Reading and printing an integer in MIPS assembly language

Question

My program is supposed to read an integer and print it back to the user, but every time it just prints 268501230, no matter what is entered. How can I fix it?

.data
prompt2: .asciiz "Please enter value: "
array1:  .space 40
array2:  .space 40
buffer:  .space 4
.text

main:

# Prints the prompt2 string
li $v0, 4
la $a0, prompt2
syscall

# Reads one integer from user and saves in t0
li $v0, 5
la $t0, buffer
syscall

li $v0, 1
li $t0, 5       # $integer to print
syscall

exitProgram:    li $v0, 10  # System call to terminate
    syscall                 # the program

Answer 1

This is how I will write a program to get an integer input and to print it out

.data

     text:  .asciiz "Enter a number: "

.text

 main:
    # Printing out the text
    li $v0, 4
    la $a0, text
    syscall

    # Getting user input
    li $v0, 5
    syscall

    # Moving the integer input to another register
    move $t0, $v0

    # Printing out the number
    li $v0, 1
    move $a0, $t0
    syscall

    # End Program
    li $v0, 10
    syscall

Answer 2

#reads one integer from user and saves in t0
li $v0, 5
la $t0, buffer
syscall

That's not how syscall 5 works. The integer is returned in $v0, so the code ought to be something like:

li $v0,5
syscall
move $t0,$v0

---

li $v0, 1       
li $t0, 5       # $integer to print
syscall 

You're using the wrong register here as well. The integer to print should go into $a0, not $t0.

Here's a list of syscalls and the registers they use.