Chapter 5

Operators and Expressions

The purspose of computing is insight, not numbers.
Richard Hamming
Chapter Objectives
Learn Pythons arithmetic, string, relational, logical, bitwise operators
Learn Pythons sequence operators (with examples from the string type)
Learn about implicit/explict conversions between values of different types
Learn how to build complicated expressions from operators and functions
Learn how operator precedence/associativity control order of evaluation
Learn how Python translates operators into equivalent method calls
Learn about the built in eval(str) -> object function
Learn how to write singlestatement functions that abstract expressions

5.1

Introduction

Expressions in programming are like formulas in mathematics: both use values

(in Python literals and names bound to values) to compute a result. But unlike
mathematics, expressions in Python can compute results of a wide variety to
types (e.g., boolean and string) not just mathematical results.
In this chapter we will study the structure of expressions (their syntax) and the
meaning of expressions (their semantics). Expressions are like molecules: they
are built from atoms (literals and names, which have values) and chemical bonds
that hold the atoms in place (operators and function calls). We understand
expressions by understanding their components.
We have already studied literals and names; we will now study the syntax and
semantics of a laundry list of operators and then learn the general rules that
we can use in Python to assemble and understand complicated expressions. As
an aid to studying the laundry list of operators, we will use categorize each
operator as arithmetic, relational, logical, bitwise, or sequence (e.g, string).
When we learn to build complicated expressions in Pythong, we will study
oval diagrams as the primary analytic tool for understand them. Oval diagrams
help us understand whether an expression is syntactically correct and what
value the expression evaluates to (computes). We will use our understanding of

78

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oval diagrams to help us learn to translate complicated formulas into Python

expressions.
We start by using the terminiology of operators returning values as we did
for functions, and also speak about operators evaluating to a value. Ultimately
we will learn that operator calls are translated by Python into method calls.
Finally, we will use our new knowledge of expressions to write more complicated assignnment statements, and later find we will find that bool expressions
are used in all interesting control structures, which we study in Chapter ??.

5.2

Operators

In this section we will examine details of all the Python operators introduced
in Table 2.3. We classify these operators, both symbols and identifiers, into
four categories and examine them separately: Arithmetic (+ - * / // % **),
Relational: (== != < > <= >= is in), Logical (and not or), and finally Bit
wise (& | ~ ^ << >>).
When describing these operators we will uses a header-like notation called
a prototype. A prototype includes the symbol/name of the operator, the
type(s) of its operand(s), and the type of result it returns; unlike headers, prototypes do not specify parameter names nor default argument values. As with
headers, if a symbol/name has multiple prototypes we say what it is overloaded.
Most operators are overloaded.
For example, the prototype < (int, int) -> bool specifies that one of the
overloaded prototypes of the lessthan operator has two int operands and returns a boolean result. Semantically, this operator returns a result of True
when its left operand is strictly less than its right operand; otherwise it returns
a result of False: so 1 < 3 returns a result of True and 3 < 1 returns a result
of False.
We categorize prototypes by the number of operands they specify. Pythons
operator prototypes specify either one or two operands: operators with one
operand are called unary operators (think uni-cycle) and operators with two
operands are called binary operators (think bi-cycle). We write unary operators in prefix form (meaning before their single operand) and we write binary
operators in infix form (meaning inbetween their two operands): the first
type in a prototype specifies the left operand and the second specifies the right
operand.

5.2.1

Arithmetic Operators

This section explains the prototypes (syntax) and semantics of all the arithmetic
operators in Python, using its three numeric types: int, float and complex.
Some are familiar operators from mathematics, but others are common only
in computer programming. The end of this section discusses how Pythons
arithmetic operators apply to bool values and how Python interprets operands
of mixed types (e.g., 3 + 5.0)

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Addition: The + operator in Python can be used in both the binary and
unary form. The binary form means add, returning a result that is the standard
arithmetic sum of its operands. The unary form means identity, returning the
same value as its operand.
Prototype
+ (int,int) -> int
+ (float,float) -> float
+ (complex,complex) -> complex
+ (int) -> int
+ (float) -> float
+ (complex) -> complex

Example
3 + 5 returns the result 8
3.0 + 5.0 returns the result 8.0
3j + 5j returns the result 8j
+3 returns the result 3
+3.0 returns the result 3.0
+3j returns the result 3j

Subtraction: The - operator in Python can be used in both the binary and
unary form. The binary form means subtract, returning a result that is the standard arithmetic difference of its operands: left operand minus right operand.
The unary form means negate, returning the negated value as its operand: zero
to zero, positive to negative, and negative to positive.
Prototype
- (int,int) -> int
- (float,float) -> float
- (complex,complex) -> complex
- (int) -> int
- (float) -> float
- (complex) -> complex
Note that we will write negative values
even though they are not literals.

