Input wont accept anything except numbers

Question

Input function is only accepting integers as an input otherwise I receive this error message when I run using REPL in python 3:

Entry:
b
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Ex7.5.py", line 1, in <module>
    a = input("Entry:\n")
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'b' is not defined

Need my code to accept both letters and numbers as input and cant understand why it's not taking b as a string and printing it?

Literally just trying to get this print input function to work currently to then use later in other functions.

If I run the same code with integers only it works no problem.

a = input("Entry:\n")
print(a)
print(type(a))

The answer I'm expecting is b.

Doesn't seem to have anything wrong with your code, it has your expected behavior when I run it here. Which version of python are you using? You can see that with command `python --version`. — Telmo Trooper, Aug 30 '19 at 19:59
I'm using python 3 in Sublime but if I enter it into the Terminal (mac) I get python 2.7? raw_input I tried also but also didn't work (imagine because Sublime is running Python 3) — Luke Hansford, Aug 30 '19 at 20:02
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python: can't open file 'Ex7.5.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory is the error message? — Luke Hansford, Aug 30 '19 at 20:04
Can you `cd PATH_TO_FOLDER` and then run that command and see if it works? The error you showed me says there's not `Ex7.5.py` file in the directory where you ran the command. — Telmo Trooper, Aug 30 '19 at 20:05
So the error you describe in the question has to do with the fact that you're running your code in Python 2 instead of Python 3. Your other exception in the comments is about not running the program correctly when you try to use Python 3 explicitly. — Blckknght, Aug 30 '19 at 20:06
have you tried just saving this and running the python code outside of sublime. Maybe sublime is your issue rather then python. As others says your code works — Chris Doyle, Aug 30 '19 at 20:08
The code works outside of Sublime yes, thankyou. I would really like to fix why it's not working in Sublime however! When trying to cd PATH_TO_FOLDER it gives "No such file or directory". I think its maybe to do with where the saved file is? Or maybe I have an environment set up by accident? Any advice? — Luke Hansford, Aug 30 '19 at 20:14
Possible duplicate of [input() error - NameError: name '...' is not defined](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21122540/input-error-nameerror-name-is-not-defined), including, oddly enough, the part where Python 2 is unexpectedly in use. — Davis Herring, Aug 31 '19 at 00:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '19 at 20:25

This error is occurring because you're running the code in Python 2, not Python 3. input() in Python 2 will evaluate what you give it, in this case as a variable name, which doesn't exist; while input() in Python 3 will keep it as a string. For more details see What's the difference between raw_input() and input() in python3.x?

How to use the correct Python version is another question, but it looks like you're making some progress in the comments so far.

Input wont accept anything except numbers

1 Answers1