PYTHON FUNDAMENTALS

V SHANKAR, PGT-CS, KVSVS

Python Character Set
It is a set of valid characters that python can recognize. A
character represents letters, digits or any symbol. Python
support UNICODE encoding standard. Following are the
Python character set
 Letters : A-Z, a-z
 Digits : 0-9
 Special symbols: space +-*/()~`!@#$%^ & [{
]};:‟ ”,<.>/?
 White spaces : Blank space, Enter, Tab
 Other character : python can process all ASCII and
UNICODE as a part of data or literal
TOKENS
In a passage of text, individual words and punctuation
marks are called tokens or lexical units or lexical
elements. The smallest individual unit in a program is
known as Tokens. Python has following tokens:

 Keywords
 Identifiers(Name)
 Literals
 Operators
 Punctuators
 KEYWORDS
Keywords are the reserved words and have special
meaning for python interpreter. Every keyword is
assigned specific work and it can be used only for that
purpose.
A partial list of keywords in Python is

VINOD KUMAR VERMA, PGT(CS), KV OEF KANPUR &

SACHIN BHARDWAJ, PGT(CS), KV NO.1 TEZPUR
IDENTIFIERS
Are the names given to different parts of program like variables,
objects, classes, functions etc.
Identifier forming rules of Python are:

 Is an arbitrarily long sequence of letters and digits

 The first character must be letter or underscore
 Upper and lower case are different
 The digits 0-9 are allowed except for first character
 It must not be a keyword
 No special characters are allowed other than underscore is allowed.
 Space not allowed
The following are some valid identifiers
GradePay File_12_2018 JAMES007
GRADEPAY _ismarried _to_update

The following are some invalid identifiers

Literals / Values
 Literals are data items that have a fixed value.
Python supports several kinds of literals:
 String Literal
 Numeric Literals

 Boolean Literals

 Special Literals – None

 Literal Collections
String Literals
 It is a collection of character(s) enclosed in a double or
single quotes
 Examples of String literals
 “Python”
 “Mogambo”
 „123456‟
 „Hello How are your‟ 
 „$‟ , „4‟ ,”@@”
 In Python both single character or multiple characters
enclosed in quotes such as “kv”, „kv‟ ,‟ *‟ ,”+” are treated
as same
Non-Graphic (Escape) characters
 They are the special characters which cannot be
type directly from keyboard like backspace, tabs,
enter etc. When the characters are typed they
perform some action. These are represented by
escape characters. Escape characters are always
begins from backslash (\) character.
List of Escape characters
Escape Sequence What it does Escape Sequence What it does
\\ Backslash \r Carriage return
\‟ Single quotes \t Horizontal tab
\” Double quotes \uxxxx Hexadecimal
value(16 bit)
\a ASCII bell \Uxxxx Hexadecimal
value(32 bit)
\b Back Space \v vertical tab
\n New line \ooo Octal value
String type in Python
 Python allows you to have two string types:
 Single Line Strings
 The string we create using single or double quotes are
normally single-line string i.e. they must terminate in one line.
 For e.g if you type as
 Name="KV and press enter
 Python we show you an error “EOL while scanning string literal”
 The reason is quite clear, Python by default creates single-line
string with both single quotes and it must terminate in the same
line by quotes
String type in Python
 Multiline String
 Sometimes we need to store some text across multiple
lines. For that Python offers multiline string.
 To store multiline string Python provides two ways:
(a) By adding a backslash at the end of normal Single / DOUBLE
QUOTED string. For e.g.
>>> Name="1/6 Mall Road \
KANPUR"
>>> Name
'1/6 Mall RoadKANPUR'
>>>
String type in Python
 Multiline String
(b) By typing text in triple qUOTation marks
for e.g.
>>> Address="""1/7 Preet Vihar
New Delhi
India"""
>>> print(Address)
1/7 Preet Vihar
New Delhi
India
>>> Address
'1/7 Preet Vihar\nNew Delhi\nIndia'
 Size of String
 Python determines the size of string as the count of characters in the string.
For example, size of string “xyz” is 3 and of “welcome” is 7. But if your
string literal has an escape sequence contained in it then make sure to count
the escape sequence as one character. For e.g.

