Is there a less ugly way to do input in D than scanf()?

Question

Currently the only way I know how to do input in D is with the scanf() function. But god damn it's ugly. You would think that since it's an upgrade from C that they would have fixed that.

I'm looking for a way to do it with a single argument. Currently you have to do:

int foo = 0;
scanf("%i", &foo);
writeln("%i", foo);

But it would look a lot cleaner with a single argument. Something like:

int foo = 0;
scanf(foo);
writeln(foo);

Thanks.

Answer 1

• readf("%d", &foo); allows working with std.stdio.File rather than C FILE*
• foo = readln().strip().to!int();
• For reading entire files with lines formatted in the same way:
  int[] numbers = slurp!int("filename", "%d");

Answer 2

There's a really cool user-input module here:

https://github.com/Abscissa/scriptlike/blob/master/src/scriptlike/interact.d

Example code:

if (userInput!bool("Do you want to continue?"))
{
    auto outputFolder = pathLocation("Where you do want to place the output?");
    auto color = menu!string("What color would you like to use?", ["Blue", "Green"]);
}

auto num = require!(int, "a > 0 && a <= 10")("Enter a number from 1 to 10");

Answer 3

The above answers are great. I just want to add my 2 cents.

I often have the following simple function lying around:

T read(T)() 
{
   T obj;
   readf(" %s", &obj);
   return obj;
}

It's generic and pretty handy - it swallows any white space and reads any type you ask. You can use it like this:

auto number = read!int;
auto floating_number = read!float;
// etc.