadLeftPressed
D-pad right	IsDPadRightPressed
D-pad up	IsDPadUpPressed
Left bumper	IsLeftShoulderPressed
Left stick	IsLeftThumbstickPressed
Right stick	IsRightThumbstickPressed
Right bumper	IsRightShoulderPressed
Start	IsStartPressed
X	IsXPressed
Y	IsYPressed

How to: Detect Whether a Gamepad Button Is Pressed

To detect whether the A button is pressed:

To detect whether other controls are pressed

See Also