assign to variable python

Python Variables

In Python, a variable is a container that stores a value. In other words, variable is the name given to a value, so that it becomes easy to refer a value later on.

Unlike C# or Java, it's not necessary to explicitly define a variable in Python before using it. Just assign a value to a variable using the = operator e.g. variable_name = value . That's it.

The following creates a variable with the integer value.

In the above example, we declared a variable named num and assigned an integer value 10 to it. Use the built-in print() function to display the value of a variable on the console or IDLE or REPL .

In the same way, the following declares variables with different types of values.

Multiple Variables Assignment

You can declare multiple variables and assign values to each variable in a single statement, as shown below.

In the above example, the first int value 10 will be assigned to the first variable x, the second value to the second variable y, and the third value to the third variable z. Assignment of values to variables must be in the same order in they declared.

You can also declare different types of values to variables in a single statement separated by a comma, as shown below.

Above, the variable x stores 10 , y stores a string 'Hello' , and z stores a boolean value True . The type of variables are based on the types of assigned value.

Assign a value to each individual variable separated by a comma will throw a syntax error, as shown below.

Variables in Python are objects. A variable is an object of a class based on the value it stores. Use the type() function to get the class name (type) of a variable.

In the above example, num is an object of the int class that contains integre value 10 . In the same way, amount is an object of the float class, greet is an object of the str class, isActive is an object of the bool class.

Unlike other programming languages like C# or Java, Python is a dynamically-typed language, which means you don't need to declare a type of a variable. The type will be assigned dynamically based on the assigned value.

The + operator sums up two int variables, whereas it concatenates two string type variables.

Object's Identity

Each object in Python has an id. It is the object's address in memory represented by an integer value. The id() function returns the id of the specified object where it is stored, as shown below.

Variables with the same value will have the same id.

Thus, Python optimize memory usage by not creating separate objects if they point to same value.

Naming Conventions

Any suitable identifier can be used as a name of a variable, based on the following rules:

• The name of the variable should start with either an alphabet letter (lower or upper case) or an underscore (_), but it cannot start with a digit.
• More than one alpha-numeric characters or underscores may follow.
• The variable name can consist of alphabet letter(s), number(s) and underscore(s) only. For example, myVar , MyVar , _myVar , MyVar123 are valid variable names, but m*var , my-var , 1myVar are invalid variable names.
• Variable names in Python are case sensitive. So, NAME , name , nAME , and nAmE are treated as different variable names.
• Variable names cannot be a reserved keywords in Python.
• Compare strings in Python
• Convert file data to list
• Convert User Input to a Number
• Convert String to Datetime in Python
• How to call external commands in Python?
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• How to flatten list in Python?
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• Remove duplicate items from list in Python
• More Python articles

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< 2.0 Variables and Basic Data Structures | Contents | 2.2 Data Structure - Strings >

Variables and Assignment ¶

When programming, it is useful to be able to store information in variables. A variable is a string of characters and numbers associated with a piece of information. The assignment operator , denoted by the “=” symbol, is the operator that is used to assign values to variables in Python. The line x=1 takes the known value, 1, and assigns that value to the variable with name “x”. After executing this line, this number will be stored into this variable. Until the value is changed or the variable deleted, the character x behaves like the value 1.

TRY IT! Assign the value 2 to the variable y. Multiply y by 3 to show that it behaves like the value 2.

A variable is more like a container to store the data in the computer’s memory, the name of the variable tells the computer where to find this value in the memory. For now, it is sufficient to know that the notebook has its own memory space to store all the variables in the notebook. As a result of the previous example, you will see the variable “x” and “y” in the memory. You can view a list of all the variables in the notebook using the magic command %whos .

TRY IT! List all the variables in this notebook

Note that the equal sign in programming is not the same as a truth statement in mathematics. In math, the statement x = 2 declares the universal truth within the given framework, x is 2 . In programming, the statement x=2 means a known value is being associated with a variable name, store 2 in x. Although it is perfectly valid to say 1 = x in mathematics, assignments in Python always go left : meaning the value to the right of the equal sign is assigned to the variable on the left of the equal sign. Therefore, 1=x will generate an error in Python. The assignment operator is always last in the order of operations relative to mathematical, logical, and comparison operators.

TRY IT! The mathematical statement x=x+1 has no solution for any value of x . In programming, if we initialize the value of x to be 1, then the statement makes perfect sense. It means, “Add x and 1, which is 2, then assign that value to the variable x”. Note that this operation overwrites the previous value stored in x .

