How do you accept multiple line inputs in python?

I want to write a program that gets multiple line input and work with it line by line. Why isn't there any function like raw_input in Python 3?

input does not allow the user to put lines separated by newline (Enter). It prints back only the first line.

Can it be stored in a variable or even read it to a list?

asked May 14, 2015 at 13:49

7

raw_input can correctly handle the EOF, so we can write a loop, read till we have received an EOF (Ctrl-D) from user:

Python 3

print("Enter/Paste your content. Ctrl-D or Ctrl-Z ( windows ) to save it.")
contents = []
while True:
    try:
        line = input()
    except EOFError:
        break
    contents.append(line)

Python 2

print "Enter/Paste your content. Ctrl-D or Ctrl-Z ( windows ) to save it."
contents = []
while True:
    try:
        line = raw_input("")
    except EOFError:
        break
    contents.append(line)

answered Jul 6, 2016 at 11:47

xiaketxiaket

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4

In Python 3.x the raw_input() of Python 2.x has been replaced by input() function. However in both the cases you cannot input multi-line strings, for that purpose you would need to get input from the user line by line and then .join() them using \n, or you can also take various lines and concatenate them using + operator separated by \n

To get multi-line input from the user you can go like:

no_of_lines = 5
lines = ""
for i in xrange(no_of_lines):
    lines+=input()+"\n"

print(lines)

Or

lines = []
while True:
    line = input()
    if line:
        lines.append(line)
    else:
        break
text = '\n'.join(lines)

AMGMNPLK

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answered May 14, 2015 at 13:51

ZdaRZdaR

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3

input(prompt) is basically equivalent to

def input(prompt):
    print(prompt, end='', file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
    return sys.stdin.readline()

You can read directly from sys.stdin if you like.

lines = sys.stdin.readlines()

lines = [line for line in sys.stdin]

five_lines = list(itertools.islice(sys.stdin, 5))
    

The first two require that the input end somehow, either by reaching the end of a file or by the user typing Control-D (or Control-Z in Windows) to signal the end. The last one will return after five lines have been read, whether from a file or from the terminal/keyboard.

answered May 14, 2015 at 14:45

chepnerchepner

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9

Use the input() built-in function to get a input line from the user.

You can read the help here.

You can use the following code to get several line at once (finishing by an empty one):

while input() != '':
    do_thing

answered May 14, 2015 at 13:52

maggickmaggick

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1

no_of_lines = 5
lines = ""
for i in xrange(5):
    lines+=input()+"\n"
    a=raw_input("if u want to continue (Y/n)")
    ""
    if(a=='y'):
        continue
    else:
        break
    print lines

answered Jul 5, 2016 at 5:10

1

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