Read input from keyboard without waiting for "enter"

Question

I am trying to control a robot with the keyboard. I want to get the user input from the keyboard and call the respective function, it could be the letters "l" for left, "r" for right and "e" for exit.

direction = ""
while direction != "e":
    direction = input("enter direction: ")
    if direction == "r":
        goRight()
    elif direction == "l":
        goLeft()

The code is working but the user have to type the enter key each time. Is there a solution to read the key immediately when typed?

What about this? I think pygame offers something similar as well. — DevConcepts
– DevConcepts, Commented Sep 27, 2021 at 10:36

RiveN · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-27 10:38:17Z

1

Try readchar. It's really simple but should fit your needs:

Simple example

import readchar 

while True:
    key = readchar.readkey()
    print(key)

Implemented in your function

direction = ""
while direction != "e":
    direction = readchar.readkey()
    if direction == "r":
        goRight()
    elif direction == "l":
        goLeft()

answered Sep 27, 2021 at 10:38

RiveN

2,65911 gold badges17 silver badges29 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

RiveN Over a year ago

Or if you don't want to use readchar you can try something from here: stackoverflow.com/questions/3523174/…

laieman Over a year ago

I get an error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'readchar', even after installing readchar with pip install readchar

laieman Over a year ago

Fixed the problem with python -m pip install readchar. It's working perfectly, thank you

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Read input from keyboard without waiting for "enter"

1 Answer 1

Simple example

Implemented in your function

3 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Simple example

Implemented in your function

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related