Example
3 - 5 returns the result -2
3.0 - 5.0 returns the result -2.0
3j - 5j returns the result -2j
-3 returns the result -3
-3.0 returns the result -3.0
-3j returns the result -3j
like -2 as the result of computations,

Multiplication: The * operator in Python can be used only in the binary

form, which means multiplication, returning a result that is the standard arithmetic product of its operands.
Prototype
* (int,int) -> int
* (float,float) -> float
* (complex,complex) -> complex

Example
3 * 5 returns the result 15
3.0 * 5.0 returns the result 15.0
3j * 5j returns the result (-15+0j)

Complex numbers, which have real (r) and imaginary (i) parts display in
Python as (r + ij); the product of two purely imaginary numbers has a real
part that is the negative product of the imaginary parts with zero as their imaginary part: 3j * 5j returns the result (-15+0j), which is stored and displayed
as a complex number (see the prototyp), even though its imaginary part is 0.
Division: The / operator (slash) in Python can be used only in the binary
form, which means division, returning a result that is the standard arithmetic
quotient of its operands: left operand divided by right operand.
Prototype
/ (int,int) -> float
/ (float,float) -> float
/ (complex,complex) -> complex

Example
3 / 5 returns the result 0.6
3.0 / 5.0 returns the result 0.6
3j/5j returns the result (.06+0j)

Notice here that dividing two int values always returns a float result (unlike addition, subtraction, and multiplication): so even 4 / 2 which has an

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integral value returns the result 2.0.

Floor Division: The // operator (double slash) in Python can be used only
in the binary form, which also means division, but returning an integral result
of the standard arithmetic quotient of its operands: left operand divided by
right operand.
Prototype
// (int,int) -> int
// (float,float) -> float

Example
3 // 5 returns the result 0
3.0 // 5.0 returns the result 0.0

In fact, writing x//y is a simpler way to write the equivalent math.floor(x/y),

which calls the math.floor function on the actual quotient of x divided by
y. The math.floor function of an integral value is that value; but for a non
integral is the closest integral value lower (think floor) than it; so math.floor(1.5)
returns a result of 1 and math.floor(-1.5) returns a result of -2. Note that
int(1.5) also returns a result of 1, but int(-1.5) returns a result of -1: both
throw away the decimal part, which actually raises a negative value. Finally,
math.ceil is the opposite of math.floor, raising nonintegral values.
Why is the floor division operator useful? If we want to make change for
84 cents, we can use floor division to determine how many quarters to give:
84//25, which returns a result of 3: the same as math.floor(3.36).
Modulo: The % operator in Python can be used only in the binary form, which
means remainder after the left operand divided by the right operand.
Prototype
% (int,int) -> int
% (float,float) -> float

Example
8 % 3 returns the result 2
8.0 % 3.0 returns the result 2.0

In Python, the sign of the returned result is the same as the sign of the divisor
and the magnitude of the resulted result is always less than the divisor: so 17%5
returns a result of 2 because when 17 is divided by 5 the quotient is 3 and the
remainder is 2; but 17%-5 returns a result of -2 because the divisor is negative.
Mathematically a%b = a - b*(a//b) for both int and float operands. Most
uses of the % operator in programming have two positive operands.
Why is the modulo division operator useful? If we want to make change for
84 cents, we can use modulo to determine how much change is left to make after
giving quarters: using the formula above, the result is 84 - 25*(84//25) where
we subtract from 84 the product of 25 times the number of quarters returned
as change, which computes the amount of change given by 3 quarters.. So, in
the problem of making change, both the floor division (integer quotient) and
modulo (remainder after division) operators are useful.
Power: The ** operator in Python can be used only in the binary form, which
means power returning a result that is the left operand raised to the power of
the right operand.
Prototype
** (int,int) -> int
** (float,float) -> float
** (complex,complex) -> complex

Example
3 ** 5 returns the result 243
3.0 ** 5.0 returns the result 243.0
3j ** 5j returns the result (0.00027320084764143374-0.00027579525809376897j

Here are some general observations about arithmetic operators. For most operators (+ - * // % ** but not /), their result types match their operand types.

