Dead simple python function for getting a yes or no answer.

yesOrNo.py

def yes_or_no(question):
    reply = str(raw_input(question+' (y/n): ')).lower().strip()
    if reply[0] == 'y':
        return True
    if reply[0] == 'n':
        return False
    else:
        return yes_or_no("Uhhhh... please enter ")

#!/usr/bin/python3
def confirm_prompt(question: str) -> bool:
    reply = None
    while reply not in ("y", "n"):
        reply = input(f"{question} (y/n): ").lower()
    return (reply == "y")


reply = confirm_prompt("Are you sure?")
print(reply)

Edit: added keyword argument to set either yes or no by default

#!/usr/bin/python3
def prompt(question: str, default=None) -> bool:
    choices = ("", "y", "n") if default in ("yes", "no") else ("y", "n")
    hint = "Y/n" if default == "yes" else "y/n"
    hint = "y/N" if default == "no" else hint
    reply = None

    while reply not in choices:
        reply = input(f"{question} ({hint}): ").lower()
    return (reply == "y") if default != "yes" else (reply in ("", "y"))


reply = prompt("Are you sure?")
print(reply, "\n")

reply = prompt("Are you sure?", default="yes")
print(reply, "\n")

reply = prompt("Are you sure?", default="no")
print(reply, "\n")

I agree :)

@gyoza necrothreading this just to kudos you on the fact that you quoted Meatloaf

Stop using raw_input, that's Python 2.

How would I add an --yes or -y parser arg to @icamys solution?
first
parser.add_argument("--yes", "-y", help="Always accept")
and then what? :D sorry I am really new to python

maybe something like:

def confirm(question, default_no=True):
    choices = ' [y/N]: ' if default_no else ' [Y/n]: '
    default_answer = 'n' if default_no else 'y'
    reply = str(input(question + choices)).lower().strip() or default_answer
    if reply[0] == 'y':
        return True
    if reply[0] == 'n':
        return False
    if args.yes:
        default_answer='y'
    else:
        return False if default_no else True

but that doesnt work

@willbelr, Thank you for this beautiful & elegant solution! I modified with casefold (in Python3) but am otherwise using as-is in a few scripts, and it works great!

def confirm_prompt(question: str) -> bool:
    reply = None
    while reply not in ("y", "n"):
        reply = input(f"{question} (y/n): ").casefold()
    return (reply == "y")


reply = confirm_prompt("Are you sure?")
print(reply)

My version using simple recursion:

def user_confirm(question: str) -> bool:
    reply = str(input(question + ' (y/n): ')).lower().strip()
    if reply[0] == 'y':
        return True
    elif reply[0] == 'n':
        return False
    else:
        new_question = question
        if "Please try again - " not in question:
            new_question = f"Please try again - {question}"
        return user_confirm(new_question)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(user_confirm("Do you love me?"))

I prefer this approach:

def yes_or_no_prompt(question:str,default_yes=True)->bool:

    inputMapping={
        'y':'y',
        "υ":'y',
        "Υ":'y',
        'n':'n',
        'ν':'n',
        'N':'n'
    }

    question = question.strip()

    if question == "":
        raise ValueError(f"Question is an empty string")

    default ='n'
    prompt_choice="(y/N)"
    if default_yes:
        default='y'
        prompt_choice="(Y/n)"

    reply = str(input(f"{question} {prompt_choice}: ")).lower().strip()
    reply = reply[0] or default
    reply = inputMapping[reply]

    if reply not in ['y','n']:
        raise ValueError(f'Invalid input for reply given {reply} instead of Y or N')

    return reply=='y'
 
 
 # Usage Example
 if __name__ == "__main__":

   while True:
     try:
        if yes_or_no_prompt("Are roses red?"):
           print("Correct")
        else:
           print("Nope")
        exit(0)
     except ValueError:
          print("I made a Boo Boo mommy")

The reason why is because I split whether I'll re-ask the question into another point whereas the value sanitization and checking is performed upon the function itself. Furthermore I set the default value as well. Furthermore I map any Greek Input given from user intop its respective English one in case keyboard layout is a non-English one.