prompt

 x: do not care
 a: alpha-only
 n: numeric-only
 i: ignore case
 c: case sensitive
 r: ranged by the low and high values
 f: floating-point
 y: yes/no
 e: regular expression
 s: sub (actually, a code ref, but 'c' was taken)
 p: password (keystrokes not echoed)
 m: menu

x: do not care

 $result = prompt('x', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

$result is whatever the user types.

a: alpha-only

 $result = prompt('a', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

$result is a single 'word' consisting of [A-Za-z] only. The response is rejected until it conforms.

n: numeric-only

 $result = prompt('n', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

The result will be a positive integer or 0.

 $result = prompt('-n', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

The result will be a negative integer or 0.

 $result = prompt('+-n', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

The result will be a any integer or 0.

i: ignore case

 $result = prompt('i', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                      'legal_options-ignore-case-list');
    

c: case sensitive

 $result = prompt('c', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                      'legal_options-case-sensitive-list');
    

r: ranged by the low and high values

 $result = prompt('r', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                  'low', 'high');
    

f: floating-point

 $result = prompt('f', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default');
    

The result will be a floating-point number.

y: yes/no

 $result = prompt('y', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default')
    

The result will be 1 for y, 0 for n. A default not starting with y, Y, n or N will be treated as y for positive, n for negative.

e: regular expression

 $result = prompt('e', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                  'regular expression');
    

The regular expression has and implicit ^ and $ surrounding it; just put in .* before or after if you need to free it up before or after.

s: sub

 $result = prompt('s', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                  sub { warn 'Your input was ' . shift; 1 });
 $result = prompt('s', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default',
                  \&my_custom_validation_handler);
    

User reply is passed to given code reference as first and only argument. If code returns true, input is accepted.

p: password

 $result = prompt('p', 'text prompt', 'help prompt', 'default' );
    

$result is whatever the user types, but the characters are not echoed to the screen.

m: menu

 @results = prompt(
                        'm',
                        {
                        prompt           => 'text prompt',
                        title            => 'My Silly Menu',
            items            => [ qw (foo bar baz biff spork boof akak) ],
                        order            => 'across',
                        rows             => 1,
                        cols             => 1,
                        display_base     => 1,
                        return_base      => 0,
                        accept_multiple_selections => 0,
                        accept_empty_selection     => 0,
            ignore_whitespace => 0,
            separator         => '[^0-9]+'
                        },
                    'help prompt',
                        'default');
    

This will create a menu with numbered items to select. You replace the normal prompt argument with a hash reference containing this information:

Other Functions and Variables

termwrap

Part of Term::Prompt is the optionally exported function termwrap, which is used to wrap lines to the width of the currently selected filehandle (or to STDOUT or STDERR if the width of the current filehandle cannot be determined). It uses the GetTerminalSize function from Term::ReadKey then Text::Wrap.

MULTILINE_INDENT

This package variable holds the string to be used to indent lines of a multiline prompt, after the first line. The default is "\t", which is how the module worked before the variable was exposed. If you do not want ANY indentation:

 $Term::Prompt::MULTILINE_INDENT = '';
    

Text and Help Prompts

It will work off of unique parts of 'legal_options'.

Changed by Allen - if you capitalize the type of prompt, it will be treated as a true 'help prompt'; that is, it will be printed ONLY if the menu has to be redisplayed due to and entry error. Otherwise, it will be treated as a list of options and displayed only the first time the menu is displayed.

Capitalizing the type of prompt will also mean that a return may be accepted as a response, even if there is no default; whether it actually is will depend on the type of prompt. Menus, for example, do not do this.