Java User Input and Scanner Class: A Step-By-Step Guide

Java User Input and Scanner Class: A Step-By-Step Guide
The Scanner class is used to read Java user input. Java Scanner is built into the java.util package, so no
external libraries are needed to use it. Scanner reads text from standard input. This text is returned to the
main program so it can be stored or otherwise manipulated.
In order to work with the Scanner class, you must first import it into your code. There are two ways you
can do this:
1. If you only need to work with the java.util.Scanner class, you can import the Scanner class
directly.
2. If you are working with other modules in the java.util library, you may want to import the full
library.
The following is the code for each of the above methods:
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.*;
The first line of code imports the Scanner class. The second line of code imports all the packages within
the java.util library, including Scanner.
It’s worth noting that there are other ways to receive user input data in Java. You can use Java’s
BufferedReader, InputStreamReader, DataInputStream, and Console classes.
However, the Scanner class is the most popular method of collecting user input in Java.
Java User Input Syntax

You can collect user input using the Scanner class. The Scanner class reads text that a user inserts into
the console and sends that text back to a program. Scanner is the primary method of collecting Java user
input.
After you import the Java Scanner class, you can start to use it to collect user input. Here is the syntax
for the Java Scanner class:
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

int number = input.nextInt();
In this example, we created a variable called input that collects the next value the user inputs into the
console. Then we created a variable called number that collects the value the user submits to the
console.
Java User Input Example

For instance, suppose we are building an application for a local computer store that keeps track of their
inventory.
The manager asked us to create a simple program that she can use to add items to the shop’s inventory
list. The manager wants to be able to input two values: the name of the item and its quantity.
Here’s the code we would use to create this program:

class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.print("Product name: ");

String product_name = input.next();
System.out.print("Value entered: " + product_name);
System.out.print("Quantity: ");
int quantity = input.nextInt();
System.out.print("Value entered: " + quantity);
}
}
The first input we accept the name of the item. This will be a string because the item names are text-
based and use a variety of characters. In the code below, we define this string with the code: String
product_name.
The next input is the quantity of the item. This will be a number. In the code below, we define this
number with the code: int quantity, where int stands for integer.
When we run our code and insert a few example values, the program returns the following response:
Product name: 15-inch MacBook Pro 2019
Value entered: 15-inch MacBook Pro 2019
Quantity: 7
Value entered: 7
As you can see, our program collected the user’s input. It then returned to the console the value the
user entered. This allows us to verify that our program is working.
How our Scanner Java Program Works

Let’s break down our code step-by-step.
1. We import the Scanner library into our code so that we can receive user input.
2. We declare a class called Main that stores the code for our program.
3. We initialize the Scanner class using Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in); The input Java
variable stores our initialized scanner.
4. We print out “Product name: ” to the console and ask the user to submit a product name
using input.next();.
5. We print out to the console the product name the user submitted.
6. We print out Quantity: to the console and prompt the user to submit the quantity of the
product in stock using input.nextInt();.
7. We print out the value of the quantity variable to the console.
Notice that we used different code to collect numbers and strings. When we collected the product
name, we used input.next();, and when we collected the product quantity, we used input.nextInt();.
Java Scanner: Input Types

In our above example, we collected two types of data from the user: a string and an integer. As
mentioned, we had to use different code to collect these types of data.
Different types of data, like strings and integers, are collected using separate methods. So, to collect a
boolean, you’ll use different code than you would to collect a float.
Here is a table showing all the methods used to collect user input in Java using the Scanner class:
Method Type of Value the Method Collects
nextBoolean() Boolean
nextByte() Byte
nextDouble() Double
nextFloat() Float
nextInt() Int
nextLine() String
nextLong() Long
nextShort() Short
If you insert the wrong input type, your program will raise an InputMismatchException. For example, if
you try to insert a double into a field that collects Booleans, your program will raise an exception.
Collecting a Boolean Value

Let’s go back to the computer store. Suppose we wanted to update our first program and allow our
computer store manager to input whether the product is on display or held in the stockroom.
To do so, we want to collect a new value called on_display that will store input as a Boolean because it
can have only two values: true or false.
Here’s the code we could use to collect this data:

class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.print("Product name: ");

String product_name = input.next();
System.out.print("Value entered: " + product_name);
System.out.print("Quantity: ");
int quantity = input.nextInt();
System.out.print("Value entered: " + quantity);
System.out.print("On display: ");

boolean on_display = input.nextBoolean();
System.out.print("Value entered: " + on_display);
}
}
When we run our code and insert a few example values, the program returns the following response:
Product name: 15-inch MacBook Pro 2019
Value entered: 15-inch MacBook Pro 2019
Quantity: 7
Value entered: 7
On display: true
Value entered: true
Our program works in the same way as our example above. However, this time we collect an additional
value from the user: whether the product they inserted into the program is on display. We use
the nextBoolean() method to collect this value from the user. Then we print that value to the console.
References:
https://careerkarma.com/blog/java-input/

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Java User Input and Scanner Class: A Step-By-Step Guide

Java User Input Syntax

Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

Java User Input Example

Here’s the code we would use to create this program:

System.out.print("Product name: ");

How our Scanner Java Program Works

Java Scanner: Input Types

Collecting a Boolean Value

Here’s the code we could use to collect this data:

System.out.print("Product name: ");

System.out.print("On display: ");

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