How to kill a while loop with a keystroke?

pyHook might help. http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/pyhook/index.php?title=PyHook_Tutorial#tocpyHook%5FTutorial4

See keyboard hooks; this is more generalized– if you want specific keyboard interactions and not just using KeyboardInterrupt.

Also, in general (depending on your use) I think having the Ctrl-C option still available to kill your script makes sense.

See also previous question: Detect in python which keys are pressed

There is a solution that requires no non-standard modules and is 100% transportable:

import _thread

def input_thread(a_list):
    raw_input()             # use input() in Python3
    a_list.append(True)
    
def do_stuff():
    a_list = []
    _thread.start_new_thread(input_thread, (a_list,))
    while not a_list:
        stuff()

the following code works for me. It requires openCV (import cv2).

The code is composed of an infinite loop that is continuously looking for a key pressed. In this case, when the ‘q’ key is pressed, the program ends. Other keys can be pressed (in this example ‘b’ or ‘k’) to perform different actions such as change a variable value or execute a function.

import cv2

while True:
    k = cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF
    # press 'q' to exit
    if k == ord('q'):
        break
    elif k == ord('b'):
        # change a variable / do something ...
    elif k == ord('k'):
        # change a variable / do something ...

There is always sys.exit().

The system library in Python’s core library has an exit function which is super handy when prototyping.
The code would be along the lines of:

import sys

while True:
    selection = raw_input("U: Create UsernQ: Quit")
    if selection is "Q" or selection is "q":
        print("Quitting")
        sys.exit()
    if selection is "U" or selection is "u":
        print("User")
        #do_something()

For Python 3.7, I copied and changed the very nice answer by user297171 so it works in all scenarios in Python 3.7 that I tested.

import threading as th

keep_going = True
def key_capture_thread():
    global keep_going
    input()
    keep_going = False

def do_stuff():
    th.Thread(target=key_capture_thread, args=(), name='key_capture_thread', daemon=True).start()
    while keep_going:
        print('still going...')

do_stuff()

This may be helpful
install pynput with —
pip install pynput

from pynput.keyboard import Key, Listener
def on_release(key):
    if key == Key.esc:
        # Stop listener
        return False

# Collect events until released
while True:
    with Listener(
            on_release=on_release) as listener:
        listener.join()
    break 

import keyboard

while True:
    print('please say yes')
    if keyboard.is_pressed('y'):
         break
print('i got u :) ')
print('i was trying to write you are a idiot ')
print('  :( ')

for enter use ‘ENTER’

I modified the answer from rayzinnz to end the script with a specific key, in this case the escape key

import threading as th
import time
import keyboard

keep_going = True
def key_capture_thread():
    global keep_going
    a = keyboard.read_key()
    if a== "esc":
        keep_going = False


def do_stuff():
    th.Thread(target=key_capture_thread, args=(), name='key_capture_thread', daemon=True).start()
    i=0
    while keep_going:
        print('still going...')
        time.sleep(1)
        i=i+1
        print (i)
    print ("Schleife beendet")


do_stuff()

This is the solution I found with threads and standard libraries


Loop keeps going on until one key is pressed

Returns the key pressed as a single character string


Works in Python 2.7 and 3

import thread
import sys

def getch():
    import termios
    import sys, tty
    def _getch():
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(fd)
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch
    return _getch()

def input_thread(char):
    char.append(getch())

def do_stuff():
    char = []
    thread.start_new_thread(input_thread, (char,))
    i = 0
    while not char :
        i += 1

    print "i = " + str(i) + " char : " + str(char[0])

do_stuff()

From following this thread down the rabbit hole, I came to this, works on Win10 and Ubuntu 20.04. I wanted more than just killing the script, and to use specific keys, and it had to work in both MS and Linux..

import _thread
import time
import sys
import os

class _Getch:
    """Gets a single character from standard input.  Does not echo to the screen."""
    def __init__(self):
        try:
            self.impl = _GetchWindows()
        except ImportError:
            self.impl = _GetchUnix()

    def __call__(self): return self.impl()

class _GetchUnix:
    def __init__(self):
        import tty, sys

    def __call__(self):
        import sys, tty, termios
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
            ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch

class _GetchWindows:
    def __init__(self):
        import msvcrt

    def __call__(self):
        import msvcrt
        msvcrt_char = msvcrt.getch()
        return msvcrt_char.decode("utf-8")

def input_thread(key_press_list):
    char = 'x'
    while char != 'q': #dont keep doing this after trying to quit, or 'stty sane' wont work
        time.sleep(0.05)
        getch = _Getch()
        char = getch.impl()
        pprint("getch: "+ str(char))
        key_press_list.append(char)

