Input Function

What is input()?

The input() function lets you take information from the user.

For example:

name = input("Enter your name: ")
print("Hello", name)

When you run this code, you’ll see:

Enter your name:

If you enter:

John

You’ll get:

Hello John

Here’s what happens:

• input() displays "Enter your name: ".
• The user enters their name.
• Python stores the input in the name variable.
• print() displays the greeting.

input() Always Returns String

There’s one important thing to remember: input() always gives you the user’s input as a string.

For example:

age = input("Enter your age: ")

Even if you enter 27, Python treats 27 as a string, not as a number.

You can check this using type():

age = input("Enter your age: ")
 
print(type(age))
 
# Output:
 
# <class 'str'>

Now, what if you actually want to use the input as a number?

Converting Input to a Number

You can convert the string into a number using int().

age = int(input("Enter your age: "))
 
print(age)
print(type(age))
 
# Output:
# 27
# <class 'int'>

Here, int() converts the string "27" into the number 27.

What if the user enters something that can’t be converted to a number?

Python raises a ValueError.

age = int(input("Enter your age: "))
 
# If you type "abc", Python raises a ValueError

You can also use float() when you need a decimal number:

price = float(input("Enter the price: "))
 
print(price)
print(type(price))
 
# If you enter 99, the output is:
# 99.0
# <class 'float'>

Now, let’s combine what we’ve learned so far:

name = input("What's your name? ")
age = int(input("How old are you? "))
 
print("Hello", name)
print("You are", age, "years old.")
 
# Output:
# Hello John
# You are 27 years old.

Now our program can actually interact with the user.

👉 Next tutorial: Python Strings