How do I read user input and print output in Python?

Short answer

Use input() to read a line of text from the user and print() to display output. By default, input() returns a string, so convert it when you need numbers.

Steps

1. Prompt the user with input("Prompt: ").
2. Convert the result if needed (e.g., int(), float()).
3. Display results with print().

name = input("Enter your name: ")
age = int(input("Enter your age: "))
print("Hello,", name)
print(f"Next year you will be {age + 1} years old.")

Tips

• print() accepts multiple arguments separated by commas and adds a space between them.
• Use the sep and end parameters to customize spacing and line endings.
• f-strings (formatted string literals) are the cleanest way to embed expressions inside strings.

# Customizing print
print("Loading", "dots", sep=".", end="

")

# f-strings
value = 3.14159
print(f"Pi rounded: {value:.2f}")

Common issues

• Forgetting to convert input() results to numbers before math operations causes a TypeError.
• input() always blocks execution until the user presses Enter, which can be problematic in GUI or async contexts.
• Extra whitespace from user input can be stripped with .strip().