10/25/2018 Python Variable Types

PYTHON - VARIABLE TYPES

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Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store values. This means that when you create a variable
you reserve some space in memory.

Based on the data type of a variable, the interpreter allocates memory and decides what can be stored in the
reserved memory. Therefore, by assigning different data types to variables, you can store integers, decimals or
characters in these variables.

Assigning Values to Variables

Python variables do not need explicit declaration to reserve memory space. The declaration happens
automatically when you assign a value to a variable. The equal sign [Math Processing Error] is used to assign
values to variables.

The operand to the left of the = operator is the name of the variable and the operand to the right of the = operator
is the value stored in the variable. For example −

Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

counter = 100 # An integer assignment

miles = 1000.0 # A floating point
name = "John" # A string

print counter
print miles
print name

Here, 100, 1000.0 and "John" are the values assigned to counter, miles, and name variables, respectively. This
produces the following result −

100
1000.0
John

Multiple Assignment
Python allows you to assign a single value to several variables simultaneously. For example −

a = b = c = 1

Here, an integer object is created with the value 1, and all three variables are assigned to the same memory
location. You can also assign multiple objects to multiple variables. For example −

a,b,c = 1,2,"john"

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Here, two integer objects with values 1 and 2 are assigned to variables a and b respectively, and one string object
with the value "john" is assigned to the variable c.

Standard Data Types

The data stored in memory can be of many types. For example, a person's age is stored as a numeric value and his
or her address is stored as alphanumeric characters. Python has various standard data types that are used to
define the operations possible on them and the storage method for each of them.

Python has five standard data types −

Numbers
String
List
Tuple
Dictionary

Python Numbers
Number data types store numeric values. Number objects are created when you assign a value to them. For
example −

var1 = 1
var2 = 10

You can also delete the reference to a number object by using the del statement. The syntax of the del statement is
−

del var1[,var2[,var3[....,varN]]]]

You can delete a single object or multiple objects by using the del statement. For example −

del var
del var_a, var_b

Python supports four different numerical types −

int [Math Processing Error]

long [Math Processing Error]
float [Math Processing Error]
complex [Math Processing Error]

Examples

Here are some examples of numbers −

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int long float complex

10 51924361L 0.0 3.14j

100 -0x19323L 15.20 45.j

-786 0122L -21.9 9.322e-36j

080 0xDEFABCECBDAECBFBAEl 32.3+e18 .876j

-0490 535633629843L -90. -.6545+0J

-0x260 -052318172735L -32.54e100 3e+26J

0x69 -4721885298529L 70.2-E12 4.53e-7j

Python allows you to use a lowercase l with long, but it is recommended that you use only an uppercase L to
avoid confusion with the number 1. Python displays long integers with an uppercase L.

A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating-point numbers denoted by x + yj, where x
and y are the real numbers and j is the imaginary unit.

Python Strings
Strings in Python are identified as a contiguous set of characters represented in the quotation marks. Python
allows for either pairs of single or double quotes. Subsets of strings can be taken using the slice operator [Math
Processing Error] with indexes starting at 0 in the beginning of the string and working their way from -1 at the
end.

The plus [Math Processing Error] sign is the string concatenation operator and the asterisk [Math Processing
Error] is the repetition operator. For example −

Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

str = 'Hello World!'

print str # Prints complete string

print str[0] # Prints first character of the string
print str[2:5] # Prints characters starting from 3rd to 5th
print str[2:] # Prints string starting from 3rd character
print str * 2 # Prints string two times
print str + "TEST" # Prints concatenated string

This will produce the following result −

Hello World!
H
llo
llo World!

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Hello World!Hello World!

Hello World!TEST

Python Lists
Lists are the most versatile of Python's compound data types. A list contains items separated by commas and
enclosed within square brackets [Math Processing Error]. To some extent, lists are similar to arrays in C. One
difference between them is that all the items belonging to a list can be of different data type.