There are some restrictions on the names variables can take. Variables can only contain alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) as well as underscores. However, the first character of a variable name must be a letter or underscores. Spaces within a variable name are not permitted, and the variable names are case-sensitive (e.g., x and X will be considered different variables).

TIP! Unlike in pure mathematics, variables in programming almost always represent something tangible. It may be the distance between two points in space or the number of rabbits in a population. Therefore, as your code becomes increasingly complicated, it is very important that your variables carry a name that can easily be associated with what they represent. For example, the distance between two points in space is better represented by the variable dist than x , and the number of rabbits in a population is better represented by nRabbits than y .

Note that when a variable is assigned, it has no memory of how it was assigned. That is, if the value of a variable, y , is constructed from other variables, like x , reassigning the value of x will not change the value of y .

EXAMPLE: What value will y have after the following lines of code are executed?

WARNING! You can overwrite variables or functions that have been stored in Python. For example, the command help = 2 will store the value 2 in the variable with name help . After this assignment help will behave like the value 2 instead of the function help . Therefore, you should always be careful not to give your variables the same name as built-in functions or values.

TIP! Now that you know how to assign variables, it is important that you learn to never leave unassigned commands. An unassigned command is an operation that has a result, but that result is not assigned to a variable. For example, you should never use 2+2 . You should instead assign it to some variable x=2+2 . This allows you to “hold on” to the results of previous commands and will make your interaction with Python must less confusing.

You can clear a variable from the notebook using the del function. Typing del x will clear the variable x from the workspace. If you want to remove all the variables in the notebook, you can use the magic command %reset .

In mathematics, variables are usually associated with unknown numbers; in programming, variables are associated with a value of a certain type. There are many data types that can be assigned to variables. A data type is a classification of the type of information that is being stored in a variable. The basic data types that you will utilize throughout this book are boolean, int, float, string, list, tuple, dictionary, set. A formal description of these data types is given in the following sections.

Python Variables – The Complete Beginner's Guide

Variables are an essential part of Python. They allow us to easily store, manipulate, and reference data throughout our projects.

This article will give you all the understanding of Python variables you need to use them effectively in your projects.

If you want the most convenient way to review all the topics covered here, I've put together a helpful cheatsheet for you right here:

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What is a Variable in Python?

So what are variables and why do we need them?

Variables are essential for holding onto and referencing values throughout our application. By storing a value into a variable, you can reuse it as many times and in whatever way you like throughout your project.

You can think of variables as boxes with labels, where the label represents the variable name and the content of the box is the value that the variable holds.

In Python, variables are created the moment you give or assign a value to them.

How Do I Assign a Value to a Variable?

Assigning a value to a variable in Python is an easy process.

You simply use the equal sign = as an assignment operator, followed by the value you want to assign to the variable. Here's an example:

In this example, we've created two variables: country and year_founded. We've assigned the string value "United States" to the country variable and integer value 1776 to the year_founded variable.

There are two things to note in this example:

• Variables in Python are case-sensitive . In other words, watch your casing when creating variables, because Year_Founded will be a different variable than year_founded even though they include the same letters
• Variable names that use multiple words in Python should be separated with an underscore _ . For example, a variable named "site name" should be written as "site_name" . This convention is called snake case (very fitting for the "Python" language).

How Should I Name My Python Variables?

There are some rules to follow when naming Python variables.

Some of these are hard rules that must be followed, otherwise your program will not work, while others are known as conventions . This means, they are more like suggestions.

Variable naming rules

• Variable names must start with a letter or an underscore _ character.
• Variable names can only contain letters, numbers, and underscores.
• Variable names cannot contain spaces or special characters.

Variable naming conventions

• Variable names should be descriptive and not too short or too long.
• Use lowercase letters and underscores to separate words in variable names (known as "snake_case").

What Data Types Can Python Variables Hold?

One of the best features of Python is its flexibility when it comes to handling various data types.

Python variables can hold various data types, including integers, floats, strings, booleans, tuples and lists:

Integers are whole numbers, both positive and negative.

Floats are real numbers or numbers with a decimal point.

Strings are sequences of characters, namely words or sentences.

Booleans are True or False values.

Lists are ordered, mutable collections of values.

Tuples are ordered, immutable collections of values.

There are more data types in Python, but these are the most common ones you will encounter while working with Python variables.

Python is Dynamically Typed

Python is what is known as a dynamically-typed language. This means that the type of a variable can change during the execution of a program.

Another feature of dynamic typing is that it is not necessary to manually declare the type of each variable, unlike other programming languages such as Java.

You can use the type() function to determine the type of a variable. For instance:

What Operations Can Be Performed?

