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Python Notes - Module I

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Elective Papers - CS6PET01: Python and LateX

Module I - Introduction to Python

The Python Programming Language, Variables, Basic expressions and statements,
Arithmetic Operators, Data types - Type conversion, Numbers, Floats, String
operations
___________________________________________________________________
Features of Python
• Python is a high level language. It is a free and open source language.
• It is an interpreted language, as Python programs are executed by an interpreter.
• Python programs are easy to understand as they have a clearly defined syntax and relatively
simple structure.
• Python is case-sensitive. For example, NUMBER and number are not same in Python.
• Python is portable and platform independent, means it can run on various operating systems
and hardware platforms.
• Python has a rich library of predefined functions.
• Python is also helpful in web development. Many popular web services and applications are
built using Python.
• Python uses indentation for blocks and nested blocks.

Working with Python

To write and run (execute) a Python program, we need to have a Python interpreter installed
on our computer or we can use any online Python interpreter. The interpreter is also called
Python shell. A sample screen of Python interpreter is shown in Figure

Execution Modes
There are two ways to use the Python interpreter:
a) Interactive mode

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b) Script mode
Interactive mode allows execution of individual statement instantaneously. Whereas, Script
mode allows us to write more than one instruction in a file called Python source code file that
can be executed.
(a) Interactive Mode
To work in the interactive mode, we can simply type a Python statement on the >>> prompt
directly. As soon as we press enter, the interpreter executes the statement and displays the
result(s), as shown in Figure

Python interpreter in interactive mode

Working in the interactive mode is convenient for testing a single line code for instant
execution. But in the interactive mode, we cannot save the statements for future use and we
have to retype the statements to run them again.
(B) Script Mode
In the script mode, we can write a Python program in a file, save it and then use the interpreter
to execute it. Python scripts are saved as files where file name has extension “.py”. By default,
the Python scripts are saved in the Python installation folder. To execute a script, we can either:
a) Type the file name along with the path at the prompt. For example, if the name of the file is
prog5-1.py, we type prog5-1.py. We can otherwise open the program directly from IDLE as
shown in Figure

b) While working in the script mode, after saving the file, click [Run]->[Run Module] from the
menu as shown in Figure.

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PYTHON KEYWORDS
Keywords are reserved words. Each keyword has a specific meaning to the Python interpreter,
and we can use a keyword in our program only for the purpose for which it has been defined.
As Python is case sensitive, keywords must be written exactly as given below :

False class finally is return

None continue for lambda try
True def from nonlocal while
and del global not with
as elif if or yield
assert else import pass
break except in raise

IDENTIFIERS
In programming languages, identifiers are names used to identify a variable, function, or other
entities in a program. The rules for naming an identifier in Python are as follows:
• The name should begin with an uppercase or a lowercase alphabet or an underscore sign (_).
This may be followed by any combination of characters a–z, A–Z, 0–9 or underscore (_). Thus,
an identifier cannot start with a digit.
• It can be of any length. (However, it is preferred to keep it short and meaningful).
• It should not be a keyword or reserved word given in the above Table.
• We cannot use special symbols like !, @, #, $, %, etc., in identifiers.
For example,
1. To find the average of marks obtained by a student in three subjects, we can choose the
identifiers as marks1, marks2, marks3 and avg rather than a, b, c, or A, B, C.
avg = (marks1 + marks2 + marks3)/3
2. Similarly, to calculate the area of a rectangle, we can use identifier names, such as area,
length, breadth instead of single alphabets as identifiers for clarity and more readability.
area = length * breadth
VARIABLES
A variable in a program is uniquely identified by a name (identifier). Variable in Python refers to
an object — an item or element that is stored in the memory. Value of a variable can be a string
(e.g., ‘a’, ‘Hello World’), numeric (e.g., 345) or any combination of alphanumeric characters
CD67). In Python we can use an assignment statement to create new variables and assign
specific values to them.
Example : gender = 'M'
message = "Keep Smiling"
price = 987.9

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Write a program to display values of variables in Python.

