CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonuser-input
Hans
Hans

Reputation: 1789

python library for user input

I am implementing a small command line tool in python that needs to ask the user a couple of questions. I use

raw_input('Are you male or female?')

all the time. Now I would like to be able to deal with dumb users (or those too lazy to read/remember the documentation), so I need to check whether the answer makes sense. 

gender = ''
while gender not in ['male', 'female']:
    gender = raw_input('Are you male or female?')

I am wondering whether there exists something like argparse that would automate this problem, something like 

import inputparse 
gender = inputparse.get_input(prompt='Are you male or female?', type=str, possible_input=['male', 'female'])

and would take care of automatic checking etc.?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 15372

Answers (5)

Hraban
Hraban

Reputation: 555

Necromanting again...

Please have a look at click if you need a simple helper library for questions. Its main focus are command line options, but it’s a good fit for your use case, I think.

EDIT 3 years later: I’m using prompt toolkit nowadays.

Upvotes: 2

user6045
user6045

Reputation: 41

This question is quite old, but I'm researching it today. The library pyinputplus is recommended by Al Swigert in Automate the Boring Stuff With Python

Upvotes: 4

A.Wan
A.Wan

Reputation: 2058

From the accepted answer to this question: the cmd library might be of interest to you.

"The Cmd class provides a simple framework for writing line-oriented command interpreters."

This Python Module of the Week page features it, and it has some examples and explanations.

Upvotes: 3

Riccardo Cagnasso
Riccardo Cagnasso

Reputation: 470

I stumbled in this thread looking for a similar library and i was quite disappointed for the fact that there isn't one, so i wrote one. I will work a lot on this in the next days because i need a lot more features for what i'm writing.

pickone

Upvotes: 1

aldeb
aldeb

Reputation: 6828

I don't know if such a library exists, but you could write an high-order function like this:

def check_input(predicate, msg, error_string="Illegal Input"):
    while True:
        result = input(msg).strip()
        if predicate(result):
            return result
        print(error_string)

result = check_input(lambda x: x in ['male', 'female'],
                                   'Are you male or female? ')
print(result)

Output:

Are you male or female? foo
Illegal Input
Are you male or female? bar
Illegal Input
Are you male or female? Male
Illegal Input
Are you male or female? male
male

Upvotes: 1

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