Getting input from the user

So far you have only been using print to output text; your program currently lacks the ability to interact with the user.

In this section you will be using input to prompt the user to enter some data.

input will put a message on the screen, wait for the user to give a response and press Enter, and then store the response as text in a variable so you can use it in your program.

print and input are examples of functions. Functions are pre-made programs which are typically created to perform a single task. Python has many inbuilt functions allowing you to perform a large range of tasks.

• Add the following code to the bottom of your program to use input to capture the user’s name and store it in a variable.

users_name = input("What is your name? ")

Breaking down this line of code you can see what each element does:

• users_name = creates a variable called users_name and assigns it a value
• input() uses the function input to display a prompt and capture the user’s response
• "What is your name? " – the value between the () – is the prompt which will be output to the screen

Now the text the user entered is stored in an variable (users_name) you can use the data in your program.

• Lets use print to output the user’s name.

print(users_name)

• Improve the output by adding some text to the start and end of the message.

print("Hello " + users_name + ", welcome.")

• Grab a friend, run your program and ask them to input their name.

Note: you should enter your name in the REPL after the “What is your name?” prompt and press Enter when you have done so.