03-08-2022

Python
Fundamentals

Python character set

Character set is a set of valid characters that a language
can recognise.

Letters : A – Z, a – z
Digits :0–9
Special Symbols : + - * / ^ () : etc.
White spaces : space, tab, newline etc
Other characters : any of the 256 ASCII and Unicode
characters

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Tokens
The smallest individual unit in a program is known as a
Token or a lexical unit.
Python has following types of tokens:
• Keywords
• Identifiers (Names)
• Literals
• Operators
• Punctuators

Keywords
Keywords are the words having a special meaning
reserved by the programming language.

Keywords have special meaning and hence should

not be used as normal identifier names.

Ex. if, elif, else, while, class, not etc.

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Identifiers
Identifiers are fundamental building blocks of a program and are used as the
names given to different parts of a program e.g. variable, object, classes,
functions etc.
Rules for forming identifiers:

• It’s a arbitrary long sequence of letters, digits (0-9) or underscore(_)

without any space in between, no other special characters are allowed
• First character must be a letter or an underscore( _ ) (digit)
• Upper and lower case letters are different (i.e. it is case sensitive)
• Keywords can’t be used as name of an identifier
• Avoid using names of built in function (e.g. int, input, print etc)

Ex. VAR1, _var1, var1 are all valid

1var, -var, print, Print ------- ?

Literals
Literals/constants are data items that never changes their values
during execution of program or have a fixed value.

Different kinds of literals in Python are:

1. String literals
2. Numeric literals
3. Boolean literals
4. Special literal None

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String Literals
A string literal is a sequence of characters surrounded by quotes
(single/ double/triple).
e.g. 'Welcome', ''Computer Science''

Nongraphic characters are also allowed in Python strings.

Characters which can’t be typed from keyboard are non-graphic
characters. These can be printed/typed using escape sequence
character. It starts with backslash (\). Ex:
\n – newline
\t – tab

How to print in Python ''Hari's Book''

String Types
Two types in Python:
i) Single line String ii) Multiline String
>>>Text = '''abc
a) Can be created as:
def
>>>Text = 'Python program'
pqr'''
>>>Text = ''Python program''
>>>abc
>>>Text
def
Python program pqr
len(Text)=11
b) Can be created as: ''' can be used for writing
>>>Text = 'abc\ multiline string it
def\ treats/counts newline as a
pqr' single character
>>>Text
abcdefpqr
len(Text) = 9
\continuation of string

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Numeric Literals
Can be of three types:
• Integer
Ex. 235, -45,
0o457, 0O306 (Octal , 0-zero, o-letter)
0x69A, 0X5B8 (Hexadecimal, 0-zero, x-letter)
0b1011, 0B1011 (Binary, 0-zero, b-letter)
• float
Ex. 17.5, .8, 179E05, 3.E3, 25E–4, 4.E5
• complex
of the form a+bj where j (or J) =

Boolean and None Literals

• A Boolean literal is a literal having two possible values True or
False

• None is a literal in Python which means absence of any value

or no value. Python doesn’t print anything if asked to print
value of a variable whose value is None
>>>v1=10
>>>v2=None
>>>v1
10
>>>v2
With print command v2
prints None else it prints
>>>print(v2) nothing
None
>>>

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Operators
Operators are tokens that perform some computation when
applied to variables and other objects in an expression.

Operators can be –
• Unary(requires one operand)
e.g. – (unary minus), +(unary plus)
~(bitwise complement)
not (logical negation)

• Binary(needs two operand)

e.g. arithmetic, relational, bitwise, shift, identity, logical,
assignment and membership

Punctuators
Punctuators are the symbols used in programming languages to
organize statements

[] () {} , : " ' : \ # etc

Each of them have their own meaning and function.

