Python Programming

This Python tutorial has been written for the beginners to help them understand the basic to
advanced concepts of Python Programming Language. After completing this tutorial, you
will find yourself at a great level of expertise in Python, from where you can take yourself to
the next levels to become a world class Software Engineer.

What is Python?
Python is a very popular general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and
high-level programming language. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected
programming language. It was created by Guido van Rossum during 1985- 1990. Like Perl,
Python source code is also available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including Procedural, Object Oriented and
Functional programming language. Python design philosophy emphasizes code readability with
the use of significant indentation.
This tutorial gives a complete understanding of Python programming language starting from
basic conceopts to advanced concepts. This tutorial will take you through simple and
practical approaches while learning Python Programming language.

Python Jobs
Today, Python is very high in demand and all the major companies are looking for great
Python Programmers to develop websites, software components, and applications or to
work with Data Science, AI, and ML technologies. When we are developing this tutorial in
2022, there is a high shortage of Python Programmers where as market demands more
number of Python Programmers due to it's application in Machine Learning, Artificial
Intelligence etc.
Today a Python Programmer with 3-5 years of experience is asking for around $150,000
annual package and this is the most demanding programming language in America.
Though it can vary depending on the location of the Job. It's impossible to list all of the
companies using Python, to name a few big companies are:

 Google
 Intel
 NASA
 PayPal
 Facebook
 IBM
 Amazon
 Netflix
 Pinterest
 Uber
 Many more...

So, you could be the next potential employee for any of these major companies. We have
developed a great learning material for you to learn Python Programming which will help
you prepare for the technical interviews and certification exams based on Python. So, start

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learning Python using this simple and effective tutorial from anywhere and anytime
absolutely at your pace.

Why to Learn Python?

Python is consistently rated as one of the world's most popular programming languages.
Python is fairly easy to learn, so if you are starting to learn any programming language then
Python could be your great choice. Today various Schools, Colleges and Universities are
teaching Python as their primary programming language. There are many other good
reasons which makes Python as the top choice of any programmer:

 Python is Open Source which means its available free of cost.

 Python is simple and so easy to learn
 Python is versatile and can be used to create many different things.
 Python has powerful development libraries include AI, ML etc.
 Python is much in demand and ensures high salary

Python is a MUST for students and working professionals to become a great Software
Engineer specially when they are working in Web Development Domain. I will list down
some of the key advantages of learning Python:

 Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not

need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.
 Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the
interpreter directly to write your programs.
 Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of
programming that encapsulates code within objects.
 Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the beginner-level
programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications from simple
text processing to WWW browsers to games.

Python Online Compiler/Interpreter

We have provided Python Online Compiler/Interpreter which helps you
to Edit and Execute the code directly from your browser. Try to click the icon to run the
following Python code to print conventional "Hello, World!".
Below code box allows you to change the value of the code. Try to change the value
inside print() and run it again to verify the result.

# This is my first Python program.

# This will print 'Hello, World!' as the output

print ("Hello, World!");

Careers with Python

If you know Python nicely, then you have a great career ahead. Here are just a few of the
career options where Python is a key skill:

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  Game developer
 Web designer
 Python developer
 Full-stack developer
 Machine learning engineer
 Data scientist
 Data analyst
 Data engineer
 DevOps engineer
 Software engineer
 Many more other roles

Characteristics of Python
Following are important characteristics of Python Programming −

 It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.

 It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for building large
applications.
 It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type checking.
 It supports automatic garbage collection.
 It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Applications of Python
The latest release of Python is 3.x. As mentioned before, Python is one of the most widely
used language over the web. I'm going to list few of them here:

 Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined
syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
 Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and cross-
platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows interactive
testing and debugging of snippets of code.
 Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the same
interface on all platforms.
 Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These modules
enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.
 Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
 GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and ported
to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC,
Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than shell
scripting.

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 Python - Overview
Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language.
Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as
other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other
languages.
 Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do
not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and
PHP.
 Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the
interpreter directly to write your programs.
 Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of
programming that encapsulates code within objects.
 Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the beginner-
level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications
from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.
History of Python
Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early nineties at the
National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands.
Python is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Algol-68,
SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages.
Python is copyrighted. Like Perl, Python source code is now available under the GNU
General Public License (GPL).
Python is now maintained by a core development team at the institute, although Guido van
Rossum still holds a vital role in directing its progress.

Python Features
Python's features include −
 Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined
syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
 Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and cross-
platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows
interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.
 Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the
same interface on all platforms.
 Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These
modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.
 Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.

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  GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and
ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC,
Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than
shell scripting.
Apart from the above-mentioned features, Python has a big list of good features, few are
listed below −
 It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.
 It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for building
large applications.
 It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type checking.
 It supports automatic garbage collection.
 It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

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 Python - Environment Setup
Python is available on a wide variety of platforms including Linux and Mac OS X. Let's understand
how to set up our Python environment.

