How Can I Get Asynchronous Keyboard Input with a Timeout in Python?

Asynchronous Keyboard Input with Timeout Handling

The task at hand is to solicit user input while imposing a timeout to prevent indefinite waiting. While Google suggests a mailing thread for this, it may not yield satisfactory results.

The challenge arises from the system input function ([raw_]input) accepting at most one argument. However, to implement a timeout, one must pass a timeout parameter. This results in a TypeError.

Solution using Select Poll

A more reliable solution involves using the select.select() system call:

import sys, select

print("You have ten seconds to answer!")

i, o, e = select.select([sys.stdin], [], [], 10)

if (i):
    print("You said", sys.stdin.readline().strip())
else:
    print("You said nothing!")

Breakdown

• select.select() registers sys.stdin for input polling with a timeout of 10 seconds.
• The i variable contains a list of input-ready file descriptors, indicating if there was user input.
• If input is present, the readline() method is used to retrieve it.
• If the timeout expires without input, the "You said nothing!" message is displayed.

This approach offers greater portability and efficiency in handling keyboard input with timeout functionality.

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