Variables can be used in various operations, which allows us to transform them mathematically (if they are numbers), change their string values through operations like concatenation, and compare values using equality operators.

Mathematic Operations

It's possible to perform basic mathematic operations with variables, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division:

It's also possible to find the remainder of a division operation by using the modulus % operator as well as create exponents using the ** syntax:

String operators

Strings can be added to one another or concatenated using the + operator.

Equality comparisons

Values can also be compared in Python using the < , > , == , and != operators.

These operators, respectively, compare whether values are less than, greater than, equal to, or not equal to each other.

Finally, note that when performing operations with variables, you need to ensure that the types of the variables are compatible with each other.

For example, you cannot directly add a string and an integer. You would need to convert one of the variables to a compatible type using a function like str() or int() .

Variable Scope

The scope of a variable refers to the parts of a program where the variable can be accessed and modified. In Python, there are two main types of variable scope:

Global scope : Variables defined outside of any function or class have a global scope. They can be accessed and modified throughout the program, including within functions and classes.

Local scope : Variables defined within a function or class have a local scope. They can only be accessed and modified within that function or class.

In this example, attempting to access local_var outside of the function_with_local_var function results in a NameError , as the variable is not defined in the global scope.

Don't be afraid to experiment with different types of variables, operations, and scopes to truly grasp their importance and functionality. The more you work with Python variables, the more confident you'll become in applying these concepts.

Finally, if you want to fully learn all of these concepts, I've put together for you a super helpful cheatsheet that summarizes everything we've covered here.

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How to assign a variable in Python

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How can you assign a variable in Python?

An equals sign assigns in Python

In Python, the equal sign ( = ) assigns a variable to a value :

This is called an assignment statement . We've pointed the variable count to the value 4 .

We don't have declarations or initializations

Some programming languages have an idea of declaring variables .

Declaring a variable says a variable exists with this name, but it doesn't have a value yet . After you've declared the variable, you then have to initialize it with a value.

Python doesn't have the concept of declaring a variable or initializing variables . Other programming languages sometimes do, but we don't.

In Python, a variable either exists or it doesn't:

If it doesn't exist, assigning to that variable will make it exist:

Valid variable names in Python

Variables in Python can be made up of letters, numbers, and underscores:

The first character in a variable cannot be a number :

And a small handful of names are reserved , so they can't be used as variable names (as noted in SyntaxError: invalid syntax ):

Reassigning a variable in Python

What if you want to change the value of a variable ?

The equal sign is used to assign a variable to a value, but it's also used to reassign a variable:

In Python, there's no distinction between assignment and reassignment .

Whenever you assign a variable in Python, if a variable with that name doesn't exist yet, Python makes a new variable with that name . But if a variable does exist with that name, Python points that variable to the value that we're assigning it to .

Variables don't have types in Python

Note that in Python, variables don't care about the type of an object .

Our amount variable currently points to an integer:

But there's nothing stopping us from pointing it to a string instead:

Variables in Python don't have types associated with them. Objects have types but variables don't . You can point a variable to any object that you'd like.

Type annotations are really type hints

You might have seen a variable that seems to have a type. This is called a type annotation (a.k.a. a "type hint"):

But when you run code like this, Python pretty much ignores these type hints. These are useful as documentation , and they can be introspected at runtime. But type annotations are not enforced by Python . Meaning, if we were to assign this variable to a different type, Python won't care:

What's the point of that?

Well, there's a number of code analysis tools that will check type annotations and show errors if our annotations don't match.

One of these tools is called MyPy .

Type annotations are something that you can opt into in Python, but Python won't do type-checking for you . If you want to enforce type annotations in your code, you'll need to specifically run a type-checker (like MyPy) before your code runs.

Use = to assign a variable in Python

Assignment in Python is pretty simple on its face, but there's a bit of complexity below the surface.

For example, Python's variables are not buckets that contain objects : Python's variables are pointers . Also you can assign into data structures in Python.

Also, it's actually possible to assign without using an equal sign in Python. But the equal sign ( = ) is the quick and easy way to assign a variable in Python.

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Python's variables are not buckets that contain objects; they're pointers. Assignment statements don't copy: they point a variable to a value (and multiple variables can "point" to the same value).

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1.6. Variables and Assignment ¶

Each set-off line in this section should be tried in the Shell.

Nothing is displayed by the interpreter after this entry, so it is not clear anything happened. Something has happened. This is an assignment statement , with a variable , width , on the left. A variable is a name for a value. An assignment statement associates a variable name on the left of the equal sign with the value of an expression calculated from the right of the equal sign. Enter

Once a variable is assigned a value, the variable can be used in place of that value. The response to the expression width is the same as if its value had been entered.