def quitScript():
    pprint("QUITTING...")
    time.sleep(0.2) #wait for the thread to die
    os.system('stty sane')
    sys.exit()

def pprint(string_to_print): #terminal is in raw mode so we need to append rn
    print(string_to_print, end="rn")

def main():
    key_press_list = []
    _thread.start_new_thread(input_thread, (key_press_list,))
    while True:
        #do your things here
        pprint("tick")
        time.sleep(0.5)

        if key_press_list == ['q']:
            key_press_list.clear()
            quitScript()

        elif key_press_list == ['j']:
            key_press_list.clear()
            pprint("knock knock..")

        elif key_press_list:
            key_press_list.clear()

main()

pip install keyboard

import keyboard

while True:
    # do something
    if keyboard.is_pressed("q"):
        print("q pressed, ending loop")
        break

Here is a simple Windows solution that safely ends current iteration and then quits. I used it with a counter example that breaks the loop with ‘Esc’ key and quits. It uses kbhit() and getch() functions from msvcrt package. Time package is only called for easement reasons (to set time delay between events).

import msvcrt, time

print("Press 'Esc' to stop the loop...")
x = 0
while True:
    x += 1
    time.sleep(0.5)
    print(x)
    
    if msvcrt.kbhit():
        if msvcrt.getch() == b'x1b':
            print("You have pressed Esc! See you!")
            time.sleep(2)    
            break

kbhit() function returns True if a keypress is waiting to be read

getch() function reads a keypress and returns the resulting character as a byte string. It can be used with any key

b’x1b’ is the byte string character for the ‘Esc’ key.

Here is a solution that worked for me. Got some ideas from posts here and elsewhere. Loop won’t end until defined key (abortKey) is pressed. The loop stops as fast as possible and does not try to run to next iteration.

from pynput import keyboard
from threading import Thread
from time import sleep

def on_press(key, abortKey='esc'):    
    try:
        k = key.char  # single-char keys
    except:
        k = key.name  # other keys    

    print('pressed %s' % (k))
    if k == abortKey:
        print('end loop ...')
        return False  # stop listener

def loop_fun():
    while True:
        print('sleeping')
        sleep(5)
        
if __name__ == '__main__':
    abortKey = 't'
    listener = keyboard.Listener(on_press=on_press, abortKey=abortKey)
    listener.start()  # start to listen on a separate thread

    # start thread with loop
    Thread(target=loop_fun, args=(), name='loop_fun', daemon=True).start()

    listener.join() # wait for abortKey

Here another example using threading.Event, without the need for catching SIGINT (Ctrl+c).

As @Atcold has mentioned in a comment below the accepted answer, pressing Ctrl+c in the loop, may interrupt a long running operation and leave it in an undefined state. This can specially annoying, when that long running operation comes from a library that you are calling.

In the example below, the user needs to press q and then press Enter. If you want to capture the key stroke immediately, you need something like _Getch() from this answer.

import time
from threading import Thread, Event


def read_input(q_entered_event):
    c = input()
    if c == "q":
        print("User entered q")
        q_entered_event.set()


def do_long_running_stuff():
    q_pressed_event = Event()
    input_thread = Thread(target=read_input,
                          daemon=True,
                          args=(q_pressed_event,))
    input_thread.start()
    while True:
        print("I am working ...")
        time.sleep(1)
        if q_pressed_event.is_set():
            break
    
    print("Process stopped by user.")


if __name__  == "__main__":
    do_long_running_stuff()

from time import sleep
from threading import Thread
import threading

stop_flag = 0
    
    def Wait_Char():
        global stop_flag
        v = input("Enter Char")
        if(v == "z"):
            stop_flag = 1
    
    
    def h():
        while(True):
            print("Hello Feto")
            time.sleep(1)
            if(stop_flag == 1):
                break
    
    
    thread1 = Thread(target=Wait_Char)
    thread2 = Thread(target=h)
    thread1.start()
    thread2.start()
    print("threads finished...exiting")

This isn’t the best way but it can do the job you want,
Running 2 Threads one waiting for the Key you want to stop the loop with
(Wait_Char Method)
and one for loop
(H Method)
And both see a global variable stop_flag which control the stoping process
Stop when I press z

from pynput import keyboard

def on_press(key):
    if key == keyboard.Key.esc:
        return False

i = 0
with keyboard.Listener(on_press=on_press) as listener:
    # Your infinite loop
    while listener.running:
        print(i)
        i=i+1
print("Done")

It works …