How to read a single character from the user?

Question

Is there a way of reading one single character from the user input? For instance, they press one key at the terminal and it is returned (sort of like getch()).

Answer 1

My solution for python3, not depending on any pip packages.

# precondition: import tty, sys
def query_yes_no(question, default=True):
    """
    Ask the user a yes/no question.
    Returns immediately upon reading one-char answer.
    Accepts multiple language characters for yes/no.
    """
    if not sys.stdin.isatty():
        return default
    if default:
        prompt = "[Y/n]?"
        other_answers = "n"
    else:
        prompt = "[y/N]?"
        other_answers = "yjosiá"

    print(question,prompt,flush= True,end=" ")
    oldttysettings = tty.tcgetattr(sys.stdin.fileno())
    try:
        tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
        return not sys.stdin.read(1).lower() in other_answers
    except:
        return default
    finally:
        tty.tcsetattr(sys.stdin.fileno(), tty.TCSADRAIN , oldttysettings)
        sys.stdout.write("\r\n")
        tty.tcdrain(sys.stdin.fileno())

Answer 2

I believe that this is one the most elegant solution.

import os

if os.name == 'nt':
    import msvcrt
    def getch():
        return msvcrt.getch().decode()
else:
    import sys, tty, termios
    fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
    old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
    def getch():
        try:
            tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch

and then use it in the code:

if getch() == chr(ESC_ASCII_VALUE):
    print("ESC!")

Answer 3

If you want to register only one single key press even if the user pressed it for more than once or kept pressing the key longer. To avoid getting multiple pressed inputs use the while loop and pass it.

import keyboard

while(True):
  if(keyboard.is_pressed('w')):
      s+=1
      while(keyboard.is_pressed('w')):
        pass
  if(keyboard.is_pressed('s')):
      s-=1
      while(keyboard.is_pressed('s')):
        pass
  print(s)

Answer 4

Try using this: http://home.wlu.edu/~levys/software/kbhit.py It's non-blocking (that means that you can have a while loop and detect a key press without stopping it) and cross-platform.

import os

# Windows
if os.name == 'nt':
    import msvcrt

# Posix (Linux, OS X)
else:
    import sys
    import termios
    import atexit
    from select import select


class KBHit:

    def __init__(self):
        '''Creates a KBHit object that you can call to do various keyboard things.'''

        if os.name == 'nt':
            pass

        else:

            # Save the terminal settings
            self.fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
            self.new_term = termios.tcgetattr(self.fd)
            self.old_term = termios.tcgetattr(self.fd)

            # New terminal setting unbuffered
            self.new_term[3] = (self.new_term[3] & ~termios.ICANON & ~termios.ECHO)
            termios.tcsetattr(self.fd, termios.TCSAFLUSH, self.new_term)

            # Support normal-terminal reset at exit
            atexit.register(self.set_normal_term)


    def set_normal_term(self):
        ''' Resets to normal terminal.  On Windows this is a no-op.
        '''

        if os.name == 'nt':
            pass

        else:
            termios.tcsetattr(self.fd, termios.TCSAFLUSH, self.old_term)


    def getch(self):
        ''' Returns a keyboard character after kbhit() has been called.
            Should not be called in the same program as getarrow().
        '''

        s = ''

        if os.name == 'nt':
            return msvcrt.getch().decode('utf-8')

        else:
            return sys.stdin.read(1)


    def getarrow(self):
        ''' Returns an arrow-key code after kbhit() has been called. Codes are
        0 : up
        1 : right
        2 : down
        3 : left
        Should not be called in the same program as getch().
        '''

        if os.name == 'nt':
            msvcrt.getch() # skip 0xE0
            c = msvcrt.getch()
            vals = [72, 77, 80, 75]

        else:
            c = sys.stdin.read(3)[2]
            vals = [65, 67, 66, 68]

        return vals.index(ord(c.decode('utf-8')))


    def kbhit(self):
        ''' Returns True if keyboard character was hit, False otherwise.
        '''
        if os.name == 'nt':
            return msvcrt.kbhit()

        else:
            dr,dw,de = select([sys.stdin], [], [], 0)
            return dr != []

An example to use this:

import kbhit

kb = kbhit.KBHit()

while(True): 
    print("Key not pressed") #Do something
    if kb.kbhit(): #If a key is pressed:
        k_in = kb.getch() #Detect what key was pressed
        print("You pressed ", k_in, "!") #Do something
kb.set_normal_term()

Or you could use the getch module from PyPi. But this would block the while loop

Answer 5

if you just want to hold the screen so you can see the result on the terminal just write

input()

at the end of the code and it will hold the screen

Answer 6

sys.stdin.read(1)

will basically read 1 byte from STDIN.

If you must use the method which does not wait for the \n you can use this code as suggested in previous answer:

class _Getch:
    """Gets a single character from standard input.  Does not echo to the screen."""
    def __init__(self):
        try:
            self.impl = _GetchWindows()
        except ImportError:
            self.impl = _GetchUnix()

    def __call__(self): return self.impl()


class _GetchUnix:
    def __init__(self):
        import tty, sys

    def __call__(self):
        import sys, tty, termios
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch


class _GetchWindows:
    def __init__(self):
        import msvcrt

    def __call__(self):
        import msvcrt
        return msvcrt.getch()


getch = _Getch()

(taken from http://code.activestate.com/recipes/134892/)