In this article, we would discuss input() function in Python v3.9. input() function, a built-in Python function, helps us get input from the user.
By default, input() function reads the input as string unless otherwise instructed. Here, we would discuss how a user can input integer, float and string values with the help of input() function.
input() function – get string input
If we want to obtain a string input from the user. Then,
#Program to get string input from the user
x=input("Enter your Name: ")
print(x)
We have asked the user to input his/her name with a prompt and have stored the input in variable x. Then, we print the name using print() function.
Output –
Enter your Name: XYz XYz
We would like to add more, a user can also provide numerical input to the above code. And, that would work perfect. The input() function would read the numerical input as a string. And, we won’t be able to perform any arithmetic operation on it. We illustrate it with following code –
#Concatenation
x=input("Enter your first name: ")
y=input("Enter your surname: ")
print(x+y)
We have deliberately put in numerical input i.e. first name — 34 and surname — 65.
Output –
Enter your first name: 34 Enter your surname: 65 3465
The output is self-explanatory. It just reads + as concatenation operator and joins both the strings.
For arithmetic operations we would have do more along with input() function.
input() function – get integer input
To ask a user for integer input, typecast the variable using int() function. For instance –
#Program to get integer input from the user
x=int(input("Enter first number: "))
y=int(input("Enter second number: "))
print(x+y)
Output –
Enter first number: 34 Enter second number: 65 99
Herein, concatenation didn’t happen. The interpreter already knows that we would be storing integer input in our variables x and y. So, it did an arithmetic operation on it.
input() function – get float input
Similarly, for a float input – typecast the variable using float() function. For instance –
#Program to get float input from the user
x=float(input("Enter first number: "))
y=float(input("Enter second number: "))
print(x+y)
Output –
Enter first number: 34.45 Enter second number: 65 99.45
It is worth mentioning here that, a user can provide integer input on a float() function. But, float input while using int() function doesn’t work.
In conclusion, here we discussed how to get string, integer and float input from the user using input() function in Python.