The interpreter does not print a value after an assignment statement because the value of the expression on the right is not lost. It can be recovered if you like, by entering the variable name and we did above.

Try each of the following lines:

The equal sign is an unfortunate choice of symbol for assignment, since Python’s usage is not the mathematical usage of the equal sign. If the symbol ↤ had appeared on keyboards in the early 1990’s, it would probably have been used for assignment instead of =, emphasizing the asymmetry of assignment. In mathematics an equation is an assertion that both sides of the equal sign are already, in fact, equal . A Python assignment statement forces the variable on the left hand side to become associated with the value of the expression on the right side. The difference from the mathematical usage can be illustrated. Try:

so this is not equivalent in Python to width = 10 . The left hand side must be a variable, to which the assignment is made. Reversed, we get a syntax error . Try

This is, of course, nonsensical as mathematics, but it makes perfectly good sense as an assignment, with the right-hand side calculated first. Can you figure out the value that is now associated with width? Check by entering

In the assignment statement, the expression on the right is evaluated first . At that point width was associated with its original value 10, so width + 5 had the value of 10 + 5 which is 15. That value was then assigned to the variable on the left ( width again) to give it a new value. We will modify the value of variables in a similar way routinely.

Assignment and variables work equally well with strings. Try:

Try entering:

Note the different form of the error message. The earlier errors in these tutorials were syntax errors: errors in translation of the instruction. In this last case the syntax was legal, so the interpreter went on to execute the instruction. Only then did it find the error described. There are no quotes around fred , so the interpreter assumed fred was an identifier, but the name fred was not defined at the time the line was executed.

It is both easy to forget quotes where you need them for a literal string and to mistakenly put them around a variable name that should not have them!

Try in the Shell :

There fred , without the quotes, makes sense.

There are more subtleties to assignment and the idea of a variable being a “name for” a value, but we will worry about them later, in Issues with Mutable Objects . They do not come up if our variables are just numbers and strings.

Autocompletion: A handy short cut. Idle remembers all the variables you have defined at any moment. This is handy when editing. Without pressing Enter, type into the Shell just

Assuming you are following on the earlier variable entries to the Shell, you should see f autocompleted to be

This is particularly useful if you have long identifiers! You can press Alt-/ several times if more than one identifier starts with the initial sequence of characters you typed. If you press Alt-/ again you should see fred . Backspace and edit so you have fi , and then and press Alt-/ again. You should not see fred this time, since it does not start with fi .

1.6.1. Literals and Identifiers ¶

Expressions like 27 or 'hello' are called literals , coming from the fact that they literally mean exactly what they say. They are distinguished from variables, whose value is not directly determined by their name.

The sequence of characters used to form a variable name (and names for other Python entities later) is called an identifier . It identifies a Python variable or other entity.

There are some restrictions on the character sequence that make up an identifier:

The characters must all be letters, digits, or underscores _ , and must start with a letter. In particular, punctuation and blanks are not allowed.

There are some words that are reserved for special use in Python. You may not use these words as your own identifiers. They are easy to recognize in Idle, because they are automatically colored orange. For the curious, you may read the full list:

There are also identifiers that are automatically defined in Python, and that you could redefine, but you probably should not unless you really know what you are doing! When you start the editor, we will see how Idle uses color to help you know what identifies are predefined.

Python is case sensitive: The identifiers last , LAST , and LaSt are all different. Be sure to be consistent. Using the Alt-/ auto-completion shortcut in Idle helps ensure you are consistent.

What is legal is distinct from what is conventional or good practice or recommended. Meaningful names for variables are important for the humans who are looking at programs, understanding them, and revising them. That sometimes means you would like to use a name that is more than one word long, like price at opening , but blanks are illegal! One poor option is just leaving out the blanks, like priceatopening . Then it may be hard to figure out where words split. Two practical options are

• underscore separated: putting underscores (which are legal) in place of the blanks, like price_at_opening .
• using camel-case : omitting spaces and using all lowercase, except capitalizing all words after the first, like priceAtOpening

Use the choice that fits your taste (or the taste or convention of the people you are working with).

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Python Conditional Assignment

When you want to assign a value to a variable based on some condition, like if the condition is true then assign a value to the variable, else assign some other value to the variable, then you can use the conditional assignment operator.

In this tutorial, we will look at different ways to assign values to a variable based on some condition.

