Asking the User for Confirmation

Suppose you want to confirm an action before actually executing it. Add the following to your command:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\ConfirmationQuestion;
// ...

$helper = $this->getHelper('question');
$question = new ConfirmationQuestion('Continue with this action?', false);

if (!$helper->ask($input, $output, $question)) {
    return;
}

In this case, the user will be asked "Continue with this action?". If the user answers with y it returns true or false if they answer with n. The second argument to __construct() is the default value to return if the user doesn't enter any valid input. If the second argument is not provided, true is assumed.

Asking the User for Information

You can also ask a question with more than a simple yes/no answer. For instance, if you want to know a bundle name, you can add this to your command:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\Question;
// ...

$question = new Question('Please enter the name of the bundle', 'AcmeDemoBundle');

$bundle = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);

The user will be asked "Please enter the name of the bundle". They can type some name which will be returned by the ask() method. If they leave it empty, the default value (AcmeDemoBundle here) is returned.

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\ChoiceQuestion;
// ...

$helper = $this->getHelper('question');
$question = new ChoiceQuestion(
    'Please select your favorite color (defaults to red)',
    array('red', 'blue', 'yellow'),
    0
);
$question->setErrorMessage('Color %s is invalid.');

$color = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);
$output->writeln('You have just selected: '.$color);

// ... do something with the color

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\ChoiceQuestion;
// ...

$helper = $this->getHelper('question');
$question = new ChoiceQuestion(
    'Please select your favorite colors (defaults to red and blue)',
    array('red', 'blue', 'yellow'),
    '0,1'
);
$question->setMultiselect(true);

$colors = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);
$output->writeln('You have just selected: ' . implode(', ', $colors));

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\Question;
// ...

$bundles = array('AcmeDemoBundle', 'AcmeBlogBundle', 'AcmeStoreBundle');
$question = new Question('Please enter the name of a bundle', 'FooBundle');
$question->setAutocompleterValues($bundles);

$name = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\Question;
// ...

$question = new Question('What is the database password?');
$question->setHidden(true);
$question->setHiddenFallback(false);

$password = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);

Validating the Answer

You can even validate the answer. For instance, in a previous example you asked for the bundle name. Following the Symfony naming conventions, it should be suffixed with Bundle. You can validate that by using the setValidator() method:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\Question;
// ...

$question = new Question('Please enter the name of the bundle', 'AcmeDemoBundle');
$question->setValidator(function ($answer) {
    if ('Bundle' !== substr($answer, -6)) {
        throw new \RuntimeException(
            'The name of the bundle should be suffixed with \'Bundle\''
        );
    }
    return $answer;
});
$question->setMaxAttempts(2);

$name = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);

The $validator is a callback which handles the validation. It should throw an exception if there is something wrong. The exception message is displayed in the console, so it is a good practice to put some useful information in it. The callback function should also return the value of the user's input if the validation was successful.

You can set the max number of times to ask with the setMaxAttempts() method. If you reach this max number it will use the default value. Using null means the amount of attempts is infinite. The user will be asked as long as they provide an invalid answer and will only be able to proceed if their input is valid.

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Question\Question;
// ...

$helper = $this->getHelper('question');

$question = new Question('Please enter your password');
$question->setValidator(function ($value) {
    if (trim($value) == '') {
        throw new \Exception('The password can not be empty');
    }

    return $value;
});
$question->setHidden(true);
$question->setMaxAttempts(20);

$password = $helper->ask($input, $output, $question);

Testing a Command that Expects Input

If you want to write a unit test for a command which expects some kind of input from the command line, you need to set the helper input stream:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\QuestionHelper;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\HelperSet;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Tester\CommandTester;

// ...
public function testExecute()
{
    // ...
    $commandTester = new CommandTester($command);

    $helper = $command->getHelper('question');
    $helper->setInputStream($this->getInputStream('Test\\n'));
    // Equals to a user inputting "Test" and hitting ENTER
    // If you need to enter a confirmation, "yes\n" will work

    $commandTester->execute(array('command' => $command->getName()));

    // $this->assertRegExp('/.../', $commandTester->getDisplay());
}

protected function getInputStream($input)
{
    $stream = fopen('php://memory', 'r+', false);
    fputs($stream, $input);
    rewind($stream);

    return $stream;
}

By setting the input stream of the QuestionHelper, you imitate what the console would do internally with all user input through the cli. This way you can test any user interaction (even complex ones) by passing an appropriate input stream.