String Size
„\\‟ 1
„abc‟ 3
„\ab‟ 2
“Meera\‟ s Toy” 11
“Vicky‟ s” 7
 You can check these size using len() function of Python. For example
 >>>len(„abc‟ ) and press enter, it will show the size as 3
 Size of String
 For multiline strings created with triple quotes : while calculating size
the EOL character as the end of line is also counted in the size. For
example, if you have created String Address as:
>>> Address="""Civil lines
Kanpur"""
>>> len(Address)
18
 For multiline string created with single/double quotes the EOL is not
counted.
>>> data="ab\
bc\
cd"
>>> len(data)
6
Numeric Literals
 The numeric literals in Python can belong to any of
the following numerical types:
1) Integer Literals: it contains at least one digit and must
not contain decimal point. It may contain (+) or (-) sign.
 Types of Integer Literals:
a) Decimal : 1234, -50, +100
b) Octal : it starts from symbol 0o (zero followed by
letter ‘o’)
 For e.g. 0o10 represent decimal 8
Numeric Literals
>>> num = 0o10
>>> print(num)
It will print the value 8

c) Hexadecimal : it starts from 0x (zero followed by

letter ‘x’)
>>> num = 0oF
>>> print(num)
it will print the value 15
Numeric Literals
 2) Floating point Literals: also known as real
literals. Real literals are numbers having fractional
parts. It is represented in two forms Fractional Form
or Exponent Form
 Fractional Form: it is signed or unsigned with decimal point
 For e.g. 12.0, -15.86, 0.5, 10. (will represent 10.0)
 Exponent Part: it consists of two parts “Mantissa” and
“Exponent”.
 For e.g. 10.5 can be represented as 0.105 x 102 = 0.105E02 where
0.105 is mantissa and 02 (after letter E) is exponent
 Points to remember
 Numeric values with commas are not considered int or float value, rather Python
treats them as tuple. Tuple in a python is a collection of values or sequence of values.
(will be discussed later on)
 You can check the type of literal using type() function. For e.g.
>>> a=100
>>> type(a)
<class 'int'>
>>> b=10.5
>>> type(b)
<class 'float'>
>>> name="hello“
>>> type(name)
<class 'str'>
>>> a=100,50,600
>>> type(a)
<class 'tuple'>
Boolean Literals
A Boolean literals in Python is used to represent one of the two
Boolean values i.e. True or False
These are the only two values supported for Boolean Literals
For e.g.

>>> isMarried=True
>>> type(isMarried)
<class 'bool'>
Special Literals None
Python has one special literal, which is None. It indicates absence
of value. In other languages it is knows as NULL. It is also used to
indicate the end of lists in Python.

>>> salary=None
>>> type(salary)
<class 'NoneType'>
Complex Numbers
Complex: Complex number in python is made up of two floating point values,
one each for real and imaginary part. For accessing different parts of
variable (object) x; we will use x.real and x.image. Imaginary part of the
number is represented by “j” instead of “I”, so 1+0j denotes zero imaginary.
part.
Example
>>> x = 1+0j
>>> print x.real,x.imag
1.0 0.0
Example
>>> y = 9-5j
>>> print y.real, y.imag
9.0 -5.0
 Conversion from one type to another
Python allows converting value of one data type to another data
type. If it is done by the programmer, then it will be known as type
conversion or type casting and if it is done by compiler automatically
then it will be known as implicit type conversion.
Example of Implicit type conversion
>>> x = 100
>>> type(x)
<type 'int'>
>>> y = 12.5
>>> type(y)
<type 'float'>
>>> x=y
>>> type(x)
<type 'float'> # Here x is automatically converted to float
Conversion from one type to another
Explicit type conversion
To perform explicit type conversion Python provide functions like
int(), float(), str(), bool()
>>> a=50.25
>>> b=int(a)
>>> print b
50
Here 50.25 is converted to int value 50
>>>a=25
>>>y=float(a)
>>>print y
25.0
 Simple Input and Output
 In python we can take input from user using the built-in function
input().
 Syntax
variable = input(<message to display>)
Note: value taken by input() function will always be of String type, so by
default you will not be able to perform any arithmetic operation on variable.
>>> marks=input("Enter your marks ")
Enter your marks 100
>>> type(marks)
<class 'str'>
Here YOU can see even we are entering vALUE 100 BUT it will be treated as
string and will not allow any arithmetic operation
 Simple Input and Output
>>> salary=inPUt("Enter yoUR salary ")
Enter YOUr salary 5000
>>> bONUs = salary*20/100
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <modULe>
TypeError: UNSUpported operand type(s) for /: 'str' and 'int'
Reading / Input of Numbers
 Now we are aware that input() function value will
always be of string type, but what to do if we want
number to be entered. The SOLUTION to this problem is
to convert vALUES of INPUT() to NUMERIC type USING int()
or float() FUNCTION.
Possible chances of error while taking
input as numbers
1. Entering float value while converting to int
>>> num1=int(input("Enter marks "))
Enter marks 100.5
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '100.5‘

