User Input

[Christo77793]

Within these interactive notebooks, I am unable to find any examples on how to get a user's input? As I try Console.ReadLine() it proceeds to execute the next line of code.

Example:
string []answer = new string[10];

for(int i = 0; i < answer.Length; i++)
{
answer[i]= Console.ReadLine();
}

With this code, the cell keeps running for me with no prompt (like with Python) to enter an input.

[JakeRadMSFT]

@Christo77793 can you share more details about your scenario? What do you want to prompt the user of notebook for?

[Christo77793]

@JakeRadMSFT Hi, when I try to get user inputs through the C# interactive notebook {via Console.ReadLine()} it simply ignores it. The use is nothing specific, I have to use interactive C# notebooks as part of my class. So with interactive notebooks ReadLine() just does not work.

[JakeRadMSFT]

@jonsequitur has this been considered?

Seems like it might be similar to: dotnet/interactive#107

[jonsequitur]

Input requests are supported in VS Code and in Jupyter (though I just spotted a bug in the latter).

They can also be embedded in magic commands:

We've considered supporting Console.ReadLine because it's intuitive, but there are some complications such as lack of cancellation support, so we haven't found a satisfying solution.

[Christo77793]

@jonsequitur Not to be presumptuous, but I think this needs to be included in the official docs in a way most people can be aware of it. Besides that, thank you very much, I truly appreciate you taking your time to respond to this.

[jcruzupr]

This post was helpful.
I hope the Console.ReadLine option is available in the near future. I'll use the first option in the meantime.

[GoPapaSmurf]

Greetings, yes, that would be great if your could implement this essential feature. The description of CSharp Notebooks itself says "Notebooks are an interactive tool", but there is no way to interact with it... When you want user input, Console.ReadLine(); doesn't work... When I try some code, I use Console.ReadLine(); all the time...
Regarding complications such as lack of cancellation support, possible trade-offs that come to mind are key combination, or time-out.
In the meantime, I'll use LINQPad, but I'd love to use CSharp Notebooks when the user can input data using Console.ReadLine();
Thank you 😉🙏