(This is the legacy documentation for SDL2, the previous stable version; SDL3 is the current stable version.)

SDL_JoystickGetAxis

Get the current state of an axis control on a joystick.

Header File

Syntax

Sint16 SDL_JoystickGetAxis(SDL_Joystick *joystick,
                           int axis);

Function Parameters

SDL_Joystick *	joystick	an SDL_Joystick structure containing joystick information.
int	axis	the axis to query; the axis indices start at index 0.

Return Value

(Sint16) Returns a 16-bit signed integer representing the current position of the axis or 0 on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

SDL makes no promises about what part of the joystick any given axis refers to. Your game should have some sort of configuration UI to let users specify what each axis should be bound to. Alternately, SDL's higher-level Game Controller API makes a great effort to apply order to this lower-level interface, so you know that a specific axis is the "left thumb stick," etc.

The value returned by SDL_JoystickGetAxis() is a signed integer (-32768 to 32767) representing the current position of the axis. It may be necessary to impose certain tolerances on these values to account for jitter.

Version

This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.