README
¶
Survey
A library for building interactive prompts.

package main
import (
"fmt"
"gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"
)
// the questions to ask
var qs = []*survey.Question{
{
Name: "name",
Prompt: &survey.Input{Message: "What is your name?"},
Validate: survey.Required,
Transform: survey.Title,
},
{
Name: "color",
Prompt: &survey.Select{
Message: "Choose a color:",
Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"},
Default: "red",
},
},
{
Name: "age",
Prompt: &survey.Input{Message: "How old are you?"},
},
}
func main() {
// the answers will be written to this struct
answers := struct {
Name string // survey will match the question and field names
FavoriteColor string `survey:"color"` // or you can tag fields to match a specific name
Age int // if the types don't match exactly, survey will try to convert for you
}{}
// perform the questions
err := survey.Ask(qs, &answers)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err.Error())
return
}
fmt.Printf("%s chose %s.", answers.Name, answers.FavoriteColor)
}
Table of Contents
Examples
Examples can be found in the examples/
directory. Run them
to see basic behavior:
go get gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1
cd $GOPATH/src/gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1
go run examples/simple.go
go run examples/validation.go
Prompts
Input

name := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{
Message: "ping",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)
Multiline

text := ""
prompt := &survey.Multiline{
Message: "ping",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &text, nil)
Password

password := ""
prompt := &survey.Password{
Message: "Please type your password",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &password, nil)
Confirm

name := false
prompt := &survey.Confirm{
Message: "Do you like pie?",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)
Select

color := ""
prompt := &survey.Select{
Message: "Choose a color:",
Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &color, nil)
The user can filter for options by typing while the prompt is active. The user can also press esc
to toggle
the ability cycle through the options with the j and k keys to do down and up respectively.
By default, the select prompt is limited to showing 7 options at a time
and will paginate lists of options longer than that. To increase, you can either
change the global survey.PageSize
, or set the PageSize
field on the prompt:
prompt := &survey.Select{..., PageSize: 10}
MultiSelect

days := []string{}
prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{
Message: "What days do you prefer:",
Options: []string{"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &days, nil)
The user can filter for options by typing while the prompt is active. The user can also press esc
to toggle
the ability cycle through the options with the j and k keys to do down and up respectively.
By default, the MultiSelect prompt is limited to showing 7 options at a time
and will paginate lists of options longer than that. To increase, you can either
change the global survey.PageSize
, or set the PageSize
field on the prompt:
prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{..., PageSize: 10}
Editor
Launches the user's preferred editor (defined by the $EDITOR environment variable) on a temporary file. Once the user exits their editor, the contents of the temporary file are read in as the result. If neither of those are present, notepad (on Windows) or vim (Linux or Mac) is used.
Validation
Validating individual responses for a particular question can be done by defining a
Validate
field on the survey.Question
to be validated. This function takes an
interface{}
type and returns an error to show to the user, prompting them for another
response:
q := &survey.Question{
Prompt: &survey.Input{Message: "Hello world validation"},
Validate: func (val interface{}) error {
// since we are validating an Input, the assertion will always succeed
if str, ok := val.(string) ; !ok || len(str) > 10 {
return errors.New("This response cannot be longer than 10 characters.")
}
}
}
Built-in Validators
survey
comes prepackaged with a few validators to fit common situations. Currently these
validators include:
name | valid types | description | notes |
---|---|---|---|
Required | any | Rejects zero values of the response type | Boolean values pass straight through since the zero value (false) is a valid response |
MinLength(n) | string | Enforces that a response is at least the given length | |
MaxLength(n) | string | Enforces that a response is no longer than the given length |
Help Text
All of the prompts have a Help
field which can be defined to provide more information to your users:

