Unit-2: Data types, I/O, Types of Errors and Conditional Constructs

Course learning objectives:

Students will get an overview of

 What is Data type and types of Data,

 How to convert from one data type to another data type,
 Mutable and Immutable types,
 Input and Output Operations and Formats,
 Types of Errors in python
 Types of conditional constructs

Module – 1
2.1 Data types, I/O, Types of Errors
A data type is a data storage format that can contain a specific type or range of values. Variables can store data of different
types, and different types can do different things. Python has the following data types built-in by default, in these
categories.
Numeric Types: int, float, complex

Sequence Types: str, list, tuple, range

Mapping Type: Dict

Set Types: set, frozenset

2.1.1 Numeric Types:

There are three numeric types in Python:
 int
 float
 complex
Variables of numeric types are created when you assign a value to them
Example
x = 1 # int
y = 2.8 # float
z = 1j # complex
Int: Int, or integer, is a whole number, positive or negative, without decimals, of unlimited length.
Example
x=1
y = 35656222554887711
z = -3255522
Float: Float, or "floating point number" is a number, positive or negative, containing one or more decimals.
Example
x = 1.10
y = 1.0
z = -35.59
Float can also be scientific numbers with an "e" to indicate the power of 10.

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Example
x = 35e3
y = 12E4
z = -87.7e100
Complex: Complex numbers are written with a "j" as the imaginary part.
Example
x = 3+5j
y = 5j
z = -5j

2.1.2 Sequence Types

In Python, sequence is the generic term for an ordered set. There are several types of sequences in Python, the following
are the most important.
String:
Strings in python are surrounded by either single quotation marks, or double quotation marks.
'hello' is the same as "hello".
You can display a string literal with the print() function:
Example
print("Hello")
print('Hello')
Assign String to a Variable
Assigning a string to a variable is done with the variable name followed by an equal sign and the string:
Example
a = "Hello"
print(a)

Multiline Strings
You can assign a multiline string to a variable by using three quotes:
Example
You can use three double quotes:
Example
a = """Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod empor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua."""
print(a)

Or three single quotes:

a = '''Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua.'''
print(a)

However, Python does not have a character data type, a single character is simply a string with a length of 1.

Lists:
List is an ordered sequence of items. All the items in a list do not need to be of the same type and lists are mutable - they
can be changed. Elements can be reassigned or removed, and new elements can be inserted.

Declaring a list is pretty straight forward. Items separated by commas are enclosed within brackets [ ].

a = [1, 2.2, 'python']

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Tuples:
Tuple is an ordered sequence of items same as a list. The only difference is that tuples are immutable. Tuples once created
cannot be modified. Tuples are used to write-protect data and are usually faster than lists as they cannot change
dynamically.

It is defined within parentheses () where items are separated by commas.

t = (5,'program', 1+3j)
range():
The range() type returns an immutable sequence of numbers between the given start integer to the stop integer.

print(list(range(10))

2.1.3 Mapping type:

Dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs. In python there is mapping type called dictionary. It is mutable.
In Python, dictionaries are defined within braces {} with each item being a pair in the form key:value. Key and value can
be of any type. The values of the dictionary can be any type, but the key must be of any immutable data type such as
strings, numbers, and tuples.

>>> d = {1:'value','key':2}
>>> type(d)

2.1.4 Set types:

Set is an unordered collection of unique items. Set is defined by values separated by comma inside braces { }. Items in a
set are not ordered.

a = {5,2,3,1,4}

# printing set variable

print("a = ", a)

# data type of variable a

print(type(a))

We can use the set for some mathematical operations like set union, intersection, difference etc. We can also use set to
remove duplicates from a collection.

2.2. Getting the Data type

We can use the type() function to know which class a variable or a value belongs to. Similarly, the isinstance() function is
used to check if an object belongs to a particular type.

a=5
print(a, "is of type", type(a))
a = 2.0
print(a, "is of type", type(a))
a = 1+2j
print(a, "is complex number?", isinstance(a,complex))

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 Output

5 is of type <class 'int'>

2.0 is of type <class 'float'>
(1+2j) is complex number? True

2.2. Type Conversion

The process of converting the value of one data type (integer, string, float, etc.) to another data type is called type
conversion. Python has two types of type conversion.
1. Implicit Type Conversion
2. Explicit Type Conversion

2.2.1 Implicit Type Conversion

In Implicit type conversion, Python automatically converts one data type to another data type. This process doesn't need
any user involvement. Let's see an example where Python promotes the conversion of the lower data type (integer) to the
higher data type (float) to avoid data loss.

