How to read a single character from the user?

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Chapters
00:00 How To Read A Single Character From The User?
00:21 Accepted Answer Score 238
00:55 Answer 2 Score 96
01:30 Answer 3 Score 90
02:54 Answer 4 Score 82
03:20 Answer 5 Score 22
03:43 Thank you

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Full question
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5103...

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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

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Tags
#python #input

#avk47

ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 239

Here's a link to the ActiveState Recipes site that says how you can read a single character in Windows, Linux and OSX:

getch()-like unbuffered character reading from stdin on both Windows and Unix

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()

ANSWER 2

Score 96

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/)

ANSWER 3

Score 82

The ActiveState recipe quoted verbatim in two answers is over-engineered. It can be boiled down to this:

def _find_getch():
    try:
        import termios
    except ImportError:
        # Non-POSIX. Return msvcrt's (Windows') getch.
        import msvcrt
        return msvcrt.getch

    # POSIX system. Create and return a getch that manipulates the tty.
    import sys, tty
    def _getch():
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(fd)
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch

    return _getch

getch = _find_getch()

ANSWER 4

Score 22

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.