# Getting user input and commenting

Hey guys, welcome back to the Python basics tutorial! Now I'm gonna tell you how to get input from the user.\
\
Let's say you're trying to make a simple "hello" program.

```python
name = 'Mark'
print('Hi, ' + name)
```

Right? But the user won't be able to edit the variables themselves, so you need a way of getting input from them.\
Luckily, Python has a really simple way of doing this:

```python
name = input('Enter your name: ')
print('Hi, ' + name)
```

Easy, right? Now run the program, the `>>>` prompt will disappear and you'll see a new prompt "Enter your name: ". Enter your name there and press Enter. You should see 'Hi, {your name}' appear.

{% hint style="info" %}
Values returned by `input` are always strings.
{% endhint %}

To make an adder:

```python
a = int(input('Enter the first number: '))
b = int(input('Enter the second number: '))
print(a + b)
```

Run it and enter the values, and you'll see the sum of them printed.

{% hint style="info" %}
We use `int()` to convert the inputs to integers to get the expected result as shown in the previous chapter.
{% endhint %}

## Commenting

Let's say you have a really complicated program. You need to explain it to someone. How do you do this? You can't just

```python
The following line prints the value of a.
print(a)
```

Since "The following line prints the value of a." is not valid Python code, it will cause a `SyntaxError`. To explain code you use comments which start with a # and are ignored:

```python
# Print the value of a
print(a)
```

Easy! To make multi-line comments or "docstrings" use triple quotes:

```python
"""
This is a multi line comment also know as a docstring
"""
# This is a regular comment.
print('Hello')
```

From now on, I'll be using comments to show the output of the code too.

## Homework

Get the user's name and age, add them together to make a single string and print it out.