Take a char input from the Scanner

Question

I am trying to find a way to take a char input from the keyboard.

I tried using:

Scanner reader = new Scanner(System.in);
char c = reade         


        

Answer 1

You can solve this problem, of "grabbing keyboard input one char at a time" very simply. Without having to use a Scanner all and also not clearing the input buffer as a side effect, by using this.

char c = (char)System.in.read();

If all you need is the same functionality as the C language "getChar()" function then this will work great. The Big advantage of the "System.in.read()" is the buffer is not cleared out after each char your grab. So if you still need all the users input you can still get the rest of it from the input buffer. The "char c = scanner.next().charAt(0);" way does grab the char but will clear the buffer.

// Java program to read character without using Scanner
public class Main
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try {
            String input = "";
            // Grab the First char, also wait for user input if the buffer is empty.
            // Think of it as working just like getChar() does in C.
            char c = (char)System.in.read();
            while(c != '\n') {
                //
                input += c; // 

                //then grab the next char
                c = (char)System.in.read();
            }
            //print back out all the users input
            System.out.println(input);
        } catch (Exception e){
            System.out.println(e);
        }
    }
}  

Hope this helpful, and good luck! P.S. Sorry i know this is an older post, but i hope that my answer bring new insight and could might help other people who also have this problem.