1. Using Ternary Operator

The ternary operator is very special operator in Python, it is used to assign a value to a variable based on some condition.

It goes like this:

Here, the value of variable will be value_if_true if the condition is true, else it will be value_if_false .

Let's see a code snippet to understand it better.

You can see we have conditionally assigned a value to variable c based on the condition a > b .

2. Using if-else statement

if-else statements are the core part of any programming language, they are used to execute a block of code based on some condition.

Using an if-else statement, we can assign a value to a variable based on the condition we provide.

Here is an example of replacing the above code snippet with the if-else statement.

3. Using Logical Short Circuit Evaluation

Logical short circuit evaluation is another way using which you can assign a value to a variable conditionally.

The format of logical short circuit evaluation is:

It looks similar to ternary operator, but it is not. Here the condition and value_if_true performs logical AND operation, if both are true then the value of variable will be value_if_true , or else it will be value_if_false .

Let's see an example:

But if we make condition True but value_if_true False (or 0 or None), then the value of variable will be value_if_false .

So, you can see that the value of c is 20 even though the condition a < b is True .

So, you should be careful while using logical short circuit evaluation.

While working with lists , we often need to check if a list is empty or not, and if it is empty then we need to assign some default value to it.

Let's see how we can do it using conditional assignment.

Here, we have assigned a default value to my_list if it is empty.

Assign a value to a variable conditionally based on the presence of an element in a list.

Now you know 3 different ways to assign a value to a variable conditionally. Any of these methods can be used to assign a value when there is a condition.

The cleanest and fastest way to conditional value assignment is the ternary operator .

if-else statement is recommended to use when you have to execute a block of code based on some condition.

Happy coding! 😊

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How To Assign Values To Variables In Python?

Harsh Pandey

Last updated on 16 Apr 2024

Assigning values in Python to variables is a fundamental and straightforward process. This action forms the basis for storing and manipulating Python data. The various methods for assigning values to variables in Python are given below.

Assign Values To Variables Direct Initialisation Method

Assigning values to variables in Python using the Direct Initialization Method involves a simple, single-line statement. This method is essential for efficiently setting up variables with initial values.

To use this method, you directly assign the desired value to a variable. The format follows variable_name = value . For instance, age = 21 assigns the integer 21 to the variable age.

This method is not just limited to integers. For example, assigning a string to a variable would be name = "Alice" . An example of this implementation in Python is.

Python Variables – Assign Multiple Values

In Python, assigning multiple values to variables can be done in a single, efficient line of code. This feature streamlines the initializing of several variables at once, making the code more concise and readable.

Python allows you to assign values to multiple variables simultaneously by separating each variable and value with commas. For example, x, y, z = 1, 2, 3 simultaneously assigns 1 to x, 2 to y, and 3 to z.

Additionally, Python supports unpacking a collection of values into variables. For example, if you have a list values = [1, 2, 3] , you can assign these values to a, b, c by writing a, b, c = values .

Python’s capability to assign multiple values to multiple variables in a single line enhances code efficiency and clarity. This feature is applicable across various data types and includes unpacking collections into multiple variables, as shown in the examples.

Assign Values To Variables Using Conditional Operator

Assigning values to variables in Python using a conditional operator allows for more dynamic and flexible value assignments based on certain conditions. This method employs the ternary operator, a concise way to assign values based on a condition's truth value.

The syntax for using the conditional operator in Python follows the pattern: variable = value_if_true if condition else value_if_false . For example, status = 'Adult' if age >= 18 else 'Minor' assigns 'Adult' to status if age is 18 or more, and 'Minor' otherwise.

This method can also be used with more complex conditions and various data types. For example, you can assign different strings to a variable based on a numerical comparison

Using the conditional operator for variable assignment in Python enables more nuanced and condition-dependent variable initialization. It is particularly useful for creating readable one-liners that eliminate the need for longer if-else statements, as illustrated in the examples.

Python One Liner Conditional Statement Assigning

Python allows for one-liner conditional statements to assign values to variables, providing a compact and efficient way of handling conditional assignments. This approach utilizes the ternary operator for conditional expressions in a single line of code.

The ternary operator syntax in Python is variable = value_if_true if condition else value_if_false . For instance, message = 'High' if temperature > 20 else 'Low' assigns 'High' to message if temperature is greater than 20, and 'Low' otherwise.

This method can also be applied to more complex conditions.

Using one-liner conditional statements in Python for variable assignment streamlines the process, especially when dealing with simple conditions. It replaces the need for multi-line if-else statements, making the code more concise and readable.

