Reading from the Console

Now that we know the basics about variables, we can ask for input from the user. Use the following line to tell our program to wait until the user types something into the console. Then, the computer takes whatever is typed into the console, and stores it into the variable called value.

value = input()

Here’s and examples of how to use input() to accept user input:

print("What's your name?")
value = input()
print("Hello " + value + "!")

Give this a try! When you hit run, you’ll notice that the below image doesn’t appear on the console yet.

This is because the program is waiting for you to type something! Enter your name or ‘Nuvi’ into the console on the right, press Enter, and check that it prints out correctly.

Challenge

Let’s see if we can write a program that first prints the following two lines to console:

Welcome!
How can I help you today?

Afterwards, the console waits for user input. After the user types something in the console and presses Enter, the computer prints out:

You asked: [input]?
I don’t know the answer to [input]. Goodbye!

[input] should be replaced with whatever the user had typed into the console. For example, if you wanted to ask “How old am I?”, the computer will print out that it doesn’t know the answer to that.