#To display values of variables

message = " Hello World"
print(message)
userNo = 100
print('User Number is', userNo)

Output:
Hello World
User Number is 100

The variable message holds string type value and so its content is assigned within double
quotes " " (can also be within single quotes ' '), whereas the value of variable userNo is not
enclosed in quotes as it is a numeric value.
Variable declaration is implicit in Python, means variables are automatically declared and
defined when they are assigned a value the first time. Variables must always be assigned values
before they are used in expressions as otherwise it will lead to an error in the program.
Wherever a variable name occurs in an expression, the interpreter replaces it with the value of
that particular variable.

Write a Python program to find the area of a rectangle given that its length is 10 units and
breadth is 20 units.

#To find the area of a rectangle

length = 10
breadth = 20
area = length * breadth
print(area)
Output:
200

COMMENTS
Comments are used to add a remark or a note in the source code. Comments are not executed
by interpreter. They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for humans
to understand. They are used primarily to document the meaning and purpose of source code
and its input and output requirements, so that we can remember later how it functions and
how to use it. For large and complex software, it may require programmers to work in teams
and sometimes, a program written by one programmer is required to be used or maintained by
another programmer. In such situations, documentations in the form of comments are needed
to understand the working of the program. In Python, a comment starts with # (hash sign).
Everything following the # till the end of that line is treated as a comment and the interpreter
simply ignores it while executing the statement.

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Write a Python program to find the sum of two numbers.

#To find the sum of two numbers

num1 = 10
num2 = 20
result = num1 + num2
print(result)
Output:
30

EVERYTHING IS AN OBJECT
Python treats every value or data item whether numeric, string, or other type (discussed in the
next section) as an object in the sense that it can be assigned to some variable or can be passed
to a function as an argument. Every object in Python is assigned a unique identity (ID) which
remains the same for the lifetime of that object. This ID is akin to the memory address of the
object. The function id() returns the identity of an object.
Example
>>> num1 = 20
>>> id(num1)
1433920576 #identity of num1
>>> num2 = 30 - 10
>>> id(num2)
1433920576 #identity of num2 and num1
#are same as both refers to object 20

DATA TYPES
Every value belongs to a specific data type in Python. Data type identifies the type of data
values a variable can hold and the operations that can be performed on that data.

The following Figure enlists the data types available in Python.

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1. Number
Number data type stores numerical values only. It is further classified into three
different types: int, float and complex.

Boolean data type (bool) is a subtype of integer. It is a unique data type, consisting of two
constants, True and False. Boolean True value is non-zero, non-null and non-empty. Boolean
False is the value zero.
To determine the data type of the variable using built-in function type().
Example:
>>> num1 = 10
>>> type(num1)
<class 'int'>
>>> num2 = -1210
>>> type(num2)
<class 'int'>
>>> var1 = True
>>> type(var1)
<class 'bool'>
>>> float1 = -1921.9
>>> type(float1)
<class 'float'>
>>> float2 = -9.8*10**2
>>> print(float2, type(float2))
-980.0000000000001 <class 'float'>
>>> var2 = -3+7.2j
>>> print(var2, type(var2))
(-3+7.2j) <class 'complex'>

Variables of simple data types like integers, float, boolean, etc., hold single values. But such
variables are not useful to hold a long list of information, for example, names of the months in a
year, names of students in a class, names and numbers in a phone book or the list of artefacts
in a museum. For this, Python provides data types like tuples, lists, dictionaries and sets.

2. Sequence
A Python sequence is an ordered collection of items, where each item is indexed by an integer.
The three types of sequence data types available in Python are Strings, Lists and Tuples. We will
learn about each of them in detail in later chapters. A brief introduction to these data types is
as follows:

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(A) String
String is a group of characters. These characters may be alphabets, digits or special characters
including spaces. String values are enclosed either in single quotation marks (e.g., ‘Hello’) or in
double quotation marks (e.g.“Hello”). The quotes are not a part of the string, they are used to
mark the beginning and end of the string for the interpreter. For example,
>>> str1 = 'Hello Friend'
>>> str2 = "452"
We cannot perform numerical operations on strings, even when the string contains a numeric
value, as in str2.
(B) List
List is a sequence of items separated by commas and the items are enclosed in square
brackets [ ].
Example
#To create a list
>>> list1 = [5, 3.4, "New Delhi", "20C", 45]
#print the elements of the list list1
>>> print(list1)
[5, 3.4, 'New Delhi', '20C', 45]
(C) Tuple
Tuple is a sequence of items separated by commas and items are enclosed in parenthesis ( ).
This is unlike list, where values are enclosed in brackets [ ]. Once created, we cannot change the
tuple.

