Mouse input (GetMouseButton, position) in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Mouse input (GetMouseButton, position)

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple Unity program that detects when the user clicks the left mouse button and shows the position of the mouse pointer on the screen.

🎯 Goal: Build a Unity script that checks if the left mouse button is pressed and prints the mouse position coordinates to the console.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Unity C# script named MouseInput.

Use Input.GetMouseButton(0) to detect left mouse button press.

Get the mouse position using Input.mousePosition.

Print the mouse position to the console when the button is pressed.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Detecting mouse clicks and positions is essential for interactive games and applications where the user controls objects or navigates menus.

💼 Career

Understanding mouse input handling is a fundamental skill for Unity developers working on game mechanics, UI interactions, and user experience design.

1

Create the MouseInput script and define Update method

Create a C# script called MouseInput and add an empty Update() method inside the MonoBehaviour class.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class MouseInput : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Update()
    {
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

The Update() method runs every frame. You will add mouse input code inside it.

2

Add a boolean variable to check left mouse button press

Inside the Update() method, create a boolean variable called isLeftButtonPressed and set it to Input.GetMouseButton(0).

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class MouseInput : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Update()
    {
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Input.GetMouseButton(0) returns true if the left mouse button is pressed.

3

Get the mouse position when left button is pressed

Inside the Update() method, add an if statement that checks if isLeftButtonPressed is true. Inside the if, create a variable called mousePos and set it to Input.mousePosition.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class MouseInput : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Update()
    {
        bool isLeftButtonPressed = Input.GetMouseButton(0);
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Input.mousePosition gives the current position of the mouse pointer in screen pixels.

4

Print the mouse position to the console

Inside the if block, add a Debug.Log statement that prints the text "Mouse Position: " followed by the mousePos variable.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class MouseInput : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Update()
    {
        bool isLeftButtonPressed = Input.GetMouseButton(0);
        if (isLeftButtonPressed)
        {
            Vector3 mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Debug.Log prints messages to the Unity Console window.