INPUT AND OUTPUT STATEMENTS
Sometimes, a program needs to interact with the user to receive data which is processed to give the desired output. In Python, the input () function prompts the user to enter data. It accepts all user input as string. The user may enter a number or a string but the input () function treats them as strings only. The syntax for input statement is: input ([Prompt]) Prompt is the string we may like to display on the screen prior to taking input, and it is optional. When a prompt is specified, first it is displayed on the screen after which the user can enter data. The input() takes exactly what is typed from the keyboard, converts it into a string and assigns it to the variable on left-hand side of the assignment operator (=). Entering data for the input function is terminated by pressing the enter key.
Python uses the print () function to output data to standard output device — the screen. More about function will be covered in Chapter 12. The function print () evaluates the expression before displaying it on the screen. The print () outputs a complete line and then moves to the next line for subsequent output. The syntax for print () is: print (value [, ..., sep = ' ', end = '\n']) sep: The optional parameter sep is a separator between the output values. We can use a character, integer or a string as a separator. The default separator is space. end: This is also optional and it allows us to specify any string to be appended after the last value. The default is a new line.
