Code & Debug

Variables and Data Types

Variables
A variable is a name given to any storage area or memory location in a
program.
In simple words, we can say that a variable is a container that contains some
information, and whenever we need that information, we use the name of that
container to access it.
Variables are a major part of computer programming. Variables allow you to
store a value that you can use later in the program. You can therefore make
the program do different things, depending on the value of the variable.
Creating a variable
a = "Hello World"
b = 23
c = 56.66
print(a)
print(b)
print(c)
print(b + c)

Output

In this example we have created 3 variables and named them a, b and c.

We have assigned “Hello World” to a, 23 to b and 56.66 to c.
In Python you do not need to declare the variable before assigning a value to
it. You also do not need to declare its data type. This contrasts with some other
languages (such as Java, C, C++, etc.), where you must declare the variable first
and explicitly state its data type.
After declaring, you can also output or print them as usual using the print
statement.

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Multiple assignment (Assigning multiple variables in single line)

In Python, you can assign multiple variables within a single statement.
The above code can be changed as shown below and will work perfectly fine.
a, b, c = "Hello World", 23, 56.66
print(a)
print(b)
print(c)
print(b + c)

Output

Rules for naming a variable

A variable name is an identifier. In Python, an identifier can be a combination
of letters in lowercase (a to z), uppercase (A to Z), digits (0 to 9), and the
underscore (_) character.
Some valid examples:
Here are some variable names that are perfectly fine and won’t give us any
errors.
name = "Cristiano"
Name = "Cristiano"
Name1 = "Cristiano"
Name_1 = "Cristiano"
_name = "Cristiano"
_student_first_name = "Cristiano"

Cannot start with number

You cannot start the variable name with a number, it will give us an error.
# We cant name variable like this
1name="Cristiano"

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Cannot use a Python reserved Keyword

You cannot use any Python keywords as your identifier name. Here are the
Python keywords:
False def if raise None
del import return True elif
in try and else is
while as except lambda with
assert finally nonlocal yield break
for not class from or
continue global pass

Case sensitive
In Python, variable names (as with all identifiers) are case sensitive. Therefore,
the following are two different variables:
firstname = "Cristiano"
Firstname = "Melon Eusk"
print(firstname)
print(Firstname)

Outputting will give us two different values because they are 2 different
variables.

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Data types in Python

Data types are the classification or categorization of knowledge items. It
represents the type useful that tells what operations are often performed on
specific data. Since everything is an object in Python programming, data types
are classes and variables are instances (object) of those classes.
Data types are an important concept within the python programing language.
Every value has its own python data type, in the python programming
language. The classification of knowledge items or to place the info value into
data category is named Data Types. It helps to know what quiet operations are
often performed on a worth.
A data type, in programming, is a classification that specifies which type of
value a variable has. Primarily there are following data types in Python.
• Integers (<class 'int'>): Used to store integers
• Floating point numbers (<class 'float'>): Used to store decimal or
floating-point numbers
• Strings (<class 'str'>): Used to store strings
• Booleans (<class 'bool'>): Used to store True/False type values
• None: None is a literal to describe 'Nothing' in Python
• List
• Tuple
• Set
• Dictionary
Example
# Variable in Python:
abc = "It's a string variable"
_abcnum = 40 # It is an example of int variable
abc123 = 55.854 # It is an example of float variable
print(_abcnum + abc123) # This will give sum of 40 + 55.854

In the above code you can see that there are 3 different variables created with
3 different values.
• abc is storing a String data type.
• _abcnum is storing an Integer data type.
• abc123 is storing a Float data type.

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Determining a Variable’s Type

Whenever we create a variable and assign value to it, we have an option to
print the datatype stored into that variable.
You can use the type() function to find out what type a variable is. You can also
pass the type() function to a print() function to print the result to the screen.
Example
# Set the variables
firstName = "John Doe"
age = 44

# Display their type

print(type(firstName))
print(type(age))

Output

This tells us that firstName variable has a string stored in it and age variable
has an int stored in it.
Note – We can't do arithmetic operations of numbers with strings i.e. we
can't add a string to any number. Have a look at the example below:
var1 = "It's a String"
var2 = 5
print(var1 + var2) # It will give an
# error as we can't add string to any number.