&survey.Input{
Message: "What is your phone number:",
Help: "Phone number should include the area code",
}
Changing the input rune
In some situations, ?
is a perfectly valid response. To handle this, you can change the rune that survey
looks for by setting the HelpInputRune
variable in survey/core
:
import (
"gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"
surveyCore "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1/core"
)
number := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{
Message: "If you have this need, please give me a reasonable message.",
Help: "I couldn't come up with one.",
}
surveyCore.HelpIcon = '^'
survey.AskOne(prompt, &number, nil)
Custom Types
survey will assign prompt answers to your custom types if they implement this interface:
type settable interface {
WriteAnswer(field string, value interface{}) error
}
Here is an example how to use them:
type MyValue struct {
value string
}
func (my *MyValue) WriteAnswer(name string, value interface{}) error {
my.value = value.(string)
}
myval := MyValue{}
survey.AskOne(
&survey.Input{
Message: "Enter something:",
},
&myval,
nil,
)
Customizing Output
Customizing the icons and various parts of survey can easily be done by setting the following variables
in survey/core
:
name | default | description |
---|---|---|
ErrorIcon | X | Before an error |
HelpIcon | i | Before help text |
QuestionIcon | ? | Before the message of a prompt |
SelectFocusIcon | > | Marks the current focus in Select and MultiSelect prompts |
UnmarkedOptionIcon | [ ] | Marks an unselected option in a MultiSelect prompt |
MarkedOptionIcon | [x] | Marks a chosen selection in a MultiSelect prompt |
Versioning
This project tries to maintain semantic GitHub releases as closely as possible and relies on gopkg.in to maintain those releases. Importing version 1 of survey would look like:
package main
import "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"
Testing
You can test your program's interactive prompts using go-expect. The library
can be used to expect a match on stdout and respond on stdin. Since os.Stdout
in a go test
process is not a TTY,
if you are manipulating the cursor or using survey
, you will need a way to interpret terminal / ANSI escape sequences
for things like CursorLocation
. vt10x.NewVT10XConsole
will create a go-expect
console that also multiplexes
stdio to an in-memory virtual terminal.
For example, you can test a binary utilizing survey
by connecting the Console's tty to a subprocess's stdio.
func TestCLI(t *testing.T) {
// Multiplex stdin/stdout to a virtual terminal to respond to ANSI escape
// sequences (i.e. cursor position report).
c, state, err := vt10x.NewVT10XConsole()
require.Nil(t, err)
defer c.Close()
donec := make(chan struct{})
go func() {
defer close(donec)
c.ExpectString("What is your name?")
c.SendLine("Johnny Appleseed")
c.ExpectEOF()
}()
cmd := exec.Command("your-cli")
cmd.Stdin = c.Tty()
cmd.Stdout = c.Tty()
cmd.Stderr = c.Tty()
err = cmd.Run()
require.Nil(t, err)
// Close the slave end of the pty, and read the remaining bytes from the master end.
c.Tty().Close()
<-donec
// Dump the terminal's screen.
t.Log(expect.StripTrailingEmptyLines(state.String()))
}
If your application is decoupled from os.Stdout
and os.Stdin
, you can even test through the tty alone.
survey
itself is tested in this manner.
func TestCLI(t *testing.T) {
// Multiplex stdin/stdout to a virtual terminal to respond to ANSI escape
// sequences (i.e. cursor position report).
c, state, err := vt10x.NewVT10XConsole()
require.Nil(t, err)
defer c.Close()
donec := make(chan struct{})
go func() {
defer close(donec)
c.ExpectString("What is your name?")
c.SendLine("Johnny Appleseed")
c.ExpectEOF()
}()
prompt := &Input{
Message: "What is your name?",
}
prompt.WithStdio(Stdio(c))
answer, err := prompt.Prompt()
require.Nil(t, err)
require.Equal(t, "Johnny Appleseed", answer)
// Close the slave end of the pty, and read the remaining bytes from the master end.
c.Tty().Close()
<-donec
// Dump the terminal's screen.
t.Log(expect.StripTrailingEmptyLines(state.String()))
}
Documentation
¶
Index ¶
- Variables
- func Ask(qs []*Question, response interface{}, opts ...AskOpt) error
- func AskOne(p Prompt, response interface{}, v Validator, opts ...AskOpt) error
- func Required(val interface{}) error
- func Title(ans interface{}) interface{}
- func ToLower(ans interface{}) interface{}
- type AskOpt
- type AskOptions
- type Confirm
- type ConfirmTemplateData
- type Editor
- type EditorTemplateData
- type Input
- type InputTemplateData
- type MultiSelect
- type MultiSelectTemplateData
- type Multiline
- type MultilineTemplateData
- type Password
- type PasswordTemplateData
- type Prompt
- type PromptAgainer