Example
#create a tuple tuple1
>>> tuple1 = (10, 20, "Apple", 3.4, 'a')
#print the elements of the tuple tuple1
>>> print(tuple1)
(10, 20, "Apple", 3.4, 'a')

3. Set
Set is an unordered collection of items separated by commas and the items are enclosed in
curly brackets { }. A set is similar to list, except that it cannot have duplicate entries. Once
created, elements of a set cannot be changed.

Example
#create a set
>>> set1 = {10,20,3.14,"New Delhi"}
>>> print(type(set1))
<class 'set'>
>>> print(set1)
{10, 20, 3.14, "New Delhi"}
#duplicate elements are not included in set
>>> set2 = {1,2,1,3}
>>> print(set2)
{1, 2, 3}

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4. None
None is a special data type with a single value. It is used to signify the absence of value in a
situation. None supports no special operations, and it is neither same as False nor 0 (zero).
Example
>>> myVar = None
>>> print(type(myVar))
<class 'NoneType'>
>>> print(myVar)
None

5. Mapping
Mapping is an unordered data type in Python. Currently, there is only one standard mapping data type in
Python called dictionary.
(A) Dictionary
Dictionary in Python holds data items in key-value pairs. Items in a dictionary are enclosed in
curly brackets { }. Dictionaries permit faster access to data. Every key is separated from its value
using a colon (:) sign. The key : value pairs of a dictionary can be accessed using the key. The
keys are usually strings and their values can be any data type. In order to access any value in the
dictionary, we have to specify its key in square brackets [ ].

Example
#create a dictionary
>>> dict1 = {'Fruit':'Apple', 'Climate':'Cold', 'Price(kg)':120}
>>> print(dict1)
{'Fruit': 'Apple', 'Climate': 'Cold', 'Price(kg)': 120}
>>> print(dict1['Price(kg)'])
120

Mutable and Immutable Data Types

Sometimes we may require to change or update the values of certain variables used in a program.
However, for certain data types, Python does not allow us to change the values once a variable of
that type has been created and assigned values.
Variables whose values can be changed after they are created and assigned are called mutable.
Variables whose values cannot be changed after they are created and assigned are called
immutable. When an attempt is made to update the value of an immutable variable, the old
variable is destroyed and a new variable is created by the same name in memory. Python data
types can be classified into mutable and immutable as shown in Figure

Let us now see what happens when an attempt is made to update the value of a variable.
>>> num1 = 300

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This statement will create an object with value 300 and the object is referenced by the identifier
num1 as shown in following Figure I.
>>> num2 = num1
The statement num2 = num1 will make num2 refer to the value 300, also being referred by
num1, and stored at memory location number, say 1000. So, num1 shares the referenced location
with num2 as shown in Figure II

Figure I : Object and its identifier

Figure II : Variables with same value have same identifier

In this manner Python makes the assignment effective by copying only the reference, and not the
data:
>>> num1
= num2 +
100
This statement 1 num1 = num2 + 100 links the variable num1 to a new object stored at
memory location number say 2200 having a value 400. As num1 is an integer, which is an
immutable type, it is rebuilt, as shown in following Figure.

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Variables with different values have different identifiers

Deciding Usage of Python Data Types

It is preferred to use lists when we need a simple iterable collection of data that may go for
frequent modifications. For example, if we store the names of students of a class in a list, then it
is easy to update the list when some new students join or some leave the course. Tuples are used
when we do not need any change in the data. For example, names of months in a year. When we
need uniqueness of elements and to avoid duplicacy it is preferable to use sets, for example, list
of artefacts in a museum. If our data is being constantly modified or we need a fast lookup based
on a custom key or we need a logical association between the key : value pair, it is advised to use
dictionaries. A mobile phone book is a good application of dictionary.

