INKEY$
======

Function
--------

**INKEY$** reads the keyboard and returns a single character if an input
is pending on the keyboard.

Syntax
------

A$ = INKEY$

Example
-------

::

   10 A$ = INKEY$
   20 IF A$ = "" THEN 40
   30 PRINT A$
   40 GOTO 10

Remarks
-------

If a key has not been pressed then a null string is returned. The ASCII
code of each key, including control codes, is read and assigned to the
one character string variable A$.

The characters entered into the program in this manner are not displayed
on the screen unless explicitly printed (line 30 in the example). One
application may be to insert a pause in a program before displaying
another screen of information:

::

   80 PRINT"last line of last screen"
   90 A$=INKEY$: IF A$="" then 90
   100 PRINT"First line of next screen"

If a function key is pressed then a two character string is returned
consisting of the character '^' and the number of the key pressed i.e.
Pressing Function Key 1 will return the string "^1" to an INKEY$
function.