Obtaining Command Line Input in Java

To obtain console input for your program you can use the Scanner class

First import the relevant library

import java.util.Scanner;

Then create a variable to hold the Scanner object

Scanner input;
input = new Scanner(System.in);

Inside the parenthesis, the Scanner binds to the System input which is by default the console

The new varible input now has the ability to obtain input from the console. To do so, use any of the following methods:

Here is an example program where we get the user’s first name

import java.util.Scanner;

public class GetName {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Please enter your name: ");
    String firstName = input.next();
    System.out.println("Your first name is " + firstName); 
  }
}