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Likewise, the most familiar arithmetic operators (+ - * / ** but not // or %)

have prototoypes for all three numeric types: int, float, and complex; and
for these familiar operators, their semantics are the same as their semantics in
mathematics. The two special quotient and remainder operators have simple
and intuitive semantics when their operands are both positive.

5.2.2

Conversions: Implicit and Explicit

Before finishing our discussion of arithmetic operators in Python, there are two
topics we must cover: arithmetic on boolean operands and arithmetic on mixed
type operands. Both involve the general concept of implicit typeconversion:
Python arithmetic operators implicitly convert values of the type bool to int,
int to float, float to complex when necessary. Think about these types as
a hierarchy with complex at the top and bool at the bottom: any value from
a lower type can be converted to an equivalent value from an upper type: e.g,
True converts to 1 converts to 1.0 converts to (1+0j). Note that conversion
the other way might not be equivalent: e.g., there is no way to convert 1.5 to
an equivalent integer.
Arithmetic on Boolean Values: To perform any arithmetic operators on
boolean values, first they are promoted (up the hierarchy) to integers: False
is promoted to 0 and True is promoted to 1: so, in True * False Python
promotes the boolean values to 1 * 0, which returns the result 0. The term
promotion implies movement up the numeric type hierarchy.
Arithmetic on Mixed Types: To perform any arithmetic operator on two
operands that do not have the same type, the lower type operand is promoted
to the type of the higher type operand: so, in True * 1.5 the boolean value
True is promoted to the integer value 1, which is promoted to the floatingpoint
value 1.0, which is then satisfying one of the prototypes for * multiplied
by 1.5, which returns the result 1.5.
Conversions in these two cases are implicit: they are performed automatically
by Python, to be able to satisfy the prototypes of the operators. But we can
also explicitly convert between numeric types, both up and down the numeric
type hierarchy. In fact, we can use bool, str, and each numeric type name
(int, float, and complex) as the name of a function that converts values to
that type from other types. We have already seen some examples of explict
conversion in Section 4.5.3, which discussed converting strings input from the
user to values of the type int and float.
The table below summarizes the prototype and semantics of each conversion
function. Note that when any conversion function is passed an argument of its
own type, it returns a reference to its argument: e.g., int(3) returns 3. See
Section 4.5.3, for how int and float convert strings to their types; complex is
similar: e.g., complex((3+5j)) returns (3+5j).
Prototype
str (T) -> str
int (T) -> int
float (T) -> float
complex (T) -> complex
bool (T) -> bool

Semantics
returns string showing literal (possible signed for numeric types)
returns 0 for False, 1 for True; truncated float; truncated realpart of complex
returns 0.0 for False, 1.0 for True; equivalent for int; realpart for complex
returns (0+0j) for False, (1+0j) for True; equivalent int and float
False for empty string and zero value, True for nonempty string and nonzero value

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We have seen that when converting upward in the numeric type hierarchy, no
information is lost. But, when converting downward, information can be lost:
converting from complex to float the imaginary part is lost; converting from
float to int the decimal part is lost; converting from int to bool zero (or the
empty string) converts to False and any nonzero value (or any nonempty
string) converts to True.
A surprising result of these semantics is that bool(False) returns a result
of True; check it. In Section ?? we will learn how to convert False to False
and True to True correctly.
Experiment with the Python interpreter to explore the arithmetic operators
and conversion functions.

5.2.3

String Operators

Two of Pythons arithmetic operators (+ and *) are also overloaded further,

allowing string operands and producing string results.
Concatenation: The + operator has the prototype + (str,str) -> str and
it returns a result that is a string containning all the character in its left operand
followed by all the character in its right operand: e.g., acg + tta returns
the result acgtta. Note that as with all operators, neither operand changes,
but a new value object (of type str, and all characters in both operands) is
returned.Sometimes we call this just catenation.
Shallow Copy: The * operator has the two prototypes * (int,str) -> str
and * (str,int) -> str, which are symmetic; it returns a result that is a
string containing all the characters in its string operand replicated the number
of times specifed by its integer operand: e.g., both acg * 3 and 3 * acg
return the result acgacgacg. If the integer operand is zer or negative, the
returned result is (the empty string).
Technically, both these operators work with any sequence type, not just str:
the only sequence type we know in Python (which are sequences of characters).
We will generalize these operators to other sequence types when we learn them.