2. Entering of values in words rather than numeric

>>> age=int(input("What is your age "))
What is your age Eighteen
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: Eighteen'
Possible chances of error while taking
input as numbers
3. While input for float value must be compatible. For e.g.
Example 1
>>> percentage=floaT(INPUt("Enter percentage "))
Enter percentage 12.5.6
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <modUle>
ValUeError: coUld not convert string to float: '12.5.6'

Example 2
>>> percentage=float(INPUt("Enter percentage "))
Enter percentage 100 percent
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <moDUle>
VALUeError: COULD not convert string to float: „100 percent'
Program 1
Open a new script file and type the following code:

num1=int(input("Enter Number 1 "))

num2=int(input("Enter Number 2 "))
num3 = num1 + num2
print("Result =",num3)

Save and execute by F5 and observe the result

Let us write few programs
 WAP to enter length and breadth and calculate area
of rectangle
 WAP to enter radius of circle and calculate area of
circle
 WAP to enter Name, marks of 5 subject and calculate
total & percentage of student
 WAP to enter distance in feet and convert it into inches
 WAP to enter value of temperature in Fahrenheit and
convert it into Celsius.
 WAP to enter radius and height of cylinder and
calculate volume of cylinder.
Operators
 are symbol that perform specific operation when
applied on variables. Take a look at the expression:
(Operator)
10 + 25 (Operands)
Above statement is an expression (combination
of operator and operands)
i.e. operator operates on operand. some operator requires two
operand and some requires only one operand to operate
Types of Operators
 Unary operators: are those operators that require
one operand to operate upon. Following are some
unary operators:

Operator Purpose
+ Unary plus
- Unary minus
~ Bitwise complement
Not Logical negation
Types of Operators
 Binary Operators: are those operators that require two
operands to operate upon. Following are some Binary
operators:
1. Arithmetic Operators
Operator Action
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
% Remainder
** Exponent
// Floor division
Example
>>> num1=20
>>> num2=7
>>> val = num1 % num2
>>> print(val)
6
>>> val = 2**4
>>> print(val)
16
>>> val = num1 / num2
>>> print(val)
2.857142857142857
>>> val = num1 // num2
>>> print(val)
2
 Bitwise operator
Operator Purpose Action
Bitwise operator works
& Bitwise AND Return 1 if both on the binary value of
inputs are 1 number not on the actual
^ Bitwise XOR Return 1, if the value. For example if 5
number of 1 in is passed to these
input is in odd operator it will work on
101 not on 5. Binary of
| Bitwise OR Return 1 if any 5 is 101, and return the
input is 1 result in decimal not in
binary.
 Example
Binary of 12 is 1100 and 7 is 0111, so applying &
1100
0111
-------
Guess the output with
0100 Which is equal to decimal value 4
| and ^ ?

Let us see one practical example, To check whether entered number is divisible of 2 (or in
a power of 2 or not) like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on
To check this, no need of loop, simply find the bitwise & of n and n-1, if the RESUlt is 0 it
means it is in power of 2 otherwise not

Here we can see 0, Here we can see

Later on by using „if‟ we can print 16, it means 24 is
it means 32 is in
meaningful message power of 2 not in power of 2
 Operators Purpose
<< Shift left
>> Shift right

Identity Operators
Operators Purpose
is Is the Identity same?
is not Is the identity not same?
Relational Operators
Operators Purpose
< Less than
> Greater than
<= Less than or Equal to
>= Greater than or Equal to
== Equal to
!= Not equal to
Logical Operators
Operators Purpose
and Logical AND
or Logical OR
not Logical NOT
Assignment Operators
Operators Purpose
= Assignment
/= Assign quotient
+= Assign sum
-= Assign difference
*= Assign product
**= Assign Exponent
//= Assign Floor division
 Membership Operators
Operators Purpose
in Whether variable in
sequence
not in Whether variable not in
sequence
Punctuators
 Punctuators are symbols that are used in programming
languages to organize sentence structure, and indicate
the rhythm and emphasis of expressions, statements,
and program structure.
 Common punctuators are: „ “ # $ @ [ ] {}=:;(),.
 Barebones of Python Program
 It means basic structure of a Python program
 Take a look of following code:

#This program shows a program‟ s component

# Definition of function SeeYou() follows
def SeeYou(): Comments
print(“This is my function”)
#Main program Function
A=10
B=A+20
Expressions
Statements

C=A+B Inline Comment

if(C>=100) #checking condition
print(“Value is equals or more than 100”)
else:
print(“Value is less than 100”) Block
Indentation

SeeYou() #Calling Function

Expression
 An expression is any legal combination of symbols that
represents a value. An expression is generally a
combination of operators and operands
Example:
expression of values only
20, 3.14
Expression that produce a value when evaluated
A+10
Salary * 10 / 100
 Statement
 It is a programming instruction that does something i.e.
some action takes place.
 Example

print(“Welcome to python”)
The above statement call print fUNCtion
When an expression is evaluated a statement is executed
i.e. some action takes place.
a=100
b = b + 20
 Comments
 Comments are additional information written in a
program which is not executed by interpreter i.e.
ignored by Interpreter. Comment contains information
regarding statements used, program flow, etc.
 Comments in Python begins from #

 Python supports 3 ways to enter comments:

1. Full line comment

2. Inline comment
3. Multiline comment
 Comments
 Full line comment
Example:
#This is program of vOLUME of cylinder
 Inline comment

Example
area = length*breadth # CALCULAting area of rectangle
 Multiline comment

Example 1 (using #)
# Program name: area of circle
# Date: 20/07/18
#LANGUage : Python
Comments
Multiline comment (using “ “ “) triple quotes
Example
“““
Program name : swapping of two NUMBER
Date : 20/07/18
Logic : by USIng third variable
”””
Functions
Function is a block of code that has name and can be
reused by specifying its name in the program where
needed. It is created with def keyword.
Example
def drawline():
print(“======================“)
print(“Welcome to Python”)
drawline()
print(“Designed by Class XI”)
drawline()
 Block and Indentation
 Group of statement is known as block like function,
conditions or loop etc.
 For e.g.

def area():
a = 10
b=5
c=a*b
Indentation means extra space before writing any
statement. Generally, four space together marks the
next indent level.
Variables
 Variables are named temporary location used to store
values which can be further used in calculations, printing
result etc. Every variable must have its own Identity, type
and value. Variable in python is created by simply
assigning value of desired type to them.
 For e.g
 NUM = 100
 Name=“James”
 Variables
 Note: Python variables are not storage containers like other
programming LANGUAGe. Let US analyze by example.
 In C++, if we declare a variable radius:

radIUs = 100
[SUPPOSE memory address is 41260]
Now we again assign new vALUE to radIUs
radIUs = 500
Now the memory address will be still same only valUE
will change
Variables
Now let US take example of Python:
rADIUS = 100 [memory address 3568]

radIUs = 700 [memory address 8546]

Now YOU can see that In python, each time YOU assign new
vALUE to variable it will not USE the same memory address
and new memory will be assigned to variable. In python the
location they refer t o changes e v e r y time t h e i r
value change. (This RULe is not for all types of variables)
Lvalues and Rvalues
 Lvalue : expression that comes on the Left Hand Side of
Assignment.
 Rvalue : expression that comes on the Right Hand Side of
Assignment

Lvalue refers to object to which you can assign value. It refers to

memory location. It can appear LHS or RHS of assignment

Rvalue refers to the value we assign to any variable. It can

appear on RHS of assignment
Lvalues and Rvalues
For example, (valid use of Lvalue and Rvalue)
x = 100
y = 200

Invalid use of Lvalue and Rvalue

100 = x
200 = y
a+b = c

Note: vALUES cannot come to the left of assignment. LHS mUST be a

memory location
 Multiple Assignments
 Python is very versatile with assignments. Let’s see in how different ways
we can use assignment in Python:
1. Assigning same value to multiple variable
a = b = c = 50
2. Assigning multiple values to multiple variable
a,b,c = 11,22,33