Example 1: Converting integer to float

When we run the above program, the output will be:

Output

In the above program,

 We add two variables num_int and num_flo, storing the value in num_new.
 We will look at the data type of all three objects respectively.
 In the output, we can see the data type of num_int is an integer while the data type of num_flo is a float.
 Also, we can see the num_new has a float data type because Python always converts smaller data types to larger
data types to avoid the loss of data.

Now, let's try adding a string and an integer, and see how Python deals with it.

Example 2: Addition of string(higher) data type and integer(lower) datatype

num_int = 123
num_str = "456"

print("Data type of num_int:",type(num_int))

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print("Data type of num_str:",type(num_str))

print(num_int+num_str)

When we run the above program, the output will be:

Data type of num_int: <class 'int'>

Data type of num_str: <class 'str'>

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "python", line 7, in <module>
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'
In the above program,
 We add two variables num_int and num_str.
 As we can see from the output, we got TypeError. Python is not able to use Implicit Conversion in such
conditions.
 However, Python has a solution for these types of situations which is known as Explicit Conversion.

2.2.2 Explicit Type Conversion

In Explicit Type Conversion, users convert the data type of an object to required data type. We use the predefined
functions like int(), float(), str(), etc to perform explicit type conversion.
This type of conversion is also called typecasting because the user casts (changes) the data type of the objects.

Syntax :

<required_datatype>(expression)

Typecasting can be done by assigning the required data type function to the expression.

Example 3: Addition of string and integer using explicit conversion

num_int = 123
num_str = "456"

print("Data type of num_int:",type(num_int))

print("Data type of num_str before Type Casting:",type(num_str))

num_str = int(num_str)
print("Data type of num_str after Type Casting:",type(num_str))

num_sum = num_int + num_str

print("Sum of num_int and num_str:",num_sum)

print("Data type of the sum:",type(num_sum))

When we run the above program, the output will be:

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Data type of num_int: <class 'int'>
Data type of num_str before Type Casting: <class 'str'>

Data type of num_str after Type Casting: <class 'int'>

Sum of num_int and num_str: 579

Data type of the sum: <class 'int'>

In the above program,

 We add num_str and num_int variable.

 We converted num_str from string(higher) to integer(lower) type using int() function to perform the addition.
 After converting num_str to an integer value, Python is able to add these two variables.
 We got the num_sum value and data type to be an integer.

Key Points to Remember

 Type Conversion is the conversion of object from one data type to another data type.
 Implicit Type Conversion is automatically performed by the Python interpreter.
 Python avoids the loss of data in Implicit Type Conversion.
 Explicit Type Conversion is also called Type Casting, the data types of objects are converted using predefined
functions by the user.
 In Type Casting, loss of data may occur as we enforce the object to a specific data type.

Module-2
2.4 Mutable and Immutable types
A first fundamental distinction that Python makes on data is about whether the value changes are not. If the value can
change, then is called mutable, while if the value cannot change, that is called immutable.
Mutable:
 list,
 dict
 set
Immutable:
 int,
 float,
 complex,
 string,
 tuple
2.5 Input and Output Operations and Formats
Python provides numerous built-in functions that are readily available at the Python prompt.
Some of the functions like input() and print() are widely used for standard input and output operations respectively.
2.5.1 Python Output Using print() function
We use the print() function to output data to the standard output device (screen).
Example 1:

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print('This sentence is output to the screen')

Output

This sentence is output to the screen

Example 2:

a=5
print('The value of a is', a)

Output

The value of a is 5

In the second print() statement, we can notice that space was added between the string and the value of variable a. This is
by default, but we can change it.
The actual syntax of the print() function is:

print(*objects, sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)

 Here, objects are the value(s) to be printed.

 The sep(separator) is used between the values. It defaults into a space character.
 After all values are printed, end is printed. It defaults into a new line.
 The file is the object where the values are printed and its default value is sys.stdout (screen). Here is an example
to illustrate this.

print(1, 2, 3, 4)
print(1, 2, 3, 4, sep='*')
print(1, 2, 3, 4, sep='#', end='&')

Output

1234
1*2*3*4
1#2#3#4&

2.5.2 Output formatting

Sometimes we would like to format our output to make it look attractive. This can be done by using
the str.format() method. This method is visible to any string object.