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Python Tutorial

File handling, python modules, python numpy, python pandas, python matplotlib, python scipy, machine learning, python mysql, python mongodb, python reference, module reference, python how to, python examples, python variables - assign multiple values, many values to multiple variables.

Python allows you to assign values to multiple variables in one line:

Note: Make sure the number of variables matches the number of values, or else you will get an error.

One Value to Multiple Variables

And you can assign the same value to multiple variables in one line:

Unpack a Collection

If you have a collection of values in a list, tuple etc. Python allows you to extract the values into variables. This is called unpacking .

Unpack a list:

Learn more about unpacking in our Unpack Tuples Chapter.

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Assignment operators in python.

• Walrus Operator in Python 3.8
• Increment += and Decrement -= Assignment Operators in Python
• Merging and Updating Dictionary Operators in Python 3.9
• New '=' Operator in Python3.8 f-string

Python Relational Operators

• Comparison Operators in Python
• Python NOT EQUAL operator
• Difference between == and is operator in Python
• Chaining comparison operators in Python
• Python Membership and Identity Operators
• Difference between != and is not operator in Python

In Python programming, Operators in general are used to perform operations on values and variables. These are standard symbols used for logical and arithmetic operations. In this article, we will look into different types of Python operators. 

• OPERATORS: These are the special symbols. Eg- + , * , /, etc.
• OPERAND: It is the value on which the operator is applied.

Types of Operators in Python

• Arithmetic Operators
• Comparison Operators
• Logical Operators
• Bitwise Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Identity Operators and Membership Operators

Arithmetic Operators in Python

Python Arithmetic operators are used to perform basic mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication , and division .

In Python 3.x the result of division is a floating-point while in Python 2.x division of 2 integers was an integer. To obtain an integer result in Python 3.x floored (// integer) is used.

Example of Arithmetic Operators in Python

Division operators.

In Python programming language Division Operators allow you to divide two numbers and return a quotient, i.e., the first number or number at the left is divided by the second number or number at the right and returns the quotient. 

There are two types of division operators: 

Float division

• Floor division

The quotient returned by this operator is always a float number, no matter if two numbers are integers. For example:

Example: The code performs division operations and prints the results. It demonstrates that both integer and floating-point divisions return accurate results. For example, ’10/2′ results in ‘5.0’ , and ‘-10/2’ results in ‘-5.0’ .

Integer division( Floor division)

The quotient returned by this operator is dependent on the argument being passed. If any of the numbers is float, it returns output in float. It is also known as Floor division because, if any number is negative, then the output will be floored. For example:

Example: The code demonstrates integer (floor) division operations using the // in Python operators . It provides results as follows: ’10//3′ equals ‘3’ , ‘-5//2’ equals ‘-3’ , ‘ 5.0//2′ equals ‘2.0’ , and ‘-5.0//2’ equals ‘-3.0’ . Integer division returns the largest integer less than or equal to the division result.

Precedence of Arithmetic Operators in Python

The precedence of Arithmetic Operators in Python is as follows:

• P – Parentheses
• E – Exponentiation
• M – Multiplication (Multiplication and division have the same precedence)
• D – Division
• A – Addition (Addition and subtraction have the same precedence)
• S – Subtraction

The modulus of Python operators helps us extract the last digit/s of a number. For example:

• x % 10 -> yields the last digit
• x % 100 -> yield last two digits

Arithmetic Operators With Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Modulo and Power

Here is an example showing how different Arithmetic Operators in Python work:

Example: The code performs basic arithmetic operations with the values of ‘a’ and ‘b’ . It adds (‘+’) , subtracts (‘-‘) , multiplies (‘*’) , computes the remainder (‘%’) , and raises a to the power of ‘b (**)’ . The results of these operations are printed.

Note: Refer to Differences between / and // for some interesting facts about these two Python operators.

Comparison of Python Operators

In Python Comparison of Relational operators compares the values. It either returns True or False according to the condition.

= is an assignment operator and == comparison operator.

Precedence of Comparison Operators in Python

In Python, the comparison operators have lower precedence than the arithmetic operators. All the operators within comparison operators have the same precedence order.

Example of Comparison Operators in Python

Let’s see an example of Comparison Operators in Python.

Example: The code compares the values of ‘a’ and ‘b’ using various comparison Python operators and prints the results. It checks if ‘a’ is greater than, less than, equal to, not equal to, greater than, or equal to, and less than or equal to ‘b’ .

Logical Operators in Python

Python Logical operators perform Logical AND , Logical OR , and Logical NOT operations. It is used to combine conditional statements.

