Serial read to a string

Projects Programming
1

Hi,

Im trying to send a word to my arduino perform an action based on that word.
is there any way I can use "Serial.read()" into a string?

2

Not directly. Personally, I'd avoid using String because of the variable memory usage and memory fragmentation that it causes. Since you know what words you are expecting, you can use a fixed length buffer to read the serial data into, taking care not to let the buffer overflow if you receive unrecognised data.

3

Simple code to capture characters sent from the serial monitor into a string.

// zoomkat 7-30-11 serial I/O string test
// type a string in serial monitor. then send or enter
// for IDE 0019 and later

String readString;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("serial test 0021"); // so I can keep track of what is loaded
}

void loop() {

  while (Serial.available()) {
    delay(1);  //delay to allow byte to arrive in input buffer
    char c = Serial.read();
    readString += c;
  }

  if (readString.length() >0) {
    Serial.println(readString);

    readString="";
  } 
}