5.2.4

Relational Operators

Relational operators always return a boolean result that indicates whether some
relationship holds between their operands. Most relational operators are symbols (== != < > <= >= but two are identifiers (is in) and one is a compound
identfier (not in). The table below lists the prototypes and the relational operators to which they apply. All their prototypes are similar: same-type operands
returning a boolean result.
Prototype Form
r-op (int,int) -> bool
r-op (float,float) -> bool
r-op (complex,complex) -> bool
r-op (bool,bool) -> bool
r-op (str,str) -> bool

Operators
==
!=
==
!=
==
!=
==
!=
==
!=

Allowsable for r-op

<
>
<=
>=
<
>
<=
>=
is
<
>
<=
>=
<
>
<=
>=

is
is
is
is

in

not in

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Another way to classify these operators is equality operators (== !=), ordered
comparison (< > <= >=), identity (is), and inclusion (in and also not in).
The table belows lists the relational operators, their names, and their semantics.
r-op
==
!=
<
>
<=
>=
is
in

Name
equals
not equals
less than
greater than
less than or equals
greater than or equals
object identity
inclusion

Semantics
True when
True when
True when
True when
True when
True when
True when
True when

the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the

operands have equal values

operands have unequal values
left operand is less than the right operand
left operand is greater than the right operand
left operand is less than or equal to the right operand
left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand
left operand refers to the same object as the right operand
left string appears in the right string: e.g., gt in acgtta is True.

Equality and Identity: The equality operators (== !=) are the easiest to
understand: they have prototypes for each type in Python and return a result
based on the whether the two operands store references to objects storing
the same value. The identity operator (is) is similar but more restrictive: it
also has prototypes for each type, but returns a result based on whether the
two operands store references to the same object. Read over these last two
sentences carefully, because the difference is subtle. Figure 5.1 illustrates the
difference between == and is: note that there are two str objects that each
store the same value: abc. This picture is the result of Python executing the
following script.
1
2
3

a = abc
b = a
c = input ( Enter String : )

# enter abc ; Python creates a new value object

Figure 5.1: Illustrating the difference between == and is

There are a few cases where Python creates two different objects that both store
the same value: input of strings from the console; writing integers literals with
many digits; writing floatingpoint and complex literals. But in most programs
when we compare values we want to check equality not identity, so we dont
care whether Python creates multiple objects. But, in some advanced programs
we will want to check identity, and now we know how. Finally, note that if the
is operator returns True the == operator must return True: if two references
refer to the same object, then the value of that object must be the same as
itself. Experiment with these concepts in the interpreter: try >>> a = 1.5
>>> b = 1.5 >>> a == b >>> a is b.
Ordered Comparison: The ordered comparsion operators (< > <= >=) are
simple to understand for the numeric types (int and float; there is no prototype for complex) and bool: they have the same meanings as mathematics,
with False considered to be less than True which reinforces the idea False
promoting to 0 and True promoting to 1. If we try an ordered comparison

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of complex values, Python will raise the TypeError exception, describing this
type as unorderable.
Lets now learn the algorithm for comparing strings, which are sequences
of zero or more characters. First, we must learn to compare the individual
characters in strings: we do so according to their decimal values, illustrated in
the ASCII table below. Although Python uses unicode characters, we will still
stick to the ASCII subset, and use the following table to compare characters.
Figure 5.2: Character Values in ASCII

To answer the question, How does the character a compare to the character
1? we translate it into the question, How does the decimal value of the
character a compare to the decimal value of the character 1? According to the
ASCII table, the decimal value of the character a is 97 and the decimal value
of the character 1 is 49, so a is greater than 1.
Dont memorize the ASCII table, but know that the digit characters are less
than the uppercase characters, which are less than the lowercase characters;
and within each of these character groupings, decimal values increase: e.g., A
is less than B is less than ... is less than tt Z. In fact, the builtins module
defines the ord(str) -> int function which returns the ASCII value of any
single character: ord(a) returns the result 97; if the argument to ord is not
a single character, it raises the TypeError exception.