Precedence of Logical Operators in Python

The precedence of Logical Operators in Python is as follows:

• Logical not
• logical and

Example of Logical Operators in Python

The following code shows how to implement Logical Operators in Python:

Example: The code performs logical operations with Boolean values. It checks if both ‘a’ and ‘b’ are true ( ‘and’ ), if at least one of them is true ( ‘or’ ), and negates the value of ‘a’ using ‘not’ . The results are printed accordingly.

Bitwise Operators in Python

Python Bitwise operators act on bits and perform bit-by-bit operations. These are used to operate on binary numbers.

Precedence of Bitwise Operators in Python

The precedence of Bitwise Operators in Python is as follows:

• Bitwise NOT
• Bitwise Shift
• Bitwise AND
• Bitwise XOR

Here is an example showing how Bitwise Operators in Python work:

Example: The code demonstrates various bitwise operations with the values of ‘a’ and ‘b’ . It performs bitwise AND (&) , OR (|) , NOT (~) , XOR (^) , right shift (>>) , and left shift (<<) operations and prints the results. These operations manipulate the binary representations of the numbers.

Python Assignment operators are used to assign values to the variables.

Let’s see an example of Assignment Operators in Python.

Example: The code starts with ‘a’ and ‘b’ both having the value 10. It then performs a series of operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and a left shift operation on ‘b’ . The results of each operation are printed, showing the impact of these operations on the value of ‘b’ .

Identity Operators in Python

In Python, is and is not are the identity operators both are used to check if two values are located on the same part of the memory. Two variables that are equal do not imply that they are identical. 

Example Identity Operators in Python

Let’s see an example of Identity Operators in Python.

Example: The code uses identity operators to compare variables in Python. It checks if ‘a’ is not the same object as ‘b’ (which is true because they have different values) and if ‘a’ is the same object as ‘c’ (which is true because ‘c’ was assigned the value of ‘a’ ).

Membership Operators in Python

In Python, in and not in are the membership operators that are used to test whether a value or variable is in a sequence.

Examples of Membership Operators in Python

The following code shows how to implement Membership Operators in Python:

Example: The code checks for the presence of values ‘x’ and ‘y’ in the list. It prints whether or not each value is present in the list. ‘x’ is not in the list, and ‘y’ is present, as indicated by the printed messages. The code uses the ‘in’ and ‘not in’ Python operators to perform these checks.

in Python, Ternary operators also known as conditional expressions are operators that evaluate something based on a condition being true or false. It was added to Python in version 2.5. 

It simply allows testing a condition in a single line replacing the multiline if-else making the code compact.

Syntax :   [on_true] if [expression] else [on_false] 

Examples of Ternary Operator in Python

The code assigns values to variables ‘a’ and ‘b’ (10 and 20, respectively). It then uses a conditional assignment to determine the smaller of the two values and assigns it to the variable ‘min’ . Finally, it prints the value of ‘min’ , which is 10 in this case.

In Python, Operator precedence and associativity determine the priorities of the operator.

Operator Precedence in Python

This is used in an expression with more than one operator with different precedence to determine which operation to perform first.

Let’s see an example of how Operator Precedence in Python works:

Example: The code first calculates and prints the value of the expression 10 + 20 * 30 , which is 610. Then, it checks a condition based on the values of the ‘name’ and ‘age’ variables. Since the name is “ Alex” and the condition is satisfied using the or operator, it prints “Hello! Welcome.”

Operator Associativity in Python

If an expression contains two or more operators with the same precedence then Operator Associativity is used to determine. It can either be Left to Right or from Right to Left.

The following code shows how Operator Associativity in Python works:

Example: The code showcases various mathematical operations. It calculates and prints the results of division and multiplication, addition and subtraction, subtraction within parentheses, and exponentiation. The code illustrates different mathematical calculations and their outcomes.

To try your knowledge of Python Operators, you can take out the quiz on Operators in Python . 

Python Operator Exercise Questions

Below are two Exercise Questions on Python Operators. We have covered arithmetic operators and comparison operators in these exercise questions. For more exercises on Python Operators visit the page mentioned below.

Q1. Code to implement basic arithmetic operations on integers

Q2. Code to implement Comparison operations on integers

Explore more Exercises: Practice Exercise on Operators in Python

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How to handle 'global' variables?

Newby question here.

I’m creating a program that traverses a directory tree using os.walk. Each directory in that tree is checked for a distinct text file, the text file is opened, and the contents searched for image filenames & urls.

I want to keep track of the total number of text files that were found, and the number of image filenames & URLs found in those text files.

