Java: How to get input from System.console()

Question

I am trying to use Console class to get input from user but a null object is returned when I call System.console(). Do I have to change anything before using Sy

Answer 1

I wrote the Text-IO library, which can deal with the problem of System.console() being null when running an application from within an IDE.

It introduces an abstraction layer similar to the one proposed by McDowell. If System.console() returns null, the library switches to a Swing-based console.

In addition, Text-IO has a series of useful features:

• supports reading values with various data types.
• allows masking the input when reading sensitive data.
• allows selecting a value from a list.
• allows specifying constraints on the input values (format patterns, value ranges, length constraints etc.).

Usage example:

TextIO textIO = TextIoFactory.getTextIO();

String user = textIO.newStringInputReader()
        .withDefaultValue("admin")
        .read("Username");

String password = textIO.newStringInputReader()
        .withMinLength(6)
        .withInputMasking(true)
        .read("Password");

int age = textIO.newIntInputReader()
        .withMinVal(13)
        .read("Age");

Month month = textIO.newEnumInputReader(Month.class)
        .read("What month were you born in?");

textIO.getTextTerminal().println("User " + user + " is " + age + " years old, " +
        "was born in " + month + " and has the password " + password + ".");

In this image you can see the above code running in a Swing-based console.