The values stored in a list can be accessed using the slice operator [Math Processing Error] with indexes starting
at 0 in the beginning of the list and working their way to end -1. The plus [Math Processing Error] sign is the list
concatenation operator, and the asterisk [Math Processing Error] is the repetition operator. For example −

Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

tinylist = [123, 'john']

print list # Prints complete list

print list[0] # Prints first element of the list
print list[1:3] # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd
print list[2:] # Prints elements starting from 3rd element
print tinylist * 2 # Prints list two times
print list + tinylist # Prints concatenated lists

This produce the following result −

['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2]

abcd
[786, 2.23]
[2.23, 'john', 70.2]
[123, 'john', 123, 'john']
['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2, 123, 'john']

Python Tuples
A tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to the list. A tuple consists of a number of values separated by
commas. Unlike lists, however, tuples are enclosed within parentheses.

The main differences between lists and tuples are: Lists are enclosed in brackets [Math Processing Error] and
their elements and size can be changed, while tuples are enclosed in parentheses [Math Processing Error] ) and
cannot be updated. Tuples can be thought of as read-only lists. For example −

Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

tinytuple = (123, 'john')

print tuple # Prints complete list

print tuple[0] # Prints first element of the list
print tuple[1:3] # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd
print tuple[2:] # Prints elements starting from 3rd element

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print tinytuple * 2 # Prints list two times

print tuple + tinytuple # Prints concatenated lists

This produce the following result −

('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2)

abcd
(786, 2.23)
(2.23, 'john', 70.2)
(123, 'john', 123, 'john')
('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2, 123, 'john')

The following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple, which is not allowed. Similar
case is possible with lists −

#!/usr/bin/python

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]
tuple[2] = 1000 # Invalid syntax with tuple
list[2] = 1000 # Valid syntax with list

Python Dictionary
Python's dictionaries are kind of hash table type. They work like associative arrays or hashes found in Perl and
consist of key-value pairs. A dictionary key can be almost any Python type, but are usually numbers or strings.
Values, on the other hand, can be any arbitrary Python object.

Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces [Math Processing Error] and values can be assigned and accessed using
square braces [Math Processing Error]. For example −

Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {}
dict['one'] = "This is one"
dict[2] = "This is two"

tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}

print dict['one'] # Prints value for 'one' key

print dict[2] # Prints value for 2 key
print tinydict # Prints complete dictionary
print [Link]() # Prints all the keys
print [Link]() # Prints all the values

This produce the following result −

This is one
This is two
{'dept': 'sales', 'code': 6734, 'name': 'john'}
['dept', 'code', 'name']
['sales', 6734, 'john']

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Dictionaries have no concept of order among elements. It is incorrect to say that the elements are "out of order";
they are simply unordered.

Data Type Conversion

Sometimes, you may need to perform conversions between the built-in types. To convert between types, you
simply use the type name as a function.

There are several built-in functions to perform conversion from one data type to another. These functions return a
new object representing the converted value.

[Link]. Function & Description

1
int[Math Processing Error]

Converts x to an integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.

2
long[Math Processing Error]

Converts x to a long integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.

3
float[Math Processing Error]

Converts x to a floating-point number.

4
complex[Math Processing Error]

Creates a complex number.

5
str[Math Processing Error]

Converts object x to a string representation.

6
repr[Math Processing Error]

Converts object x to an expression string.

7
eval[Math Processing Error]

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Evaluates a string and returns an object.

8
tuple[Math Processing Error]

Converts s to a tuple.

9
list[Math Processing Error]

Converts s to a list.

10
set[Math Processing Error]

Converts s to a set.

11
dict[Math Processing Error]

Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of [Math Processing Error] tuples.

12
frozenset[Math Processing Error]

Converts s to a frozen set.

13
chr[Math Processing Error]

Converts an integer to a character.

14
unichr[Math Processing Error]

Converts an integer to a Unicode character.

15
ord[Math Processing Error]

Converts a single character to its integer value.

16
hex[Math Processing Error]

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Converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.

17
oct[Math Processing Error]

Converts an integer to an octal string.

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