OPERATORS
An operator is used to perform specific mathematical or logical operation on values. Python
supports several kinds of operators whose categorisation is briefly explained below:
1. Arithmetic Operators
Python supports arithmetic operators that are used to perform the four basic arithmetic operations
as well as modular division, floor division and exponentiation.
Arithmetic Operators in Python

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2. Relational Operators
Relational operator compares the values of the operands on its either side and determines the
relationship among them. Assume the Python variables num1 = 10, num2 = 0, num3 = 10,
str1 = "Good", str2 = "Afternoon" for the following examples:

Relational operators in Python

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3. Assignment Operators
Assignment operator assigns or changes the value of the variable on its left.
Assignment operators in Python

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4. Logical Operators
There are three logical operators supported by Python. These operators (and, or, not) are to be
written in lower case only. The logical operator evaluates to either True or False based on the
logical operands on either side. Every value is logically either True or False. By default, all
values are True except None, False, 0 (zero), empty collections "", (), [], {}, and few other

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special values. So if we say num1 = 10, num2 = -20, then both num1 and num2 are logically
True.
Logical operators in Python

5. Identity Operators
Identity operators are used to determine whether the value of a variable is of a certain type or
not. Identity operators can also be used to determine whether two variables are referring to the
same object or not. There are two identity operators.

Identity operators in Python

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6. Membership Operators
Membership operators are used to check if a value is a member of the given sequence or not

Membership operators in Python

EXPRESSIONS
An expression is defined as a combination of constants, variables, and operators. An expression
always evaluates to a value. A value or a standalone variable is also considered as an expression
but a standalone operator is not an expression. Some examples of valid expressions are given
below.
(i) 100 (iv) 3.0 + 3.14
(ii) num (v) 23/3 -5 * 7(14 -2)
(iii) num – 20.4 (vi) "Global" + "Citizen"

Precedence of Operators
Evaluation of the expression is based on precedence of operators. When an expression contains
different kinds of operators, precedence determines which operator should be applied first.
Higher precedence operator is evaluated before the lower precedence operator. Most of the
operators studied till now are binary operators. Binary operators are operators with two operands.
The unary operators need only one operand, and they have a higher precedence than the binary
operators. The minus (-) as well as + (plus) operators can act as both unary and binary operators,
but not is a unary logical operator.

#Depth is using - (minus) as unary operator

Value = -Depth
#not is a unary operator, negates True
print(not(True))

Note:
a) Parenthesis can be used to override the precedence of operators. The expression within () is evaluated first.
b) For operators with equal precedence, the expression is evaluated from left to right.

The following table lists precedence of all operators from highest to lowest.

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Precedence of all operators in Python

STATEMENT
In Python, a statement is a unit of code that the Python interpreter can execute.

Example
>>> x = 4 #assignment statement
>>> cube = x ** 3 #assignment statement
>>> print (x, cube) #print statement
4 64

INPUT AND OUTPUT

Sometimes, a program needs to interact with the user’s to get some input data or information
from the end user and process it to give the desired output. In Python, we have the input()
function for taking the user input. 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() is:

input ([Prompt])

Prompt is the string we may like to display on the screen prior to taking the 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.

Example
>>> fname = input("Enter your first name: ")
Enter your first name: Arnab
>>> age = input("Enter your age: ")
Enter your age: 19
>>> type(age)
<class 'str'>

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The variable fname will get the string ‘Arnab’, entered by the user. Similarly, the variable age
will get the string ‘19’. We can typecast or change the datatype of the string data accepted from
user to an appropriate numeric value. For example, the following statement will convert the
accepted string to an integer. If the user enters any non-numeric value, an error will be generated.

Example
#function int() to convert string to integer
>>> age = int( input("Enter your age:"))
Enter your age: 19
>>> type(age)
<class 'int'>

Python uses the print() function to output data to standard output device — the screen. 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.

Example

The third print function in the above example is concatenating strings, and we use + (plus)
between two strings to concatenate them. The fourth print function also appears to be
concatenating strings but uses commas (,) between strings. Actually, here we are passing
multiple arguments, separated by commas to the print function. As arguments can be of different
types, hence the print function accepts integer (16) along with strings here. But in case the print
statement has values of different types and ‘+’ is used instead of comma, it will generate an
error.