 Unix (Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, AIX, HP/UX, SunOS, IRIX, etc.)

 Win 9x/NT/2000
 Macintosh (Intel, PPC, 68K)
 OS/2
 DOS (multiple versions)
 PalmOS
 Nokia mobile phones
 Windows CE
 Acorn/RISC OS
 BeOS
 Amiga
 VMS/OpenVMS
 QNX
 VxWorks
 Psion

Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines

Local Environment Setup

Open a terminal window and type "python" to find out if it is already installed and which version is
installed. If Python is already installed then you will get a message something like as follows:
$ python
Python 3.6.8 (default, Sep 10 2021, 09:13:53)
[GCC 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-3)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
Getting Python
The most up-to-date and current source code, binaries, documentation, news, etc., is available on the
official website of Python https://www.python.org/
You can download Python documentation from https://www.python.org/doc/. The documentation is
available in HTML, PDF, and PostScript formats.

Installing Python
Python distribution is available for a wide variety of platforms. You need to download only the
binary code applicable for your platform and install Python.
If the binary code for your platform is not available, you need a C compiler to compile the source
code manually. Compiling the source code offers more flexibility in terms of choice of features that
you require in your installation.
Here is a quick overview of installing Python on various platforms −

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Unix and Linux Installation
Here are the simple steps to install Python on Unix/Linux machine.
 Open a Web browser and go to https://www.python.org/downloads/.
 Follow the link to download zipped source code available for Unix/Linux.
 Download and extract files.
 Editing the Modules/Setup file if you want to customize some options.
Now issue the following commands:
$ run ./configure script
$ make
$ make install
This installs Python at standard location /usr/local/bin and its libraries
at /usr/local/lib/pythonXX where XX is the version of Python.

Using Yum Command

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8) does not install Python 3 by default. We usually use yum
command on CentOS and other related variants. The procedure for installing Python-3 on RHEL 8 is
as follows:
$ sudo yum install python3
Windows Installation
Here are the steps to install Python on Windows machine.
 Open a Web browser and go to https://www.python.org/downloads/.
 Follow the link for the Windows installer python-XYZ.msi file where XYZ is the version you
need to install.
 To use this installer python-XYZ.msi, the Windows system must support Microsoft Installer
2.0. Save the installer file to your local machine and then run it to find out if your machine
supports MSI.
 Run the downloaded file. This brings up the Python install wizard, which is really easy to
use. Just accept the default settings, wait until the install is finished, and you are done.

Macintosh Installation
Recent Macs come with Python installed, but it may be several years out of date.
See http://www.python.org/download/mac/ for instructions on getting the current version along with
extra tools to support development on the Mac. For older Mac OS's before Mac OS X 10.3 (released
in 2003), MacPython is available.
Jack Jansen maintains it and you can have full access to the entire documentation at his website
− http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html. You can find complete installation details for Mac OS
installation.

Setting up PATH
Programs and other executable files can be in many directories, so operating systems provide a
search path that lists the directories that the OS searches for executables.

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The path is stored in an environment variable, which is a named string maintained by the operating
system. This variable contains information available to the command shell and other programs.
The path variable is named as PATH in Unix or Path in Windows (Unix is case sensitive; Windows
is not).
In Mac OS, the installer handles the path details. To invoke the Python interpreter from any
particular directory, you must add the Python directory to your path.

Setting path at Unix/Linux

To add the Python directory to the path for a particular session in Unix −
 In the csh shell − type setenv PATH "$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press Enter.
 In the bash shell (Linux) − type export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press
Enter.
 In the sh or ksh shell − type PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press Enter.
 Note − /usr/local/bin/python is the path of the Python directory

Setting path at Windows

To add the Python directory to the path for a particular session in Windows −
At the command prompt − type path %path%;C:\Python and press Enter.
Note − C:\Python is the path of the Python directory

Python Environment Variables

Here are important environment variables, which can be recognized by Python −

Sr.No. Variable & Description

1
PYTHONPATH
It has a role similar to PATH. This variable tells the Python interpreter where to locate the
module files imported into a program. It should include the Python source library directory
and the directories containing Python source code. PYTHONPATH is sometimes preset by
the Python installer.

2
PYTHONSTARTUP
It contains the path of an initialization file containing Python source code. It is executed
every time you start the interpreter. It is named as .pythonrc.py in Unix and it contains
commands that load utilities or modify PYTHONPATH.

3
PYTHONCASEOK
It is used in Windows to instruct Python to find the first case-insensitive match in an import

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 statement. Set this variable to any value to activate it.

4
PYTHONHOME
It is an alternative module search path. It is usually embedded in the PYTHONSTARTUP
or PYTHONPATH directories to make switching module libraries easy.

