How to prompt for function use be used within a function?

Question

Consider the following example function

(defun simple-function ()
  (dotimes (counter 10)
           (input-function)))

This requires input-function to be hard coded within the definition of simple-function. How can I have simple-function prompt the user for the function that they would want to use in place of input-function?

Answer 1

One way is to use an interactive code to prompt you for the function.

(defun  simple-function (input-function)
  (interactive "aInput function: ")
  (dotimes (counter 10)
    (funcall input-function)))

then you can write your own input like this perhaps, even using the counter variable from your loop.

(defun myfunc ()
  (message "%s: %s" counter
       (read-string "string: ")))

To use these, type M-x simple-function then you should be prompted for a function name. type myfunc, and press Enter (RET), and it should prompt you 10 times for a string.