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Sample Program
# Sample program Comment in the program,
# Definition of function Print begins with #
def Print():
User defined function
print ("Function print")
# Main program code
A = 15
Expressions
B = A-10
print (A+3)
if B>10 : : specifies beginning of a block ,
block begins with an indentation
print("Value more than 10") and can contain more than one line
else: #block
print("Value less than 10")
print()

Components of a Program
It can be:
• Statements
• Comments
• Functions
• Expressions
• Blocks

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Statements
Smallest instruction in a program that does something.

e.g.
A = 15 #value of variable A is 15
B=A–3 #value assigned to B
print ("Hello") #prints a message

Expression
Any legal combination of symbols that represent a value.

e.g.
15 #can be value only
3.9
A+5
(b+3)/7

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Comments
Comments are pieces of codes that the compiler discards or ignores and doesn’t
execute. It is to increase the readability/understandability of the program.

Comments can be –
1. Single line comments - #aaaaaa
2. Multiline comments -

''' abc OR '''abc\

xyz pqr\
pqr ''' xyz'''

(Comments enclosed in '''/""" (triple quotes) are called docstrings, generally

written in the beginning of a program)

Block and Function

Block/Code Block/Suite
A group of statements which are part of another statement or
a function are called block.

Function
A function is a code/block that has a name, does a specific
task and can be reused in the program by its name.

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Variables
Named labels, whose values can be used and processed
during program run, are called variables.

Sub = 'Physics' #string variable

A = 10 #numeric variable

lvalue rvalue
left hand side value right hand side value
x=10 #integer class
A variable pointing to a value of
print (x) a certain type, can be made to
x=10.7 #float class point to a value/ object of
print (x) different type. This is called
Dynamic Typing in Python.
x = ‘Computer’ #string class
print (x)

Variables
Multiple assignments:
a=b=c=10
x, y, z = 10, 20, 30 #assigns x=10, y=20, z=30
Swapping
x, y = 25, 40
x, y = y, x
Execution
a, b, c = 5, 10, 9
b, c, a = a+1, b+2, c-1 #will assign a=8, b=6, c=12

(comma separated expression evaluation is from left to right and

assigned in same order)

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Variable creation and Dynamic Typing

(Everything is an object in Python)
Dynamically-typed languages perform type checking at runtime, while statically typed languages perform type checking at compile time.

Python variables are created by assigning a value of required type to it.

>>> x = 10
>>> y = 10 #y=x
Creates an integer object x with value 10 in it.
For y no new object creation, python allocates y the same reference as
that of x (dynamic typing). If,
>>> x = x + 1
For x Python will create another object.
>>> z = 10
z will refer to the same memory location as of y. If,
>>> z = "CAR"
Python will allocate new space for z.

Input/Output in Python
Input/reading Can be done using input function which reads a string,
printing can be done using print function

>>>name = input("Enter your name")

Enter your name:
>>>print(name)

input reads everything as a string, numbers even, hence can not be

used in an arithmetic expression.
int() and float() functions can be used for it.

>>>num = int(input("Enter an integer: "))

OR
>>>num = float(input("Enter a decimal number: "))

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Input/Output in Python
Variations of print
• converts item to string before printing
• two parameter to work with is sep(default is single space) and end (default is newline

>>>print ('Python')
>>>print ('Sum of 2 and 3 is' , 2+3)
>>>a=25
>>>print(''double of'', a, ''is'', a*2)
>>>print("Computer", "Science")
Computer Science #auto insertion of space in between,
#because of default sep value
>>>a, b, c = 10, 20 ,30
>>>print ("Numbers are: ", a, b, c)

Input/Output in Python
Variations of print:
print("Computer")
print("Science")
Output: Computer
Science
(print terminates with newline)

print("Computer", end='$')
print("Science")
Output: Computer$Science

print("Computer", end=' ')

print("Science")
Output: Computer Science

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Input/Output in Python
Print variation with sep:

Assignment
1.+, -, *, / of two numbers
2.Area and perimeter of square
3.Area and perimeter of rectangle
4.Area and circumference of circle
5.Average of 5 numbers
6.Area of triangle on base and height
7.C to F and F to C
8.CM to feet and inches

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