>>> x = 5; y = 10
>>> print('The value of x is {} and y is {}'.format(x,y))
The value of x is 5 and y is 10

Here, the curly braces {} are used as placeholders. We can specify the order in which they are printed by using numbers.

print('I love {0} and {1}'.format('bread','butter'))

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print('I love {1} and {0}'.format('bread','butter'))

Output

I love bread and butter

I love butter and bread

We can even use keyword arguments to format the string.

>>> print('Hello {name}, {greeting}'.format(greeting = 'Goodmorning', name = 'John'))

Hello John, Goodmorning

We can also format strings like the old sprintf() style used in C programming language. We use the % operator to
accomplish this.

>>> x = 12.3456789
>>> print('The value of x is %3.2f' %x)
The value of x is 12.35
>>> print('The value of x is %3.4f' %x)
The value of x is 12.3457

2.5.3 Python Input

Until now, our programs were static. The value of variables was defined or hard coded into the source code.

To allow flexibility, we might want to take the input from the user. In Python, we have the input() function to allow this.
The syntax for input() is:

input([prompt])

where prompt is the string we wish to display on the screen. It is optional.

>>> num = input('Enter a number: ')

Enter a number: 10
>>> num
'10'

Here, we can see that the entered value 10 is a string, not a number. To convert this into a number we can
use int() or float() functions.

>>> int('10')
10

>>> float('10')
10.0

2.6 Types of Errors in python

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No matter how smart or how careful you are, errors are your constant companion. With practice, you will get slightly
better at not making errors, better at finding and correcting them. There are three kinds of errors: syntax errors, runtime
errors, and logic errors.

2.6.1 Syntax errors: Syntax errors are produced by Python when it is translating the source code into byte code. They
usually indicate that there is something wrong with the syntax of the program.

Example: Omitting the colon at the end of an if statement yields the somewhat redundant message.

SyntaxError: invalid syntax.

Here are some ways to avoid the most common syntax errors:

1. Make sure you are not using a Python keyword for a variable name.
2. Check that you have a colon at the end of the header of every compound statement, including for, while, if,
and def statements.
3. Check that indentation is consistent. You may indent with either spaces or tabs but it’s better not to mix them. Each
level should be nested the same amount.
4. Make sure that strings in the code have matching quotation marks.
5. If you have multiline strings with triple quotes (single or double), make sure you have terminated the string properly.
An un-terminated string may cause an invalid token error at the end of your program, or it may treat the following
part of the program as a string until it comes to the next string. In the second case, it might not produce an error
message at all!
6. An unclosed bracket – (, {, or [ – makes Python continue with the next line as part of the current statement.
Generally, an error occurs almost immediately in the next line.
7. Check for the classic = instead of == inside a conditional.

2.6.2 Run Time Error: Errors that occur after the code has been executed and the program is running. The error of this
type will cause your program to behave unexpectedly or even crash. An example of a runtime error is the division by zero.
Consider the following example:

x = float(input('Enter a number: '))

y = float(input('Enter a number: '))
z = x/y
print (x,'divided by',y,'equals: ',z)

The program above runs fine until the user enters 0 as the second number:

>>>
Enter a number: 9
Enter a number: 2
9.0 divided by 2.0 equals: 4.5
>>>
Enter a number: 11
Enter a number: 3

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11.0 divided by 3.0 equals: 3.6666666666666665
>>>
Enter a number: 5
Enter a number: 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Python34/Scripts/error1.py", line 3, in <module>
z = x/y
ZeroDivisionError: float division by zero
>>>Erors

It is also called semantic errors, logical errors cause the program to behave incorrectly, but they do not usually crash the
program. Unlike a program with syntax errors, a program with logic errors can be run, but it does not operate as intended.
Consider the following example of logical error:

x = float(input('Enter a number: '))

y = float(input('Enter a number: '))
z = x+y/2
print ('The average of the two numbers you have entered is:',z)

The example above should calculate the average of the two numbers the user enters. But, because of the order of
operations in arithmetic (the division is evaluated before addition) the program will not give the right answer:

>>>
Enter a number: 3
Enter a number: 4

The average of the two numbers you have entered is: 5.0
>>>

To rectify this problem, we will simply add the parentheses: z = (x+y)/2

Now we will get the right result:

>>>
Enter a number: 3

Enter a number: 4
The average of the two numbers you have entered is: 3.5

>>>

Module-3:
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3.7 Conditional Constructs
There come situations in real life when we need to make some decisions and based on these decisions, we decide what we
should do next. Similar situations arise in programming also where we need to make some decisions and based on these
decisions we will execute the next block of code.
Decision making statements in programming languages decides the direction of flow of program execution. Decision making
statements available in python are:
 if statement
 if..else statements
 nested if statements
 if-elif ladder
 Short Hand if statement
 Short Hand if-else statement
3.7.1 if statement: if statement is the simplest decision-making statement. It is used to decide whether a certain statement
or block of statements will be executed or not i.e. if a certain condition is true then a block of statement is executed otherwise
not.
Syntax:
if condition:
# Statements to execute if
# condition is true
Here, condition after evaluation will be either true or false. if statement accepts boolean values – if the value is true then it
will execute the block of statements below it otherwise not. We can use condition with bracket ‘(‘ ‘)’ also.
As we know, python uses indentation to identify a block. So the block under an if statement will be identified as shown in
the below example:
if condition:
statement1
statement2

# Here if the condition is true, if block

# will consider only statement1 to be inside
# its block.
Flowchart:-

# python program to illustrate If statement

i = 10
if (i > 15):
print ("10 is less than 15")
print ("I am Not in if")

Output:
I am Not in if
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As the condition present in the if statement is false. So, the block below the if statement is not executed.
3.7.2 if- else: The if statement alone tells us that if a condition is true it will execute a block of statements and if the
condition is false it won’t. But what if we want to do something else if the condition is false. Here comes the else statement.
We can use the else statement with if statement to execute a block of code when the condition is false.
Syntax:
if (condition):
# Executes this block if
# condition is true
else:
# Executes this block if
# condition is false
Flow Chart:-

# python program to illustrate If else statement

#!/usr/bin/python

i = 20;
if (i < 15):
print ("i is smaller than 15")
print ("i'm in if Block")
else:
print ("i is greater than 15")
print ("i'm in else Block")
print ("i'm not in if and not in else Block")
Output:
i is greater than 15
i'm in else Block
i'm not in if and not in else Block
The block of code following the else statement is executed as the condition present in the if statement is false after call the
statement which is not in block(without spaces).
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3.7.3 nested-if: A nested if is an if statement that is the target of another if statement. Nested if statements means an if
statement inside another if statement. Yes, Python allows us to nest if statements within if statements. i.e, we can place an if
statement inside another if statement.
Syntax:
if (condition1):
# Executes when condition1 is true
if (condition2):
# Executes when condition2 is true
# if Block is end here
# if Block is end here

Flow chart:

# python program to illustrate nested If statement

#!/usr/bin/python
i = 10
if (i <20):
# First if statement
if (i < 15):
print ("i is smaller than 15")
# Nested - if statement
# Will only be executed if statement above
# it is true
else:
print ("i is greater than 15")
if (i < 12):
print ("i is smaller than 12 too")

Output:
i is smaller than 15
i is smaller than 12 too
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3.7.4 if-elif-else ladder: Here, a user can decide among multiple options. The if statements are executed from the top
down. As soon as one of the conditions controlling the if is true, the statement associated with that if is executed, and the rest
of the ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions is true, then the final else statement will be executed.
Syntax:-
if (condition):
statement
elif (condition):
statement
.
.
else:
statement
Flow Chart:-

Example:-

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# Python program to illustrate if-elif-else ladder
#!/usr/bin/python

i = 20
if (i == 10):
print ("i is 10")
elif (i == 15):
print ("i is 15")
elif (i == 20):
print ("i is 20")
else:
print ("i is not present")
Output:
i is 20

3.8 Short Hand if statement

Whenever there is only a single statement to be executed inside the if block then shorthand if can be used. The statement can
be put on the same line as the if statement.
Syntax:
if condition: statement
Example:
# Python program to illustrate short hand if
i = 10
if i < 15: print("i is less than 15")
Output:
i is less than 15

Short Hand if-else statement: This can be used to write the if-else statements in a single line where there is only one
statement to be executed in both if and else block.
Syntax:
statement_when_True if condition else statement_when_False
Example:
# Python program to illustrate short hand if-else
i = 10
print(True) if i < 15 else print(False)
Output:
True