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Given this information, the algorithm for comparing strings is follows. This is
called dictionary or lexicographic ordering.
Step 1 Start at the leftmost character of each string; skip all characters that
are pairwise the same, trying to find a character that is different.
Step 2 Based on the outcome, compare the strings as follows:
Step 2A Found a different character: the strings compare according
to how the different characters compare.
Step 2B Found no different characters (e.g., all characters in one
string appear in the other): the strings compare according to
their number of characters.
For example, to compare anteaters to ants Python finds the first three
characters (ant) are the same but the fourth characters are different: because e (from anteaters) is less than s (rom ants) Python determines
anteaters is less than ants. Similarly, to compare anteater to ant
Python finds that all the characters in ant are in anteater): because
anteater has 8 characters and ant has 3 characters, Python determines
anteater is greater than ant. Finally, notice that to compare ant to
ant Python finds that all the characters in ant are in ant: because both
ant strings have 3, Python determines ant is equal to ant.
The functions builtins.min and builtins.max both take one or more arguments each of their headers contains (*args) so long as they are types
on which Python can perform ordered comparisions. They return a reference
to the minimum/maximum argument respectively: e.g., min(1,-2,4) returns a
result of -2 and min(aunteater,aunt,ant) returns a result of ant. If
any two arguments cannot be compared, Python raises a TypeError exception,
including a comment about unorderable types: Typing >>> min(1,a) in
the Python interpreter displays TypeError: unorderable types: int() <
str() in the console.
Relations on MixedTypes: To perform any relational operator on two
operands that do not have the same type, the lower type operand is promoted
to the type of the higher type operand (as for arithmetic operators): so, in 3
< 5.0 the integer value 3 is promoted to the floatingpoint value 3.0, which is
then satisfying one of the prototypes for < compared to 5.0, which returns
the result True. Note that there is no implicit conversion to or from the string
type.
Inclusion: The inclusion operators (in, and not in) work on any sequence
type in Python. They are opposites: when one returns True the other returns
False. For now, the only sequence type we know is str (which are sequences of
characters), so that is how we will explore these operators. We will generalize
these operators to other sequence types when we learn them.
The in operator determines if all the characters in its left operand appear
in the same order, adjacent, in it right operand. In the simplest case, the left
operand has just one character. So, assuming s is bound to a str object, a in
s returns whether or not the character a appears anywhere in s. Likewise, acg
in s returns whether or not the character sequence cgt appears anywhere in
s: it returns True if s is bound to acgtta, but returns False if s is bound
to attgca.

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Also, according to this definition, for every string bound to s, in s returns

True: because there is no character in the empty string that is not in s, because
the empty string has no characters for which this test can fail.
The in operator is related to the builtins.str.find function discussed in
Section 4.2, which returns the index of a substring in a string, or 0 if the
substring is not in the string. The function call str.find(a,b) returns a
positive value exactly when a in b returns True.
Finally, we must learn to think of an operator like < just like +: both have
two operands and both compute a result (in the former case a boolean; in the
later case some numeric type). So we say 3 < 5 computes the result True just
as we would say 3 + 5 computes the result 8. We must learn to think of all
Python operators as computing a value, regardless of their operand and result
types.

5.2.5

Logical Operators

Pythons logical operators mostly use boolean operands to produce boolean

results. Each of these operators is written as an identifier.
Conjuction/And: The and operator in Python can be used only in the binary
form, which means conjunction, returning a result of True only if both of its
operands are True. Its boolean prototype is and (bool,bool) -> bool.
Disjunction/Or: The or operator in Python can be used only in the binary
form, which means disjunction, returning a result of True if either or both of
its operands are True. Its boolean prototype is or (bool,bool) -> bool.
Negation: The not operator in Python can be used only in the unary form,
which means negation, returning the a result that is the opposite of its operand.
Its boolean prototype is not (bool) -> bool.
The following table summarizes the semantics of these operators for relevant
boolean operands denoted a and b. Note that the not operator is unary, so it
looks a bit different in the truth table (and see the ).
a
False
False
True
True

b
False
True
False
True

a and b
False
False
False
True

a or b
False
True
True
True

not b
True
False

a != b (exclusive or)
False
True
True
False

These rows would duplicate the top two rows, where b has the same values.

