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Anubhav Kumar

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The Anubhav portal was launched in March 2015 at the behest of the Hon'ble Prime Minister for retiring government officials to leave a record of their experiences while in Govt service .

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1 Answers

Jk Malhotra

Jk Malhotra

22-Oct-2025

1. What Is User Input?

User input means data entered by the user while a Python program is running.
It’s a way for the program to interact dynamically with the user — instead of using fixed (hardcoded) values.

Example use cases:

  • Asking the user for their name or age
  • Accepting choices (like menu options)
  • Reading numbers or text to process

2. The input() Function

In Python, you can take user input using the built-in input() function.

Syntax:

variable = input("Your message here: ")

The message inside the parentheses ("Your message here: ") is displayed on the screen.

Whatever the user types is captured as a string (text).

Example:

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

Output:

Enter your name: Anna
Hello, Anna

3. All Input Is a String

Even if the user types a number, Python reads it as a string by default.

Example:

age = input("Enter your age: ")
print(type(age))

Output:

<class 'str'>

4. Converting Input to Numbers

If you want to perform calculations, you must convert the string to a number.

Convert to integer (int)

age = int(input("Enter your age: "))
print("Next year you’ll be", age + 1)

Convert to float (float)

price = float(input("Enter the price: "))
print("Total after tax:", price * 1.18)

5. Example — Simple Calculator

a = float(input("Enter first number: "))
b = float(input("Enter second number: "))

sum = a + b
print("The sum is:", sum)

Output:

Enter first number: 5.2
Enter second number: 3.8
The sum is: 9.0

6. Using input() with Multiple Values

You can take multiple inputs in one line and split them.

Example:

x, y = input("Enter two numbers separated by space: ").split()
x = int(x)
y = int(y)
print("Sum =", x + y)

Output:

Enter two numbers separated by space: 10 20
Sum = 30

7. Prompt Customization and Formatting

You can make your prompt more readable using string format type:

username = input("Enter your username: ")
password = input("Enter your password: ")
print(f"Welcome, {username}!")

8. Common Mistakes

Mistake Problem
num = input() then print(num + 5) TypeError (string + int)
Forgetting to convert to int() Math won’t work
Using eval(input()) Dangerous! Can execute code entered by user

Summary

Task Code
Read text name = input("Enter your name: ")
Read integer age = int(input("Enter age: "))
Read float price = float(input("Enter price: "))
Multiple values a, b = input().split()
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