TYPE CONVERSION
Consider the following program

num1 = input("Enter a number and I'll double it: ")

num1 = num1 * 2
print(num1)

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The program was expected to display double the value of the number received and store in
variable num1. So if a user enters 2 and expects the program to display 4 as the output, the
program displays the following result:

Enter a number and I'll double it: 2

22

This is because the value returned by the input function is a string ("2") by default. As a result, in
statement num1 = num1 * 2, num1 has string value and * acts as repetition operator which
results in output as "22". To get 4 as output, we need to convert the data type of the value
entered by the user to integer. Thus, we modify the program as follows:

num1 = input("Enter a number and I'll double it: ")

num1 = int(num1) #convert string input to integer
num1 = num1 * 2
print(num1)
Now, the program will display the expected output as follows:

Enter a number and I'll double it: 2

4

As and when required, we can change the data type of a variable in Python from one type to
another. Such data type conversion can happen in two ways: either explicitly (forced) when the
programmer specifies for the interpreter to convert a data type to another type; or implicitly,
when the interpreter understands such a need by itself and does the type conversion
automatically.

Explicit Conversion
Explicit conversion, also called type casting happens when data type conversion takes place
because the programmer forced it in the program. The general form of an explicit data type
conversion is:

(new_data_type) (expression)

With explicit type conversion, there is a risk of loss of information since we are forcing an
expression to be of a specific type. For example, converting a floating value of x = 2 0.67 into
an integer type, i.e., int(x) will discard the fractional part .67. Following are some of the
functions in Python that are used for explicitly converting an expression or a variable to a
different type.

Explicit type conversion functions in Python

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Program of explicit type conversion from int to float.

#Explicit type conversion from int to float

num1 = 10
num2 = 20
num3 = num1 + num2
print(num3)
print(type(num3))
num4 = float(num1 + num2)
print(num4)
print(type(num4))
Output:
30
<class 'int'>
30.0
<class 'float'>

Example of type conversion between numbers and strings.

#Type Conversion between Numbers and Strings

priceIcecream = 25
priceBrownie = 45
totalPrice = priceIcecream + priceBrownie
print("The total is Rs." + totalPrice )

On execution, above program gives an informing that the interpreter cannot convert an integer
value to string implicitly. It may appear quite intuitive that the program should convert the
integer value to a string depending upon the usage. However, the interpreter may not decide on
its own when to convert as there is a risk of loss of information. Python provides the mechanism
of the explicit type conversion so that one can clearly state the desired outcome. Program works
perfectly using explicit type casting:

Program Program to show explicit type casting.

#Explicit type casting

priceIcecream = 25
priceBrownie = 45
totalPrice = priceIcecream + priceBrownie
print("The total in Rs." + str(totalPrice))
Output:
The total in Rs.70

Program to show explicit type conversion.

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#Explicit type conversion

icecream = '25'
brownie = '45'
#String concatenation
price = icecream + brownie
print("Total Price Rs." + price)

#Explicit type conversion - string to integer

price = int(icecream)+int(brownie)
print("Total Price Rs." + str(price))
Output:
Total Price Rs.2545
Total Price Rs.70

Implicit Conversion
Implicit conversion, also known as coercion, happens when data type conversion is done
automatically by Python and is not instructed by the programmer.

Program to show implicit conversion from int to float.

#Implicit type conversion from int to float

num1 = 10 #num1 is an integer
num2 = 20.0 #num2 is a float
sum1 = num1 + num2 #sum1 is sum of a float and an integer
print(sum1)
print(type(sum1))

Output:
30.0
<class 'float'>

In the above example, an integer value stored in variable num1 is added to a float value stored in
variable num2, and the result was automatically converted to a float value stored in variable
sum1 without explicitly telling the interpreter. This is an example of implicit data conversion.
Why was the float value not converted to an integer instead? This is due to type promotion that
allows performing operations (whenever possible) by converting data into a wider-sized data
type without any loss of information.

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