How To Use The C++ Documentation

Development Programming & Scripting C++
1

This might sound like a rant but it is a genuine question. How are we meant to know how to use the various C++ functions in Unreal when the documentation doesn’t tell you much? Is there something I’m missing?

As a quick example, this function that I want to implement returns a bool but the documentation doesn’t tell me what that bool is for so how am I meant to know when to return true or false? IInputProcessor::HandleKeyDownEvent | Unreal Engine Documentation

Luckily most of the time when I come across these situations (which is very frequently), I google the function name and someone else has already figured it out and written some example code with explanation. But what about when that is not the case? How do people figure out how to use these functions? Is there a better source of documentation somewhere?

1 Like
2

I agree; the documentation of C++ functions is terrible to the point of being useless.

Often, you can decipher what a function does by pulling up the declaration and definition in Visual Studio and then reading the code the old-fashioned way. At best, that works but is a pain in the neck. At worst, the C++ code relies on obscure macros and other functions that require an equal amount of heavy lifting to decipher, and you go down and endless rabbit hole.

Google is your friend, and there’s a lot of good stuff on the Discord channel. But Epic could help us all out a lot by improving the C++ documentation.

2 Likes
3

I was worried that might be the case :frowning: hoped I was just missing something but I guess not. Thanks for the reply though

2 Likes