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Interactive questions

Output offers two ways to read input from the user: free-form ask() and the option-constrained question() built around the Question value object.

ask() — free-form input

$name = $output->ask('What is your name?');
  • The prompt is printed, then a line is read from the input stream.
  • The answer is run through the same type casting as command input, so "42" comes back as int(42), "yes" as true, etc.
  • Passing false as the second argument rejects an empty answer and keeps asking:
$value = $output->ask('This cannot be empty:', false);
  • Typing exit or quit terminates the application.

question() — constrained input

Question describes the prompt, the set of acceptable answers, whether it is optional and a default. Configure it fluently:

use InitPHP\Console\Question;

$question = (new Question())
    ->setQuestion('Pick an environment:')
    ->setOptions(['dev', 'staging', 'prod'])
    ->optional()
    ->setDefault('dev');

$env = $output->question($question);

Behaviour when an answer is submitted:

  1. If it matches one of the options → the (cast) answer is returned.
  2. If it is exit/quit → the application terminates.
  3. If the question is optional → the default is returned (or the raw answer when no default is set).
  4. If the question is required and nothing matched → the user is asked again.

Acceptable-answer matching

hasOption() matches both the verbatim answer and its cast form, so string input lines up with boolean/numeric options:

$q = new Question();          // default options: [true, false]
$q->hasOption('true');        // true   ("true" casts to bool true)
$q->hasOption('yes');         // true
$q->hasOption('maybe');       // false

For yes/no prompts you can therefore rely on the defaults, or set explicit string options:

(new Question())->setQuestion('Continue?')->setOptions(['yes', 'no']);

The Question API

Method Purpose
setQuestion(string) / getQuestion() The prompt text.
setOptions(array) / getOptions() Replace / read the acceptable answers.
addOption(string) Append a single acceptable answer.
hasOption(string) Whether an answer is acceptable (verbatim or cast).
optional() / notOptional() / isOptional() Toggle / read the optional flag.
setDefault(mixed) / getDefault() Set / read the default answer.
hasDefault() Whether a default was set.
Question::NO_DEFAULT Sentinel returned by getDefault() when no default is set.

addOption() compatibility note: the method also accepts a legacy two-argument form addOption($label, $value), where the second argument is the value that gets registered and the first is just a label. Prefer the single-argument form for new code.

Testing prompts

Inject an input stream pre-seeded with the answers:

$stdin = fopen('php://memory', 'r+');
fwrite($stdin, "Ada\n");
rewind($stdin);

$output = new Output(STDOUT, $stdin);
$output->ask('Name?'); // "Ada"