Programmers must memorize these truthtables to be able to analyze complicated expressions that use logical operators. Here are two short-cuts. The
result returned by the and operator is True only when both of its operands are
True; more intuitively, if I say to my son, You may play if your homework is
done and your room is clean the only time he can play is is both are True.
The result returned by the or operator is False only when both of its operands
are False; more intuitively, if I say to my son, You may play if your homework
is done or your room is clean he cannot play if both are False, but can play
either or both are True: this is called inclusive or. The exclusive or is True
if one operands is True and the other operands is False: there is no exclusive or

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operator, but != on booleans has the same semantics (shown in the last column
of the table above).
In fact, the semantics of these these operators are a bit more complicated,
because we can apply them to operands of any types, not just booleans. Recall
the semantics of the bool conversion function discussed in Section 5.2.2.
When evaluating the and operator, Python first evaluates its left operand: if
calling the bool conversion function with this value is False, the result returned
is the value of the left operand; otherwise, the result returned is the value of the
right operand. Notice that for boolean left and right operands, these semantics
match the semantics of the table shown above; check all four examples.
When evaluating the or operator, Python first evaluates its left operand: if
calling the bool conversion function with this value is True, the result returned
is the value of the left operand; otherwise, the result returned is the value of
the right operand. Again, for boolean left and right operands, these semantics
match the semantics of the table shown above; check all four examples.
Experiment with the Python interpreter to explore these logical operators for
both boolean and nonboolean operands.

5.2.6

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operations (& | ~ ^ << >>) compute their results on the individual
bits in the binary representations of their integer operands. We can illustrate
all four possible combinations of left and right bits using the operands 3 (the
binary literal 0b0011) and 3 (the binary literal 0b0101).
Bitwise
and
inclusive or
not
exclusive or
shift left
shift right

Prototype
& (int,int) -> int
| (int,int) -> int
~ (int) -> int
^ (int,int) -> int
<< (int,int) -> int
>> (int,int) -> int

Semantics (integers shown as bits)

0011 & 0101 returns the result 0001
0011 & 0101 returns the result 0111
~01 returns the result 10
0011 & 0101 returns the result 0110
101 << 2 returns the result 10100 (similar to 5 // 2**2)
101 >> 2 returns the result 1 (similar to 5 * 2**2)

The last two operators shift the left binary operand either left or right by the
number of bits specified by the right operand. For shifting left, 0s are added
on the right; for shifting right, bits are removed from the right. Shifting positive numbers left/right is like multiplying/dividing by 2; this is similar to how
decimal numbers are shifted left/right when they are multiplied/divided by
10. Because of the way negative binary numbers are typically stored (twos
complement), shifting negative numbers right does not work as expected: e.g.,
-1>>2 returns a result of -1!
Note that the function builtins.bin(x : int) -> str returns a result
that is the binary string equivalent of x: e.g., bin(5) returns a result of 0b101.
So bin(3 ^
5 ) returns the result 0b110. For any name x bound to an integer
int(bin(x),base=0) returns the same result as x; where base=0 means to
interpret the first argument as string specifying a integer literal (which might
start with 0 and a base indicator.
In most simple programs we will not use bitwise operators. But, in some

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advanced programs, in which we must understand the binary representation of

data, we may use bitwise operators.

5.2.7

Delimiters: Sequence Operators and Reassignment

Python uses the delimiters [] (often with :) as sequence operators to index an

element or subsequence of any sequence type. Again, because the only sequence
type we know is str, we will use that type (as we did in Section 5.2.4) to explore
these operators; we will generalize these operators to other sequence types when
we learn them. These operators are called distfix (as opposed to infix or
prefix) because they are written distributed around their operands. Assuming
the names s is bound to a string, there are three forms of this operator, each
described in the box below and followed by many examples.
But first, to understand the semantics of these operators, we must focus
on two other useful pieces of information about str (and all sequence types).
First, the sequence of characters in strings are indexed by integer values, with
the first character indexed by 0. Second, the function builtins.len(str) ->
int returns a result that is the number of characters in the string (generally it
works on all sequence types, returning the number of values in the sequence):
e.g., len() returns a result of 0 and len(acgtta) returns a result of 6.
Because the first character of string s is indexed by 0, the index of the last
character is len(s) - 1.
Form

