Reading character from keyboard

[draghuram at gmail.com]

Tommy Grav wrote:
> A very simple question. I would like to read a single character from the
> keyboard (y or n). I have tried to look in my Python books and a google
> search, but have come up empty. I am sure the info s out there, but I
> guess I am unable to find the right question or search keyword :o/

You can use "raw_input".

http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html

If you are looking for a function to ask the user for confirmation, you
can use something like this:

-----------------------------------
def confirm(_prompt=None, _default=False):
    """prompts for yes or no response. Return True for yes and False
for no."""
    promptstr = _prompt
    if (not promptstr):
        promptstr = "Confirm"

    if (_default):
        prompt = "%s [%s]|%s: " % (promptstr, "y", "n")
    else:
        prompt = "%s [%s]|%s: " % (promptstr, "n", "y")

    while (True):
        ans = raw_input(prompt)
        if (not ans):
            return _default
        if ((ans != "y") and (ans != "Y") and (ans != "n") and (ans !=
"N")):
            print "please enter again y or n."
            continue
        if ((ans == "y") or (ans == "Y")):
            return True
        if ((ans == "n") or (ans == "N")):
            return False
--------------------------------------------

Usage:

if  (confirm("\nWant to proceed?", _default=False)):
    # proceed

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