Standard Data Types

The data stored in memory can be of many types. For example, a person's age is stored
as a numeric value and his or her address is stored as alphanumeric characters. Python
has various standard data types that are used to define the operations possible on them
and the storage method for each of them.
Python has five standard data types −

 Numbers

 String

 List

 Tuple

 Dictionary
Python Numbers
Number data types store numeric values. Number objects are created when you assign
a value to them. For example – a = b = c = 1
Here, an integer object is created with the value 1, and all three variables are assigned to
the same memory location. You can also assign multiple objects to multiple variables.
For example –
a,b,c = 1,2,"john"
Here, two integer objects with values 1 and 2 are assigned to variables a and b
respectively, and one string object with the value "john" is assigned to the variable c.
var1 = 1
var2 = 10
Python supports four different numerical types −

 int (signed integers)

 long (long integers, they can also be represented in octal and hexadecimal)

 float (floating point real values)

 complex (complex numbers)

Examples
Here are some examples of numbers –

 Python allows you to use a lowercase l with long, but it is recommended that
you use only an uppercase L to avoid confusion with the number 1. Python
displays long integers with an uppercase L.

 A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating-point numbers

denoted by x + yj, where x and y are the real numbers and j is the imaginary unit.
Python Strings
Strings in Python are identified as a contiguous set of characters represented in the
quotation marks. Python allows for either pairs of single or double quotes. Subsets of
strings can be taken using the slice operator ([ ] and [:] ) with indexes starting at 0 in the
beginning of the string and working their way from -1 at the end.
The plus (+) sign is the string concatenation operator and the asterisk (*) is the
repetition operator. For example –
#!/usr/bin/python
str = 'Hello World!'
print (str) # Prints complete string
print (str[0]) # Prints first character of the string
print (str[2:5]) # Prints characters starting from 3rd to 5th
print (str[2:]) # Prints string starting from 3rd character
print (str * 2) # Prints string two times
print (str + "TEST") # Prints concatenated string
This will produce the following result −
Hello World!
H
llo
llo World!
Hello World!Hello World!
Hello World!TEST
Python Lists
Lists are the most versatile of Python's compound data types. A list contains items
separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets ([]). To some extent, lists are
similar to arrays in C. One difference between them is that all the items belonging to a
list can be of different data type.
The values stored in a list can be accessed using the slice operator ([ ] and [:]) with
indexes starting at 0 in the beginning of the list and working their way to end -1. The
plus (+) sign is the list concatenation operator, and the asterisk (*) is the repetition
operator.
Construction Meaning

a = [] initialize an empty list

a = [1, 4.4, 'run.py'] initialize a list

a.append(elem) add elem object to the end of the list

a + [1,3] add two lists

a.insert(i, e) insert element e before index i

a[3] index a list element

a[-1] get last list element

a[1:3] slice: copy data to sublist (here: index 1, 2)

del a[3] delete an element (index 3)

a.remove(e) remove an element with value e

a.index('run.py') find index corresponding to an element's

value

'run.py' in a test if a value is contained in the list

a.count(v) count how many elements that have the

value v

len(a) number of elements in list a

min(a) the smallest element in a

max(a) the largest element in a

sum(a) add all elements in a For example −

sorted(a) return sorted version of list a

reversed(a) return reversed sorted version of list a

b[3][0][2] nested list indexing

isinstance(a, list) is True if a is a list

type(a) is list is True if a is a list

 #!/usr/bin/python
list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]
tinylist = [123, 'john']
print (list) # Prints complete list
print (list[0]) # Prints first element of the list
print (list[1:3]) # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd
print (list[2:]) # Prints elements starting from 3rd element
print (tinylist * 2) # Prints list two times
print (list + tinylist) # Prints concatenated lists
This produce the following result −
['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2]
abcd
[786, 2.23]
[2.23, 'john', 70.2]
[123, 'john', 123, 'john']
['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2, 123, 'john']
Python Tuples
A tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to the list. A tuple consists of a
number of values separated by commas. Unlike lists, however, tuples are enclosed
within parentheses.
The main differences between lists and tuples are: Lists are enclosed in brackets ( [ ] )
and their elements and size can be changed, while tuples are enclosed in parentheses
( ( ) ) and cannot be updated. Tuples can be thought of as read-only lists. For example −
#!/usr/bin/python
tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )
tinytuple = (123, 'john')
print (tuple) # Prints complete list
print (tuple[0]) # Prints first element of the list
print (tuple[1:3]) # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd
 print (tuple[2:]) # Prints elements starting from 3rd element
print (tinytuple * 2) # Prints list two times
print (tuple + tinytuple) # Prints concatenated lists

This produce the following result −

('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2)
abcd
(786, 2.23)
(2.23, 'john', 70.2)
(123, 'john', 123, 'john')
('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2, 123, 'john')
The following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple,
which is not allowed. Similar case is possible with lists −
#!/usr/bin/python
tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )
list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]
tuple[2] = 1000 # Invalid syntax with tuple
list[2] = 1000 # Valid syntax with list
Python Dictionary
Python's dictionaries are kind of hash table type. They work like associative arrays or
hashes found in Perl and consist of key-value pairs. A dictionary key can be almost any
Python type, but are usually numbers or strings. Values, on the other hand, can be any
arbitrary Python object.
Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces ({ }) and values can be assigned and accessed
using square braces ([]). For example −
#!/usr/bin/python
dict = {}
dict['one'] = "This is one"
dict[2] = "This is two"
 tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}
print (dict['one']) # Prints value for 'one' key
print (dict[2]) # Prints value for 2 key
print (tinydict) # Prints complete dictionary
print (tinydict.keys()) # Prints all the keys
print (tinydict.values()) # Prints all the values
This produce the following result −
This is one
This is two
{'dept': 'sales', 'code': 6734, 'name': 'john'}
['dept', 'code', 'name']
['sales', 6734, 'john']
Dictionaries have no concept of order among elements. It is incorrect to say that the
elements are "out of order"; they are simply unordered.