The Java Console class is be used to get input from console. It provides methods to read texts and passwords. If you read password using Console class, it will not be displayed to the user. The java.io.Console class is attached with system console internally.
Reading user input from the console
Using BufferedReader:
System.out.println("Please type your name and press Enter.");
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
try {
String name = reader.readLine();
System.out.println("Hello, " + name + "!");
} catch(IOException e) {
System.out.println("An error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
}
The following imports are needed for this code:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
Using Scanner:
Version ≥ Java SE 5
System.out.println("Please type your name and press Enter");
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
String name = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("Hello, " + name + "!");
The following import is needed for this example:
import java.util.Scanner;
To read more than one line, invoke scanner.nextLine() repeatedly:
System.out.println("Please enter your first and your last name, on separate lines.");
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
String firstName = scanner.nextLine();
String lastName = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("Hello, " + firstName + " " + lastName + "!");
There are two methods for obtaining Strings, next() and nextLine(). next() returns text up until the first space (also known as a “token”), and nextLine() returns all text that the user inputted until pressing enter.
Scanner also provides utility methods for reading data types other than String. These include:
scanner.nextByte();
scanner.nextShort();
scanner.nextInt();
scanner.nextLong();
scanner.nextFloat();
scanner.nextDouble();
scanner.nextBigInteger();
scanner.nextBigDecimal();
Prefixing any of these methods with has (as in hasNextLine(), hasNextInt()) returns true if the stream has any more of the request type. Note: These methods will crash the program if the input is not of the requested type (for
example, typing “a” for nextInt() ). You can use a try {} catch() {} to prevent this (see: Exceptions)
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); //Create the scanner
scanner.useLocale(Locale.US); //Set number format excepted
System.out.println("Please input a float, decimal separator is .");
if (scanner.hasNextFloat()){ //Check if it is a float
float fValue = scanner.nextFloat(); //retrive the value directly as float
System.out.println(fValue + " is a float");
}else{
String sValue = scanner.next(); //We can not retrive as float
System.out.println(sValue + " is not a float");
}
Using System.console:
Version ≥ Java SE 6
String name = System.console().readLine("Please type your name and press Enter%n");
System.out.printf("Hello, %s!", name);
//To read passwords (without echoing as in unix terminal)
char[] password = System.console().readPassword();
Advantages:
- Reading methods are synchronized
- Format string syntax can be used
Note: This will only work if the program is run from a real command line without redirecting the standard input and output streams. It does not work when the program is run from within certain IDEs, such as Eclipse. For code that works within IDEs and with stream redirection, see the other examples.
Aligning strings in console
The method PrintWriter.format (called through System.out.format) can be used to print aligned strings in console. The method receives a String with the format information and a series of objects to format:
String rowsStrings[] = new String[] {"1", "1234", "1234567", "123456789"};
String column1Format = "%-3s"; // min 3 characters, left aligned
String column2Format = "%-5.8s"; // min 5 and max 8 characters, left aligned
String column3Format = "%6.6s"; // fixed size 6 characters, right aligned
String formatInfo = column1Format + " " + column2Format + " " + column3Format;
for(int i = 0; i < rowsStrings.length; i++) {
System.out.format(formatInfo, rowsStrings[i], rowsStrings[i], rowsStrings[i]);
System.out.println();
}
Output:
Using format strings with fixed size permits to print the strings in a table-like appearance with fixed size columns:
String rowsStrings[] = new String[] {"1",
"1234",
"1234567",
"123456789"};
String column1Format = "%-3.3s"; // fixed size 3 characters, left aligned
String column2Format = "%-8.8s"; // fixed size 8 characters, left aligned
String column3Format = "%6.6s"; // fixed size 6 characters, right aligned
String formatInfo = column1Format + " " + column2Format + " " + column3Format;
for(int i = 0; i < rowsStrings.length; i++) {
System.out.format(formatInfo, rowsStrings[i], rowsStrings[i], rowsStrings[i]);
System.out.println();
}
Output:
Format strings examples
- %s: just a string with no formatting
- %5s: format the string with a minimum of 5 characters; if the string is shorter it will be padded to 5 characters and right aligned
- %-5s: format the string with a minimum of 5 characters; if the string is shorter it will be padded to 5 characters and left aligned
- %5.10s: format the string with a minimum of 5 characters and a maximum of 10 characters; if the string is shorter than 5 it will be padded to 5 characters and right aligned; if the string is longer than 10 it will be truncated to 10 characters and right aligned
- %-5.5s: format the string with a fixed size of 5 characters (minimum and maximum are equals); if the string is shorter than 5 it will be padded to 5 characters and left aligned; if the string is longer than 5 it will be truncated to 5 characters and left aligned
Implementing Basic Command-Line Behavior
For basic prototypes or basic command-line behavior, the following loop comes in handy.
public class ExampleCli {
private static final String CLI_LINE = "example-cli>"; //console like string
private static final String CMD_QUIT = "quit"; //string for exiting the program
private static final String CMD_HELLO = "hello"; //string for printing "Hello World!" on the screen
private static final String CMD_ANSWER = "answer"; //string for printing 42 on the screen
public static void main(String[] args) {
ExampleCli claimCli = new ExampleCli(); // creates an object of this class
try {
claimCli.start(); //calls the start function to do the work like console
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace(); //prints the exception log if it is failed to do get the user input or something like that
}
}
private void start() throws IOException {
String cmd = "";BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
while (!cmd.equals(CMD_QUIT)) { // terminates console if user input is "quit"
System.out.print(CLI_LINE); //prints the console-like string
cmd = reader.readLine(); //takes input from user. user input should be started with "hello", "answer" or "quit"
String[] cmdArr = cmd.split(" ");
if (cmdArr[0].equals(CMD_HELLO)) { //executes when user input starts with "hello"
hello(cmdArr);
}
else if (cmdArr[0].equals(CMD_ANSWER)) { //executes when user input starts with "answer"
answer(cmdArr);
}
}
}
// prints "Hello World!" on the screen if user input starts with "hello"
private void hello(String[] cmdArr) {
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
// prints "42" on the screen if user input starts with "answer"
private void answer(String[] cmdArr) {
System.out.println("42");
}
}