- type Question
- type Select
- type SelectTemplateData
- type Transformer
- type Validator
Constants ¶
This section is empty.
Variables ¶
var ConfirmQuestionTemplate = `` /* 497-byte string literal not displayed */
Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format
var DefaultAskOptions = AskOptions{ Stdio: terminal.Stdio{ In: os.Stdin, Out: os.Stdout, Err: os.Stderr, }, }
DefaultAskOptions is the default options on ask, using the OS stdio.
var EditorQuestionTemplate = `` /* 582-byte string literal not displayed */
Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format
var InputQuestionTemplate = `` /* 496-byte string literal not displayed */
Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format
var MultiSelectQuestionTemplate = `` /* 858-byte string literal not displayed */
var MultilineQuestionTemplate = `` /* 465-byte string literal not displayed */
Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format
var PageSize = 7
PageSize is the default maximum number of items to show in select/multiselect prompts
var PasswordQuestionTemplate = `` /* 318-byte string literal not displayed */
Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format
var SelectQuestionTemplate = `` /* 719-byte string literal not displayed */
Functions ¶
func Ask ¶
Ask performs the prompt loop, asking for validation when appropriate. The response type can be one of two options. If a struct is passed, the answer will be written to the field whose name matches the Name field on the corresponding question. Field types should be something that can be casted from the response type designated in the documentation. Note, a survey tag can also be used to identify a Otherwise, a map[string]interface{} can be passed, responses will be written to the key with the matching name. For example:
qs := []*survey.Question{ { Name: "name", Prompt: &survey.Input{Message: "What is your name?"}, Validate: survey.Required, Transform: survey.Title, }, } answers := struct{ Name string }{} err := survey.Ask(qs, &answers)
func AskOne ¶
AskOne performs the prompt for a single prompt and asks for validation if required. Response types should be something that can be casted from the response type designated in the documentation. For example:
name := "" prompt := &survey.Input{ Message: "name", } survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)
func Title ¶ added in v1.4.0
func Title(ans interface{}) interface{}
Title is a `Transformer`. It receives an answer value and returns a copy of the "ans" with all Unicode letters that begin words mapped to their title case.
Note that if "ans" is not a string then it will return a nil value, meaning that the above answer will not be affected by this call at all.
func ToLower ¶ added in v1.4.0
func ToLower(ans interface{}) interface{}
ToLower is a `Transformer`. It receives an answer value and returns a copy of the "ans" with all Unicode letters mapped to their lower case.
Note that if "ans" is not a string then it will return a nil value, meaning that the above answer will not be affected by this call at all.
Types ¶
type AskOpt ¶ added in v1.6.0
type AskOpt func(options *AskOptions) error
AskOpt allows setting optional ask options.
func WithStdio ¶ added in v1.6.0
func WithStdio(in terminal.FileReader, out terminal.FileWriter, err io.Writer) AskOpt
WithStdio specifies the standard input, output and error files survey interacts with. By default, these are os.Stdin, os.Stdout, and os.Stderr.
type AskOptions ¶ added in v1.6.0
AskOptions provides additional options on ask.
type Confirm ¶
Confirm is a regular text input that accept yes/no answers. Response type is a bool.
type ConfirmTemplateData ¶
data available to the templates when processing
type Editor ¶ added in v1.3.0
type Editor struct { core.Renderer Message string Default string Help string Editor string HideDefault bool AppendDefault bool }
Editor launches an instance of the users preferred editor on a temporary file. The editor to use is determined by reading the $VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variables. If neither of those are present, notepad (on Windows) or vim (others) is used. The launch of the editor is triggered by the enter key. Since the response may be long, it will not be echoed as Input does, instead, it print <Received>. Response type is a string.
message := "" prompt := &survey.Editor{ Message: "What is your commit message?" } survey.AskOne(prompt, &message, nil)
func (*Editor) PromptAgain ¶ added in v1.7.1
type EditorTemplateData ¶ added in v1.3.0
data available to the templates when processing
type Input ¶
Input is a regular text input that prints each character the user types on the screen and accepts the input with the enter key. Response type is a string.
