Java Console Input

Console Input

There are many ways to get user input from the console. The following is just one of them.

Good Morning Example

Reading a String from the Console

We can use the readLine() method get the user input, it is returned as a String.

String name = System.console().readLine();

Converting a String to a number

As mentioned above, readLine() returns a String, if you want the input as a number, it will need to be converted. Integer.parseInt(age) can be used to do this, if it fails it will trigger an exception.

try{
	int num=Integer.parseInt("10");
}catch(Exception e){
	System.out.println("Hmmm... That did not work");		
}

The catch part is where you should handle what you program will do if the input is not correct.

Full Program

With the Java JDK installed, from a command line:

• Save the following as morning.java
• Compile with javac morning.java
• Run with java Morning

class Morning{
	public static void main(String[] args){	
	
		System.out.print("What is your name? ");
		
		String name = System.console().readLine();	
		System.out.println("Good morning "+name+"!");
		
		System.out.print("What is your age? ");
		String age = System.console().readLine();	
		
		try{
			int num=Integer.parseInt(age);
			System.out.print("You were probably born in "+(2025-num) );
		}catch(Exception e){
			System.out.println("Hmmm... That does not seem like an age?");
		}
	}
}

Created (04/05/2025)