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

SDL_PeepEvents

Check the event queue for messages and optionally return them.

Header File

Syntax

int SDL_PeepEvents(SDL_Event * events, int numevents,
                   SDL_eventaction action,
                   Uint32 minType, Uint32 maxType);

Function Parameters

SDL_Event *	events	destination buffer for the retrieved events.
int	numevents	if action is SDL_ADDEVENT, the number of events to add back to the event queue; if action is SDL_PEEKEVENT or SDL_GETEVENT, the maximum number of events to retrieve.
SDL_eventaction	action	action to take; see [[#action
Uint32	minType	minimum value of the event type to be considered; SDL_FIRSTEVENT is a safe choice.
Uint32	maxType	maximum value of the event type to be considered; SDL_LASTEVENT is a safe choice.

Return Value

(int) Returns the number of events actually stored or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

action may be any of the following:

SDL_ADDEVENT: up to numevents events will be added to the back of the event queue.
SDL_PEEKEVENT: numevents events at the front of the event queue, within the specified minimum and maximum type, will be returned to the caller and will not be removed from the queue.
SDL_GETEVENT: up to numevents events at the front of the event queue, within the specified minimum and maximum type, will be returned to the caller and will be removed from the queue.

You may have to call SDL_PumpEvents() before calling this function. Otherwise, the events may not be ready to be filtered when you call SDL_PeepEvents().

This function is thread-safe.

Version

This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.