How to read string using Serial.read outside of loop()? - arduino

Question

I want to read a String in Arduino from the keyboard outside of the loop() method.
I have the following method:
void readFromKeyboard(byte arrayAddress[])
{
int count = 0, i = 0;
while ((count = Serial.available()) == 0);
while (i<count)
{
arrayAddress[i++] = Serial.read();
}
}
In the loop() method I am calling it like:
readFromKeyboard(userInput);
where userInput is a byte[];
The problem is that when I input more than one characters it read the 1st character initially and it call the readFromKeyboard again an then reads the rest.
Example; if I input "asdf":
--the 1st time it will do ==> userInput = "a"
--the 2nd time it will do ==> userInput = "sdf"
I have tryed many things but the same happens again and again...
Any suggestions??

Answer 1

So that's what worked:
In the loop():
while(Serial.available() == 0);
delay(100);
readInputFlag = readFromKeyboard(userInput);`
And in the readFromKeyboard method:
void readFromKeyboard(byte arrayAddress[])
{
int i = 0;
while (Serial.available() > 0)
{
arrayAddress[i++] = Serial.read();
}
}
This delay, in the loop method, somehow makes the Serial get the whole string instead of just the first letter.

Answer 2

I know you got it working, but I wanted to show you something that I use to deal with this issue. This is a two-tiered delay system for catching bytes that come in a bit late for whatever reason. It's designed to minimize the delay needed to accomplish that task.
int received_length = 0;
byte serial_incoming_buffer[200];
while(Serial.available()) {
serial_incoming_buffer[received_length++] = Serial.read();
if(!Serial.available()) {
delay(3);
if(!Serial.available()) {
delay(20);
}
}
}
Sometimes the Arduino falls behind in picking up serial from the sender and sometimes it grabs serial too fast. Sometimes the sender lags a little bit. This code will wait 3 ms for more bytes, and if they come in it goes back to receiving as many as are available having only had that very brief delay. This repeats as necessary, then when 3 ms goes by without anything being available, it waits a bit longer (20 ms here) for more bytes. If nothing comes in after the long delay, then the transmission is most likely done and you can safely move on.
I recommend tweaking the delays based on your baud rate.