Syntax

Semantics
Returns a onecharacter string at index int if int len(s); otherwise
index
s[int1 ] -> str
Python raises the IndexError exception
Returns a substring with those characters in s at indexes i such that int1
i < int2 ; if int1 is omitted/>len(s), its value is 0/len(s); if int2 is
slice
s[int1 :int2 ] -> str
omitted/>len(s), its value is len(s); negative values for either int specify
an index that is relative to the end of the string, and equivalent to len(s)
+ int: e.g., -1 for an int is equivalent to len(s) - 1
Returns a result similar to slice, but with the first character from index
int1 , the second from index int1 +int3 , the third from index int1 +2*int3 ,
slice/step s[int1 :int2 :int3 ] -> str ... until the index reaches or exceeds int2 ; for negative step values, if
int1 is omitted/len(s) its value is len(s) - 1 and if int2 is omitted its
value is 0; if int3 is omitted, its value is 1, and if it is 0 Python raises the
ValueError exception
To understand these semantics better, lets explore some examples of each form.
When analyzing sequence operators, it is useful to illustrate the strings they
operate on as follows (here for the string acgtta):
string
index
character

acgtta
0
1
a c

2
g

3
t

4
t

5
a

Now, here are the examples that illustrate most of the interesting semantics
of these operators using string s. Unfortunately, it is confusing when the first
character in this string is at index 0 and last character is at index len(s)-1;
programmers must learn to overcome this confusion. Experiment in the Python
interpreter with other strings and integer operands.

CHAPTER 5. OPERATORS AND EXPRESSIONS

Operation
s[0]
s[1]
s[-1]
s[6]
s[0:6]
s[:]
s[1:3]
s[-4:10]
s[::2]
s[1:5:2]
s[::-2]

int1
0
1
5 (6-1)
6
0
0
1
2 (6-4)
0
1
5

int2
NA
NA
NA
NA
6
6
3
6 (len(s))
6
5
0

int3
NA
NA
NA
NA
1
1
1
1
2
2
-2

used
0
1
5
6
0, 1,
0, 1,
1, 2
3, 4,
0, 2,
1, 3
5, 3,

indexes

2, 3, 4, 5
2, 3, 4, 5
5
4
1

90

Result
a
c
a
NA
acgtta
acgtta
cg
gtta
agt
ct
atc

Comments
First character
Second character
Last character
raises IndexError exception
All characters
All characters
Second and third characters
Fourth from last to the end
Every other character forward from index 0
2 characters, every other forward from index 1
Every other character backward from last index

problems: standard operators: no conversion; e.g., 1 + a TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: int and str boolean mixed /2**N bool(False):
strange; see eval 0*4 is 0; what string when replicated 4 ties is the same string
11 5 vs str(11) str(5), how does compare

5.3

Expressions

Structure Evaluation

5.3.1

Oval Diagrams

5.3.2

Operator Precedence and Associativity

Operator Precedence
Dictionary/Set + their Comprehensions [] List + its Comprehension () Tuple
+ its Comprehension x.attr Attribute reference x(...) Call: function, method
x[i:j:k] Slicing x[i] Indexing x**y Power (exponentiation) x Bitwise not -x,+x
Negation, Identity * + - Add/catenation, subtract/set-difference xy xy

Shift x left/right by y bits & Bitwise AND/set-intersection Bitwise

NOT/setsymmetric-difference(XOR) Bitwise OR/set-union = = Ordered comparison/setsubset-superset == != Value equality/inequality is, is not Object identity tests
in, not in Membership tests (on interables and Strings) not Logical negation and
Logical and (short-circuit) or Logical not (short-circuit) x if b else y Ternary
selection operator lambda a : e Un-named(anonymous) function generation
(lambda x,y,z : ...) yield Generator function send protocol
Finally, we can chain relational operators together. a r-op b r-op c ... a r-op
b and b r-op c and .... chaining: abc = a b and b c (expressions covered
later)
All operators are left associative except exponentiation (right associative)
ordered comparisons (which are chained)
Operators are automatically converted up: bool - integer - floating-point -
complex

CHAPTER 5. OPERATORS AND EXPRESSIONS

5.3.3

91

Common Mistakes

Problems: what if not in not included in Python: not (a in b)

5.4

Operators as Method/Function Calls

How operators get new meanings

5.5

The eval function

eval(False)

5.6

Functions abstracting Expressions

Simplest aspect def header : return expression

body of function defintion is statement or statement sequence that can refer to
parameters; executed in namespace of function object with parameters bound
to their arguments
now cover/use return is statement: much more in next chapter
binds name in header to a function object of parameters and body that returns
the result specified by the body See distance function See predicate module:
def non_negative(x : int) -> boolean : x >= 0 ...?
Chapter Summary
Summary here
Chapter Exercises
1. First
Answer:
use prototypes x+y = x. add (y) overloading later precedence
later show how + = add so a + b = a. add (b) = type(a). add (a,b)
= int. add (a,b) finding the add method in the int class; what if a is a
float?