Question: How do you handle input in Love2D?

Answer

Handling input in Love2D is straightforward and involves using the built-in keyboard and mouse functions provided by the Love2D API. Here are some common ways to handle input:

Keyboard Input: To detect if a specific key is pressed, use love.keyboard.isDown(key) within the love.update(dt) function.

function love.update(dt)
    if love.keyboard.isDown("space") then
        -- Spacebar was pressed, perform an action here
    end
end

Key Presses and Releases: For single keypress events, use the love.keypressed(key) and love.keyreleased(key) callbacks.

function love.keypressed(key)
    if key == "escape" then
        love.event.quit()
    end
end

Mouse Input: You can check the position and click status of the mouse with love.mouse.getPosition() and love.mouse.isDown(button).

function love.update(dt)
    if love.mouse.isDown(1) then -- 1 is the primary button (usually left-click)
        local x, y = love.mouse.getPosition()
        -- Process mouse click at position (x, y)
    end
end

Mouse Click Events: The love.mousepressed(x, y, button, istouch, presses) and love.mousereleased(x, y, button, istouch, presses) callbacks can be used for handling mouse click events.

function love.mousepressed(x, y, button, istouch, presses)
    if button == 1 then -- 1 is the primary button (usually left-click)
        -- Mouse was pressed at position (x, y), handle it here
    end
end

Joystick Input: Love2D also supports joystick input via love.joystick module. Check if a button on the joystick is pressed with joystick:isDown(button).

function love.update(dt)
    local joysticks = love.joystick.getJoysticks()
    for i, joystick in ipairs(joysticks) do
        if joystick:isDown(1) then
            -- First button on the joystick is pressed
        end
    end
end

Text Input: For text input, enable text input mode with love.keyboard.setTextInput(true) and use the love.textinput(text) callback.

function love.load()
    love.keyboard.setTextInput(true)
end

function love.textinput(text)
    -- Append entered text to a string buffer or process it here
end

Using these functions and callbacks will allow you to react to user input in your Love2D game or application.