APT command line interface-like yes/no input?

Question

As you mentioned, the easiest way is to use raw_input() (or simply input() for Python 3). There is no built-in way to do this. From Recipe 577058:

import sys


def query_yes_no(question, default="yes"):
    """Ask a yes/no question via raw_input() and return their answer.

    "question" is a string that is presented to the user.
    "default" is the presumed answer if the user just hits <Enter>.
            It must be "yes" (the default), "no" or None (meaning
            an answer is required of the user).

    The "answer" return value is True for "yes" or False for "no".
    """
    valid = {"yes": True, "y": True, "ye": True, "no": False, "n": False}
    if default is None:
        prompt = " [y/n] "
    elif default == "yes":
        prompt = " [Y/n] "
    elif default == "no":
        prompt = " [y/N] "
    else:
        raise ValueError("invalid default answer: '%s'" % default)

    while True:
        sys.stdout.write(question + prompt)
        choice = input().lower()
        if default is not None and choice == "":
            return valid[default]
        elif choice in valid:
            return valid[choice]
        else:
            sys.stdout.write("Please respond with 'yes' or 'no' " "(or 'y' or 'n').\n")

(For Python 2, use raw_input instead of input.) Usage example:

>>> query_yes_no("Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower?")
Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower? [Y/n] oops
Please respond with 'yes' or 'no' (or 'y' or 'n').
Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower? [Y/n] [ENTER]
>>> True

>>> query_yes_no("Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower?", None)
Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower? [y/n] [ENTER]
Please respond with 'yes' or 'no' (or 'y' or 'n').
Is cabbage yummier than cauliflower? [y/n] y
>>> True

I'd do it this way:

# raw_input returns the empty string for "enter"
yes = {'yes','y', 'ye', ''}
no = {'no','n'}

choice = raw_input().lower()
if choice in yes:
   return True
elif choice in no:
   return False
else:
   sys.stdout.write("Please respond with 'yes' or 'no'")

You can use click's confirm method.

import click

if click.confirm('Do you want to continue?', default=True):
    print('Do something')

This will print:

$ Do you want to continue? [Y/n]:

Should work for Python 2/3 on Linux, Mac or Windows.

Docs: http://click.pocoo.org/5/prompts/#confirmation-prompts

There is a function strtobool in Python's standard library: http://docs.python.org/2/distutils/apiref.html?highlight=distutils.util#distutils.util.strtobool

You can use it to check user's input and transform it to True or False value.

A very simple (but not very sophisticated) way of doing this for a single choice would be:

msg = 'Shall I?'
shall = input("%s (y/N) " % msg).lower() == 'y'

You could also write a simple (slightly improved) function around this:

def yn_choice(message, default='y'):
    choices = 'Y/n' if default.lower() in ('y', 'yes') else 'y/N'
    choice = input("%s (%s) " % (message, choices))
    values = ('y', 'yes', '') if choices == 'Y/n' else ('y', 'yes')
    return choice.strip().lower() in values

Note: On Python 2, use raw_input instead of input.

as mentioned by @Alexander Artemenko, here's a simple solution using strtobool

from distutils.util import strtobool

def user_yes_no_query(question):
    sys.stdout.write('%s [y/n]\n' % question)
    while True:
        try:
            return strtobool(raw_input().lower())
        except ValueError:
            sys.stdout.write('Please respond with \'y\' or \'n\'.\n')

#usage

>>> user_yes_no_query('Do you like cheese?')
Do you like cheese? [y/n]
Only on tuesdays
Please respond with 'y' or 'n'.
ok
Please respond with 'y' or 'n'.
y
>>> True