Serial input in Arduino

available counts waiting bytes; read takes them one by one.

// available counts waiting bytes; read takes them one at a time.
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Echo ready: type at me");
}

void loop() {
  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    char c = Serial.read();
    Serial.print("Got: ");
    Serial.println(c);
  }
}

How it works

1. Serial.available() > 0 guards against reading nothing.
2. Serial.read() returns a single char from the buffer.
3. Echoing input back is the first debugging tool to build.

Keywords and builtins used here

• Serial
• available
• begin
• char
• if
• loop
• print
• println
• read
• setup
• void

The run, in numbers

Lines

13

Characters to type

259

Tokens

66

Three-star pace

70 tpm

At the three-star pace of 70 tokens a minute, this run takes about 57 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 1 of 3 in Serial, step 13 of 27 in Language basics.

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