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Input

🟨🐍 Technique Card: Getting Input From the User in Python (practical)

🌟 What You’ll Learn

How to ask the user questions in your Python program and use their answers in creative ways. You'll also learn how to turn the input into numbers when needed.

🧑‍💻 Why Is This Useful?

Sometimes you want your program to feel interactive, like:

  • “What’s your name?”
  • “How old are you?”
  • “Pick a number between 1 and 10!”

Using input() lets your program talk to the user and get answers back.

🧪 Try It Out: Basic Input

name = input("What is your name? ")
print("Hello, " + name + "!")

✅ This asks the user for their name and then says hello.

🧠 Remember: input() always gives you a string

That means even if you type a number, Python thinks it's text.

age = input("How old are you? ")
print(age + 5)  # ⚠️ This gives an error!

🔧 Converting Input to a Number

If you want to use numbers (like adding or comparing), you’ll need to cast the string to a number using int() or float().

age = int(input("How old are you? "))
print("Next year, you'll be", age + 1)

Here’s what happens:

  • input() asks the question
  • int(...) changes the answer from text to a number

You could also use:

age = input("How old are you? ")
age = int(age)
print("Next year, you'll be ", age + 1)

🧪 Try This Challenge

number = int(input("Pick a number: "))
print("Double your number is", number * 2)

🎒 You Might Need This Too

Sometimes you want a number with decimals, not just whole numbers. Use float() instead:

temperature = float(input("What’s the temperature today? "))
print("Tomorrow might be", temperature + 1.5)

⚠️ Be Careful!

If the user types something that isn’t a number, Python will give an error!
You’ll learn how to fix that with error handling in other technique cards.

💡 Top Tips

  • Always use input() for asking questions.
  • Remember: It gives back a string (text), even if it looks like a number.
  • Use int() for whole numbers, float() for decimal numbers.
  • Put input() inside the brackets of int() or float() when needed.

Watch the video