Getting Keyboard Input

Question

How do I get simple keyboard input (an integer) from the user in the console in Java? I accomplished this using the java.io.* stuff, but it says it is deprecated.

How should I do it now?

Answer 1

You can use Scanner class like this:

  import java.util.Scanner;

public class Main{
    public static void main(String args[]){

    Scanner scan= new Scanner(System.in);

    //For string

    String text= scan.nextLine();

    System.out.println(text);

    //for int

    int num= scan.nextInt();

    System.out.println(num);
    }
}

Answer 2

You can use Scanner class

Import first :

import java.util.Scanner;

Then you use like this.

Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("enter an integer");
int myint = keyboard.nextInt();

Side note : If you are using nextInt() with nextLine() you probably could have some trouble cause nextInt() does not read the last newline character of input and so nextLine() then is not gonna to be executed with desired behaviour. Read more in how to solve it in this previous question Skipping nextLine using nextInt.

Answer 3

You can also make it with BufferedReader if you want to validate user input, like this:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader; 
class Areas {
    public static void main(String args[]){
        float PI = 3.1416f;
        int r=0;
        String rad; //We're going to read all user's text into a String and we try to convert it later
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); //Here you declare your BufferedReader object and instance it.
        System.out.println("Radius?");
        try{
            rad = br.readLine(); //We read from user's input
            r = Integer.parseInt(rad); //We validate if "rad" is an integer (if so we skip catch call and continue on the next line, otherwise, we go to it (catch call))
            System.out.println("Circle area is: " + PI*r*r + " Perimeter: " +PI*2*r); //If all was right, we print this
        }
        catch(Exception e){
            System.out.println("Write an integer number"); //This is what user will see if he/she write other thing that is not an integer
            Areas a = new Areas(); //We call this class again, so user can try it again
           //You can also print exception in case you want to see it as follows:
           // e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Because Scanner class won't allow you to do it, or not that easy...

And to validate you use "try-catch" calls.

Answer 4

import java.util.Scanner; //import the framework


Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in); //opens a scanner, keyboard
System.out.print("Enter a number: "); //prompt the user
int myInt = input.nextInt(); //store the input from the user

Let me know if you have any questions. Fairly self-explanatory. I commented the code so you can read it. :)

Answer 5

You can use Scanner to get the next line and do whatever you need to do with the line entered. You can also use JOptionPane to popup a dialog asking for inputs.

Scanner example:

Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Enter something > ");
String inputString = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("You entered : ");
System.out.println(inputString);

JOptionPane example:

String input = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,
     "Enter some text:");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You entered "+ input);

You will need these imports:

import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

A complete Java class of the above

import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class GetInputs{
    public static void main(String args[]){
        //Scanner example
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.print("Enter something > ");
        String inputString = input.nextLine();
        System.out.print("You entered : ");
        System.out.println(inputString);

        //JOptionPane example
        String input = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,
        "Enter some text:");
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You entered "+ input);
    }
}

Answer 6

If you have Java 6 (You should have, btw) or higher, then simply do this :

 Console console = System.console();
 String str = console.readLine("Please enter the xxxx : ");

Please remember to do :

 import java.io.Console;

Thats it!