Python input single character without enter

Question

What I am trying to do is make a simple pi memorization game in Python. What I need is a way to get input from the user without having to press 'enter' after every character. It sounds like I need something like getch, but I can't get it to work. I got a getch-like function from here: https://gist.github.com/chao787/2652257#file-getch-py. I don't really understand anything that's in there. When I do 'x = getch.getch()' it says "AttributeError: '_Getch' object has no attribute 'getch'". It looks like msvcrt can do it for Windows, but I have a Mac. It also looks like curses is a thing that has getch, but it says I need to do initscr first, but then I get the error "File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/curses/__init__.py", line 30, in initscr fd=_sys.__stdout__.fileno()) _curses.error: setupterm: could not find terminal".

This is my file just using input, where you would have to press enter every time (I actually put in 1000 digits, not an ellipsis).

pi = '3.1415926535...'


def main():
    print('Welcome to PiGame!')
    pigame()
    while True:
        yn = input('Play again? y/n ')
        if yn == 'y':
            pigame()
        else: return


def pigame():

    n=0

    print('Go!')


    while n<=1000:
        x = input()
        if x == pi[n]:
            n += 1
        else:
            print('I\'m sorry. The next digit was '+pi[n]+'.')
            print('You got to '+str(n)+' digits!')
            return
    print('You got to 1000! Hooray!')

see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/510357/python-read-a-single-character-from-the-user — Alex Martelli, Jan 03 '15 at 00:43
Yes, I read that one. That's the same code that gives me the attribute error. — ArgoLake, Jan 03 '15 at 02:20
Should I have added a response or a comment on that thread saying it didn't work? — ArgoLake, Jan 03 '15 at 03:36
Such a comment (definitely not an answer!) will full details about what you've tried and your environment (e.g by a pointer to this Q) might help others, so it's far from a bad idea. — Alex Martelli, Jan 03 '15 at 03:42
Does this answer your question? [How to read a single character from the user?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/510357/how-to-read-a-single-character-from-the-user) — zardosht, Jul 29 '21 at 15:20

Luke Taylor · Answer 1 · 2017-04-05T01:17:28.593

11

You can define your own version of getch using the termios, sys and tty packages:

def getch():
    import termios
    import sys, tty
    def _getch():
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(fd)
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch
    return _getch()

edited Apr 05 '17 at 01:17

answered Jan 26 '15 at 01:16

Luke Taylor

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termios.error: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl for device') – deathangel908 Nov 28 '15 at 20:05
needs to be return _getch() in the end (you forgot parenthesis) – Yoni Baciu Dec 29 '16 at 16:26
Apparently termios does not exist on Windows system. Is there any way to adapt Term::ReadKey from perl which does work on Windows? – user1067305 Aug 14 '18 at 23:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 06 '19 at 23:12

This is a tested (on RPi, Py 3) code that can read a specified length of chars without need to hit Enter button

But consider one thing :

This must run on terminal otherwise raises an error

import termios, sys , tty
def _getch():
   fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
   old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
   try:
      tty.setraw(fd)
      ch = sys.stdin.read(1)     #This number represents the length
   finally:
      termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
   return ch
getch = _getch()
print(getch)

Python input single character without enter

2 Answers2

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