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 MCQ on Data Types and Conditional Constructs
1. Which statement is correct?
a. List is immutable && Tuple is mutable
b. List is mutable && Tuple is immutable
c. Both are Mutable.
d. Both are Immutable.
2. Which one of the following is mutable data type?
a. Set
b. Int
c. Str
d. tupl
3. Which one of the following is immutable data type?
a. List
b. Set
c. Int
d. dict
4. Which of these is not a core data type?
a. List
b. Tuple
c. Dictionary
d. Class
5. Which one of the following is False regarding data types in Python?
a. In python, explicit data type conversion is possible
b. Mutable data types are those that can be changed.
c. Immutable data types are those that cannot be changed.
d. None of the above
6. Which of the following function is used to know the data type of a variable in Python?
a. datatype()
b. typeof()
c. type()
d. vartype()
7. Which one of the following is a valid Python if statement :
a. if (a>=2):
b. if (a >= 2)
c. if (a => 22)
d. if a >= 22
8. What keyword would you use to add an alternative condition to an if statement?
a. else if
b. elseif
c. elif
d. None of the above
9. Can we write if/else into one line in python?
a. Yes
b. No
c. if/else not used in python
d. None of the above
10. Which statement will check if a is equal to b?

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 a. if a = b:
b. if a == b:
c. if a === c:
d. if a == b

Solved Problem Set

1. Write a Python program to find whether the given number is divisible by 7 and multiple of 5?
num=int(input("Enter a number: "))
if num%7==0 and num%5==0:
print(num, "is divisible by 7 and multiple of 5")
else:
print("the given number is either divisible by 7 or multiple of 5")
2. Write a program to input any number and check whether it is even or odd
num=int(input("Enter a number: "))
if num%2==0:
print("Even number")
else:
print("Odd number")
3. Write a program to input any number and check whether it is negative, positive or zero
num=int(input("Enter a number: "))
if num>0:
print("Positive number")
else if num<=0:
print("Negative number")
else:
print("Zero")
4. A student will not be allowed to sit in exam if his/her attendence is less than 75%.
Take following input from user
Number of classes held
Number of classes attended.
And print
percentage of class attended
Is student is allowed to sit in exam or not.
print "Number of classes held"
noh = input()
print "Number of classes attended"
noa = input()
atten = (noa/float(noh))*100
print "Attendence is",atten
if atten >= 75:
print "You are allowed to sit in exam"
else:
print "Sorry, you are not allowed. Attend more classes from next time."

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Un-Solved Problem Set
1. Take values of length and breadth of a rectangle from user and check if it is square or not.
2. Take two int values from user and print greatest among them
3. A shop will give discount of 10%, if the cost of purchased quantity is more than 1000.
Ask user for quantity
Suppose, one unit will cost 100.
Ex: quantity=11
cost=11*100=1100>1000
so, he will get 10% discount, that is 110.
Final cost is 1100-110=990
4. A company decided to give bonus of 5% to employee if his/her year of service is more than 5 years.
Ask user for their salary and year of service and print the net bonus amount.
5. A school has following rules for grading system:
a. Below 25 - F
b. 25 to 45 - E
c. 45 to 50 - D
d. 50 to 60 - C
e. 60 to 80 - B
f. Above 80 - A
Ask user to enter marks and print the corresponding grade.
6. Take input of age of 3 people by user and determine oldest and youngest among them.
7. Write a program to print absolute vlaue of a number entered by user. E.g.-
INPUT: 1 OUTPUT: 1
INPUT: -1 OUTPUT: 1
8. Modify the 4th question (in solved problem set) to allow student to sit if he/she has medical cause. Ask user if
he/she has medical cause or not ( 'Y' or 'N' ) and print accordingly.
9. Ask user to enter age, sex ( M or F ), marital status ( Y or N ) and then using following rules print their place of
service.
if employee is female, then she will work only in urban areas.
if employee is a male and age is in between 20 to 40 then he may work in anywhere
if employee is male and age is in between 40 t0 60 then he will work in urban areas only.
And any other input of age should print "ERROR".

Descriptive Questions
1. What is data type? What are the different types of data?
2. What are the numeric data types? Explain with examples.
3. What are the sequence types of data?
4. Explain about type conversions.
5. What is mutable and immutable? What are mutable and immutable data types?
6. Explain about python output formatting.
7. Describe types of errors.
8. Explain about types of conditional constructs.
9. Give examples for all conditional constructs.
10. Write shorthand if and shorthand if-else statement.

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