Output

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Note – We can add (concatenate) two or more strings and the strings will be
concatenated to return another string. Here’s the example showing that:
var1 = "My Name is "
var2 = "xyz"
var3 = var1 + var2 + " & I am a Good Boy."
print(var1 + var2)
print(var3)

Output

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Typecasting
Typecasting is the way to change one data type of any data or variable to
another datatype, i.e., it changes the data type of any variable to some other
data type.
We know it is a bit confusing but let me tell you in a simple manner. Suppose
there is a string "34" Note: String is not integer since it is enclosed in double-
quotes) and as we know we cannot add this to an integer number let us say 6.
But to do so we can typecast this string to int data type and then we can add
34+6 to get the output as 40. Have a look at the program below:
Example
# Typecasting in Python:
abc = 5
abc2 = '45'
abc3 = 55.95
xyz = 5.0
abc4 = int(abc2)
print(abc + abc4)
print(abc + int(abc2))
print(float(abc) + xyz)

Output

There are many functions to convert one data type into another type:
• str() – this function allows us to convert some other data type into a
string.
• int() – this function allows us to convert some other data type into an
integer. For example, int("34") returns 34 which is of type integer (int)
• float() – this function allows us to convert some other data type into
floating-point number i.e. a number with decimals.

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Input Function
This function allows the user to receive input from the keyboard into the
program as a string.
input() function always takes input as a string i.e. if we ask the user to take a
number as input even then it will take it as a string and we will have to
typecast it into another data type as per the use case.
If you enter 45 when input() is called, you will get "45" as a string.
Example
# Input Function in Python:
print("Enter your name : ")
name = input() # It will take input from user
print("Your Name is", name) # It will show the name
xyz = input("Enter your age : ")
print("Your age is", xyz)

Output

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Example
Ask 2 numbers from user and print the sum of those numbers.
Let us solve this question in different style showing you common mistakes.
Ans 1 (Does not give expected answer)
a = input("Enter number 1 = ")
b = input("Enter number 2 = ")
print(a + b)

This solution does not work because, whenever we take input from user, it’s
data type will always be a string. And we know when we add 2 strings, the
result will always be a concatenation of 2 strings.

Ans 2
a = input("Enter number 1 = ")
b = input("Enter number 2 = ")
c = int(a)
d = int(b)
print(c + d)

This will give us proper solution because we converted our both strings into
integers and stored them in c and d.

Ans 3
a = int(input("Enter number 1 = "))
b = int(input("Enter number 2 = "))
print(a + b)

This solution will also work because we directly converting the string at the
same line as input.

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String formatting in Python

String formatting is the process of infusing things in the string dynamically and
presenting the string.
There are different ways to perform string formatting in Python:
• Formatting with % Operator.
• Formatting with string literals, called f-strings.

Formatting with % Operator

It is the oldest method of string formatting. Here we use the modulo %
operator. The modulo % is also known as the “string-formatting operator.”
Let us print the name and age of user in a proper way using %.
Example
name = input("Enter your name = ")
age = int(input("Enter your age = "))
print("Your name is %s" % name)
print("Your age is %d" % age)
print("Your name is %s and your age is %d" % (name, age))

Output

‘%s’ is used to inject strings similarly ‘%d’ for integers, ‘%f’ for floating-point
values, ‘%b’ for binary format.
Try these examples below:
pi = 3.14563
print("The value of pi is: %f" % pi)
print("The value of pi up to 2 decimal is: %.2f" % pi)

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Formatted String using F-strings

PEP 498 introduced a new string formatting mechanism known as Literal String
Interpolation or more commonly as F-strings (because of the leading f
character preceding the string literal). The idea behind f-strings is to make
string interpolation simpler.
To create an f-string, prefix the string with the letter “ f ”. The string itself can
be formatted in much the same way that you would with str.format(). F-strings
provide a concise and convenient way to embed python expressions inside
string literals for formatting.
Example
name = input("Enter your name = ")
age = int(input("Enter your age = "))
print(f"Your name is {name}")
print(f"Your age is {age}")
print(f"Your name is {name} and your age is {age}")

pi = 3.14563
print(f"The value of pi is: {pi}")

Output

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Practice Examples (BASICS)

1. Write a program that takes two numbers as input from the user and then
prints the sum of these numbers.
2. Write a Program that takes Length and Breadth as input from user and
print the Area of Rectangle.
3. Ask 3 numbers from User and Calculate the Average.
4. Calculate sum of 5 subjects and Find percentage.
5. Ask marks in 5 subjects and calculate Total Marks and Find percentage.
6. Ask value in Rupees and Convert into Paise.
7. Calculate Area of Square by taking Length from User.
8. Ask number of games played in a tournament. Ask the user number of
games won and number of games loss. Calculate number of tie and total
Points. (1 win= 4 points, 1 tie =2 points)
For solutions, check the end of the book.

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