Note: While assigning vALUes thrOUGH MULTIPLE assignment, remember that

Python first evALUAtes the RHS and then assigns them to LHS

Examples:
Multiple Assignments
x, y, z = 10, 20, 30 #Statement 1
z, y, x = x+1, z+10, y-10 #Statement 2
print (x, y, z)
Output will be
10 40 11
Now guess the output of following code fragment
x, y = 7, 9
y, z = x-2, x+10
print (x, y, z)
Multiple Assignments
Let us take another example

y, y = 10, 20

In above code first it will assign 10 to y and again it assigns 20

to y, so if you print the value of y it will print 20

Now guess the output of following code

x, x = 100,200
y, y = x + 100, x +200
print (x, y)
Variable definition
 Variable in python is create when you assign value to it
i.e. a variable is not creating in memory until some value is
assigned to it.
 Let us take as example (if we execute the following code)
print(x)
Python will show an error „x‟ not defined
So to correct the above code:
x=0
print(x) #now it will show no error
Dynamic Typing
 In Python, a variable declared as numeric type can be
further used to store string type or another.
 Dynamic typing means a variable pointing to a value of
certain type can be made to point to value/object of
different type.
 Let’s us understand with example
x = 100 # numeric type
print(x)
x = “KVians” # now x point to string type
print(x)
Dynamic Typing

x=10 x int: 100

0
x = “KVians” x int:100

string:KVians
 Caution with Dynamic Typing
 Always ensure correct operation during dynamic typing.
If types are not used correctly Python may raise an
error.
 Take an example

x = 100
y=0
y=x/2
print(y)
x='Exam'
y = x / 2 # Error, you cannot divide string
Determining type of variable
Python provides type () function to check the datatype of
variables.
>>> salary=100
>>> type(salary)
<class 'int'>
>>> salary=2000.50
>>> type(salary)
<class 'float'>
>>> name="raka"
>>> type(name)
<class 'str'>
Output through print()

 Python allows to display output using print().

 Syntax:
print(message_to_print[,sep=“string”,end=“string”])
Example 1
print(“Welcome”)
Example 2
Age=20
print(“Your age is “, Age)
Output through print()
Example 3
r = int(input("Enter Radius "))
print("Area of circle is ",3.14*r*r)

Note: from the Example 2 and Example 3 we can

observe that while printing numeric value print() convert
it into equivalent string and print it. In case of expression
(Example 3) it first evaluate it and then convert the result
to string before printing.
Output through print()
Note:
print() automatically insert space between different values
given in it. The default argument of sep parameter of
print() is space(‘ ‘) .
Example
print(“Name is”,”Vicky”)
Output
Name is Vicky
Output through print()
Note:
Python allows to change the separator string.
Example
print(“Name is”,”Vicky”,”Singh”,sep=“##”)
Output
Name is ##Vicky##Singh
Output through print()
Note:
Be default each print statement print the value to next
line. The default value of end is “\n”
Example
print(“Learning Python”)
print(“Developed by Guido Van Rossum”)
Output
Learning Python
Developed by Guido Van Rossum
Output through print()
Note:
We can change the value of end to any other value.
Example
print(“Learning Python”,end=“ “)
print(“Developed by Guido Van Rossum”)
Output
Learning Python Developed by Guido Van Rossum
Output through print()
Can you Guess the output
Name = “James”
Salary=20000
Dept = “IT”
print(“Name is “,Name,end=“@”)
print(Dept)
print(“Salary is “,Salary)
Just a minute…
 What is the difference between keywords and
identifiers?
 What are literals in Python? How many types of
literals in python?
 What will be the size of following string:

„\a‟ , “\a” , “Reena\‟ s”, „\”‟ , “It‟ s”, “XY\ , “ “ “XY

YZ” YZ”””
 How many types of String in python?
 Just a minute…

 What are the different ways to declare multiline String?

 Identify the type of following literal:

41.678, 12345, True, „True‟, “False”, 0xCAFE, 0o456,0o971

 Difference between Expression and Statement

 What is the error inn following python program:

print (“Name is “, name)

SUggest a soLUtion
Just a minute…

 Which of the following string will be the syntactically

correct? State reason.
1. “Welcome to India”
2. „He annOUnced “Start the match” very LOUdly‟
3. “Sayonara‟
4. „Revise Python Chapter 1‟
5. “BonjOUr
6. “Honesty is the „best‟ policy”
Just a minute…

 The following code is not giving desired output. We

want to enter value as 100 and obtain output as 200.
Identify error and correct the program

NUm = INPUt("enter any NUmber")

DOUble_NUm = NUm * 2
Print("DOUble of",NUm,"is",DOUBLE_nUM)
Just a minute…

 Why the following code is giving error?

Name="James"
Salary=20000
Dept="IT"
print("Name is ",Name,end='@')
print(Dept)
print("Salary is ",Salary)
Just a minute…

 WAP to obtain temperature in Celsius and convert it into

Fahrenheit.
 What will be the output of following code:
x, y = 6,8
x, y = y, x+2
print (x, y)
 What will be the output of following code:
x, y = 7,2
x, y, x = x+4, y+6, x+100
print(x, y)