Digital Inputs

Syntax#

pinMode(pin, pinMode) // Sets the pin to the mode defined.
digitalRead(pin); // Reads the value from a specified digital pin,

Parameters#

Paramter	Details
pinmode	Should be set to `INPUT` or `INPUT_PULLUP`

Remarks#

If the input pin is not pulled LOW or HIGH, the value will float. That is, it won’t be clearly a 1 or a 0, but somewhere in between. For digital input, a pullup or pulldown resistor is a necessity.

Pushbutton reading

This is an basic example on how to wire up and make an LED turn on/off when the pushbutton is pressed.

pushbutton

/* Basic Digital Read
 * ------------------ 
 *
 * turns on and off a light emitting diode(LED) connected to digital  
 * pin 13, when pressing a pushbutton attached to pin 7. It illustrates the
 * concept of Active-Low, which consists in connecting buttons using a
 * 1K to 10K pull-up resistor.
 *
 * Created 1 December 2005
 * copyleft 2005 DojoDave <https://www.0j0.org>
 * https://arduino.berlios.de
 *
 */

int ledPin = 13; // choose the pin for the LED
int inPin = 7;   // choose the input pin (for a pushbutton)
int val = 0;     // variable for reading the pin status

void setup() {
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);  // declare LED as output
  pinMode(inPin, INPUT);    // declare pushbutton as input
}

void loop(){
  val = digitalRead(inPin);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {         // check if the input is HIGH (button released)
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);  // turn LED OFF
  } else {
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);  // turn LED ON
  }
}

Example taken from Arduino.cc.