readline {base} | R Documentation

## Read a Line from the Terminal

### Description

`readline` reads a line from the terminal (in interactive use).

### Usage

    readline(prompt = "")

### Arguments

`prompt` | the string printed when prompting the user for input. Should usually end with a space `" "`.

### Details

The prompt string will be truncated to a maximum allowed length, normally 256 chars (but can be changed in the source code).

This can only be used in an interactive session.

### Value

A character vector of length one. Both leading and trailing spaces and tabs are stripped from the result.

In non-interactive use the result is as if the response was RETURN and the value is `""`.

### See Also

`readLines` for reading text lines from connections, including files.

### Examples

    fun <- function() {
      ANSWER <- readline("Are you a satisfied R user? ")
      ## a better version would check the answer less cursorily, and
      ## perhaps re-prompt
      if (substr(ANSWER, 1, 1) == "n")
        cat("This is impossible.  YOU LIED!\n")
      else
        cat("I knew it.\n")
    }
    if(interactive()) fun()

[Package base version 2.15.2 Index]