How to read a single char from the console in Java (as the user types it)?

Question

Is there an easy way to read a single char from the console as the user is typing it in Java? Is it possible? I\'ve tried with these methods but they all wait for the user t

Answer 1

You need to knock your console into raw mode. There is no built-in platform-independent way of getting there. jCurses might be interesting, though.

On a Unix system, this might work:

String[] cmd = {"/bin/sh", "-c", "stty raw 

For example, if you want to take into account the time between keystrokes, here's sample code to get there.