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

Answered here: raw_input in python without pressing enter

Use this code-

from tkinter import Tk, Frame


def __set_key(e, root):
    """
    e - event with attribute 'char', the released key
    """
    global key_pressed
    if e.char:
        key_pressed = e.char
        root.destroy()


def get_key(msg="Press any key ...", time_to_sleep=3):
    """
    msg - set to empty string if you don't want to print anything
    time_to_sleep - default 3 seconds
    """
    global key_pressed
    if msg:
        print(msg)
    key_pressed = None
    root = Tk()
    root.overrideredirect(True)
    frame = Frame(root, width=0, height=0)
    frame.bind("<KeyRelease>", lambda f: __set_key(f, root))
    frame.pack()
    root.focus_set()
    frame.focus_set()
    frame.focus_force()  # doesn't work in a while loop without it
    root.after(time_to_sleep * 1000, func=root.destroy)
    root.mainloop()
    root = None  # just in case
    return key_pressed


def __main():
        c = None
        while not c:
                c = get_key("Choose your weapon ... ", 2)
        print(c)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    __main()

Reference: https://github.com/unfor19/mg-tools/blob/master/mgtools/get_key_pressed.py

Answer 2

The build-in raw_input should help.

for i in range(3):
    print ("So much work to do!")
k = raw_input("Press any key to continue...")
print ("Ok, back to work.")

Answer 3

This might be a use case for a context manager. Leaving aside allowances for Windows OS, here's my suggestion:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# file: 'readchar.py'
"""
Implementation of a way to get a single character of input
without waiting for the user to hit <Enter>.
(OS is Linux, Ubuntu 14.04)
"""

import tty, sys, termios

class ReadChar():
    def __enter__(self):
        self.fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        self.old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(self.fd)
        tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
        return sys.stdin.read(1)
    def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
        termios.tcsetattr(self.fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, self.old_settings)

def test():
    while True:
        with ReadChar() as rc:
            char = rc
        if ord(char) <= 32:
            print("You entered character with ordinal {}."\
                        .format(ord(char)))
        else:
            print("You entered character '{}'."\
                        .format(char))
        if char in "^C^D":
            sys.exit()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    test()

Answer 4

An alternative method:

import os
import sys    
import termios
import fcntl

def getch():
  fd = sys.stdin.fileno()

  oldterm = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
  newattr = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
  newattr[3] = newattr[3] & ~termios.ICANON & ~termios.ECHO
  termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSANOW, newattr)

  oldflags = fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_GETFL)
  fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_SETFL, oldflags | os.O_NONBLOCK)

  try:        
    while 1:            
      try:
        c = sys.stdin.read(1)
        break
      except IOError: pass
  finally:
    termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSAFLUSH, oldterm)
    fcntl.fcntl(fd, fcntl.F_SETFL, oldflags)
  return c

From this blog post.

Answer 5

If I'm doing something complicated I'll use curses to read keys. But a lot of times I just want a simple Python 3 script that uses the standard library and can read arrow keys, so I do this:

import sys, termios, tty

key_Enter = 13
key_Esc = 27
key_Up = '\033[A'
key_Dn = '\033[B'
key_Rt = '\033[C'
key_Lt = '\033[D'

fdInput = sys.stdin.fileno()
termAttr = termios.tcgetattr(0)

def getch():
    tty.setraw(fdInput)
    ch = sys.stdin.buffer.raw.read(4).decode(sys.stdin.encoding)
    if len(ch) == 1:
        if ord(ch) < 32 or ord(ch) > 126:
            ch = ord(ch)
    elif ord(ch[0]) == 27:
        ch = '\033' + ch[1:]
    termios.tcsetattr(fdInput, termios.TCSADRAIN, termAttr)
    return ch

Answer 6

Here's a link to a site that says how you can read a single character in Windows, Linux and OSX: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/134892/

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()