name := "" prompt := &survey.Input{ Message: "What is your name?" } survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)
type InputTemplateData ¶
data available to the templates when processing
type MultiSelect ¶ added in v1.0.1
type MultiSelect struct { core.Renderer Message string Options []string Default []string Help string PageSize int VimMode bool FilterMessage string // contains filtered or unexported fields }
MultiSelect is a prompt that presents a list of various options to the user for them to select using the arrow keys and enter. Response type is a slice of strings.
days := []string{} prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{ Message: "What days do you prefer:", Options: []string{"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"}, } survey.AskOne(prompt, &days, nil)
func (*MultiSelect) Cleanup ¶ added in v1.0.1
func (m *MultiSelect) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
Cleanup removes the options section, and renders the ask like a normal question.
func (*MultiSelect) OnChange ¶ added in v1.0.1
func (m *MultiSelect) OnChange(line []rune, pos int, key rune) (newLine []rune, newPos int, ok bool)
OnChange is called on every keypress.
func (*MultiSelect) Prompt ¶ added in v1.0.1
func (m *MultiSelect) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
type MultiSelectTemplateData ¶ added in v1.0.1
type MultiSelectTemplateData struct { MultiSelect Answer string ShowAnswer bool Checked map[string]bool SelectedIndex int ShowHelp bool PageEntries []string }
data available to the templates when processing
type MultilineTemplateData ¶ added in v1.7.0
data available to the templates when processing
type Password ¶
Password is like a normal Input but the text shows up as *'s and there is no default. Response type is a string.
password := "" prompt := &survey.Password{ Message: "Please type your password" } survey.AskOne(prompt, &password, nil)
type PasswordTemplateData ¶ added in v1.1.1
type Prompt ¶
type Prompt interface { Prompt() (interface{}, error) Cleanup(interface{}) error Error(error) error }
Prompt is the primary interface for the objects that can take user input and return a response.
type PromptAgainer ¶ added in v1.7.1
PromptAgainer Interface for Prompts that support prompting again after invalid input
type Question ¶
type Question struct { Name string Prompt Prompt Validate Validator Transform Transformer }
Question is the core data structure for a survey questionnaire.
type Select ¶ added in v1.0.1
type Select struct { core.Renderer Message string Options []string Default string Help string PageSize int VimMode bool FilterMessage string // contains filtered or unexported fields }
Select is a prompt that presents a list of various options to the user for them to select using the arrow keys and enter. Response type is a string.
color := "" prompt := &survey.Select{ Message: "Choose a color:", Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"}, } survey.AskOne(prompt, &color, nil)
type SelectTemplateData ¶
type SelectTemplateData struct { Select PageEntries []string SelectedIndex int Answer string ShowAnswer bool ShowHelp bool }
the data available to the templates when processing
type Transformer ¶ added in v1.4.0
type Transformer func(ans interface{}) (newAns interface{})
Transformer is a function passed to a Question after a user has provided a response. The function can be used to implement a custom logic that will result to return a different representation of the given answer.
Look `TransformString`, `ToLower` `Title` and `ComposeTransformers` for more.
func ComposeTransformers ¶ added in v1.4.0
func ComposeTransformers(transformers ...Transformer) Transformer
ComposeTransformers is a variadic function used to create one transformer from many.
func TransformString ¶ added in v1.4.0
func TransformString(f func(s string) string) Transformer
TransformString returns a `Transformer` based on the "f" function which accepts a string representation of the answer and returns a new one, transformed, answer. Take for example the functions inside the std `strings` package, they can be converted to a compatible `Transformer` by using this function, i.e: `TransformString(strings.Title)`, `TransformString(strings.ToUpper)`.
Note that `TransformString` is just a helper, `Transformer` can be used to transform any type of answer.
type Validator ¶
type Validator func(ans interface{}) error
Validator is a function passed to a Question after a user has provided a response. If the function returns an error, then the user will be prompted again for another response.
func ComposeValidators ¶
ComposeValidators is a variadic function used to create one validator from many.