For this I had created variables like counter_urls & counter_images in the ‘root’ of the module, so outside any of the functions that perform the tasks described above that will update these counter variables.

However, Pylint & Pylance don’t like that: “Constant name “counter_urls” doesn’t conform to UPPER_CASE naming style”. and (when updating a counter from a function): “Redefining name ‘counter_images’ from outer scope (line 22)”

While I do use Constants for setting Debug values, these counter variables are not Constants.

Earlier I defined those counter variables as Global, but that also seems to be frowned upon.

What is the best method for defining these counter variables?

Thanks, Fred

do you want to change a variable in one module and have access to it in another module? Or have global variables defined in one module with the ability to change their value in another module? Is this a fair understanding of your query?

This is not simply enforcing a style guide. It’s warning you that, assuming I’ve correctly guessed what the code looks like, it doesn’t mean what you appear to think it means.

If we have something like

this will fail at runtime :

From the linting tool’s perspective, counter_urls inside the function is a “redefinition” - because it is. Since the code has an assignment to counter_urls , and it does not have a global declaration, counter_urls must be a separate local variable. The tool warns you because people usually don’t want to make a local with the same name.

Then, from the tool’s perspective, the counter_urls outside the function is supposed to be a “constant” because there isn’t any code in the file that could change it.

You need to use the global declaration to make a global variable work the way you want it to.

The complaint is not about the syntax you use, or simply the fact that you have a global. (After all, in Python, the function is also a global variable.)

The problem is that you have code that wants to re-assign a name that wasn’t given to nor created by it . Doing things like that makes it harder to reason about the code - which is part of why Python has this design that requires the global statement. (Although the main reason for the design is that, this way, you don’t need any kind of declaration for local variables, which are much more common.)

There are many ways to manage scope. If you insist on re-assigning a global variable, then the global statement is the only correct way to make that work. But in almost every case, the right way to solve the problem is to give the function what it needs , instead of having the function take those things. That is: use arguments (in calls) and parameters (in the definition) to send information into the function, and use the return value to get information out.

Caveat: Python does allow you to modify the object in a global without this global declaration. (Assuming the object offers any ways to modify it. Many built-in types don’t.) The global name is a way to get at that object, and then whatever you do with it is not the name’s concern. But this is still a disorganized, complex way to program that will bite you in the long run.

Pylint is making 2 separate complaints here:

“Constant name “counter_urls” doesn’t conform to UPPER_CASE naming style” is about the convention we have that in Python we treat defaults and other fixed-but-written-as-a-name values like constants in other languages: we give them loud UPPERCASE names, eg:

Then we talk about MAX_THREADS elsewhere in the programme as needed, and it isn’t a variable we expect to be modified.

“Redefining name ‘counter_images’ from outer scope (line 22)” is a complaint that you’ve defined a variable so that it hides a variable from some outer scope (in your case, the global scope).

When you write a programme like this:

the x in the function is a local variable, and unrelated to the x in the outer/global scope. Pylint complains about this because you might then be confused about which x you’re talking about inside the function. With a function as short as the one above that is unlikely, but in something more complex it’s quite plausible. The fix here is to use a different name inside the function.

When you write a function in Python, Python deduces which variables are local variables and which are not by performing a static analysis of the function: if a name is assigned to in the function, it is a local variable. In the function f above, x is local because the for-loop assigns to it.

Generally this is a good thing: ideally most functions are what are called “pure functions”: they change noting outside them - all the communication is done by passing values to their parameters and receiving values back from a return statement. This makes it easy to think about functions on their own, and easy to think about using them elsewhere because you know they are not going to reach out and change something external (such as a global variable).

Using global variables breaks this ideal scenario, and is the core reason they are, broadly, discouraged. To make sense of a programme where functions modify global variables, you need to think about the entire programme as a whole. That gets progressively harder the bigger the programme.

I’d encourage you to structure your programme like this:

This will make every formerly global variable a local variable of the main() function, and inaccessable to the other functions. From that point on you need to pass values to the functions as parameters, and receive results back via the functions’ return statements.

WRT your desire to count URLs and images, maybe you should try using a Counter object from the collections module:

You’re already importing things; you will need to import the name Counter in order to use it:

In main() construct a Counter with counts for urls and images:

Then you can pass the counts object to whatever functions will be modifying the counts, and they can update the relevant counts:

Because Python passes variables by reference, the counts inside the function f above is a local variable, but it refers to the same Counter object from main() (assuming main calls f like f(counts) ).

is not an assignment to counts , it is modifying an object stored inside it.

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