Running Python
There are three different ways to start Python −

Interactive Interpreter
You can start Python from Unix, DOS, or any other system that provides you a command-line
interpreter or shell window.
Enter python the command line.
Start coding right away in the interactive interpreter.
$python # Unix/Linux
or
python% # Unix/Linux
or
C:> python # Windows/DOS
Here is the list of all the available command line options −

Sr.No. Option & Description

1
-d
It provides debug output.

2
-O
It generates optimized bytecode (resulting in .pyo files).

3
-S
Do not run import site to look for Python paths on startup.

4
-v
verbose output (detailed trace on import statements).

5
-X
disable class-based built-in exceptions (just use strings); obsolete starting
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 with version 1.6.

6
-c cmd
run Python script sent in as cmd string

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file
run Python script from given file

Script from the Command-line

A Python script can be executed at command line by invoking the interpreter on your application, as
in the following −
$python script.py # Unix/Linux

or

python% script.py # Unix/Linux

or

C: >python script.py # Windows/DOS

Note − Be sure the file permission mode allows execution.

Integrated Development Environment

You can run Python from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment as well, if you have a GUI
application on your system that supports Python.
 Unix − IDLE is the very first Unix IDE for Python.
 Windows − PythonWin is the first Windows interface for Python and is an IDE with a GUI.
 Macintosh − The Macintosh version of Python along with the IDLE IDE is available from
the main website, downloadable as either MacBinary or BinHex'd files.
If you are not able to set up the environment properly, then you can take help from your system
admin. Make sure the Python environment is properly set up and working perfectly fine.
We have provided Python Online Compiler/Interpreter which helps you to Edit and Execute the
code directly from your browser. Try to click the icon to run the following Python code to print
conventional "Hello, World!".
Below code box allows you to change the value of the code. Try to change the value inside print() and run it
again to verify the result.

# This is my first Python program.

# This will print 'Hello, World!' as the output

print ("Hello, World!");

10
 Python - Basic Syntax
The Python syntax defines a set of rules that are used to create Python statements while
writing a Python Program. The Python Programming Language Syntax has many
similarities to Perl, C, and Java Programming Languages. However, there are some definite
differences between the languages.

First Python Program

Let us execute a Python "Hello, World!" Programs in different modes of programming.
Python - Interactive Mode Programming
We can invoke a Python interpreter from command line by typing python at the command
prompt as following −
$ python
Python 3.6.8 (default, Sep 10 2021, 09:13:53)
[GCC 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-3)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
Here >>> denotes a Python Command Prompt where you can type your commands. Let's
type the following text at the Python prompt and press the Enter −
>>> print ("Hello, World!")
If you are running older version of Python, like Python 2.4.x, then you would need to use
print statement without parenthesis as in print "Hello, World!". However in Python version
3.x, this produces the following result −
Hello, World!
Python - Script Mode Programming
We can invoke the Python interpreter with a script parameter which begins the execution of
the script and continues until the script is finished. When the script is finished, the
interpreter is no longer active.
Let us write a simple Python program in a script which is simple text file. Python files have
extension .py. Type the following source code in a test.py file −
print ("Hello, World!")
We assume that you have Python interpreter path set in PATH variable. Now, let's try to run
this program as follows −
$ python test.py
This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
Let us try another way to execute a Python script. Here is the modified test.py file −
#!/usr/bin/python

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print ("Hello, World!")
We assume that you have Python interpreter available in /usr/bin directory. Now, try to run
this program as follows −
$ chmod +x test.py # This is to make file executable
$./test.py
This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
Python Identifiers
A Python identifier is a name used to identify a variable, function, class, module or other
object. An identifier starts with a letter A to Z or a to z or an underscore (_) followed by zero
or more letters, underscores and digits (0 to 9).
Python does not allow punctuation characters such as @, $, and % within identifiers.
Python is a case sensitive programming language. Thus, Manpower and manpower are two
different identifiers in Python.
Here are naming conventions for Python identifiers −
 Python Class names start with an uppercase letter. All other identifiers start with a
lowercase letter.
 Starting an identifier with a single leading underscore indicates that the identifier
is private identifier.
 Starting an identifier with two leading underscores indicates a
strongly private identifier.
 If the identifier also ends with two trailing underscores, the identifier is a language-
defined special name.
Python Reserved Words
The following list shows the Python keywords. These are reserved words and you cannot
use them as constant or variable or any other identifier names. All the Python keywords
contain lowercase letters only.

and as assert

break class continue

def del elif

else except False

finally for from

global if import

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 in is lambda

None nonlocal not

or pass raise

return True try

while with yield

Python Lines and Indentation

Python programming provides no braces to indicate blocks of code for class and function
definitions or flow control. Blocks of code are denoted by line indentation, which is rigidly
enforced.
The number of spaces in the indentation is variable, but all statements within the block must
be indented the same amount. For example −
if True:

print ("True")

else:

print ("False")
However, the following block generates an error −
if True:

print ("Answer")

print ("True")

else:

print ("Answer")

print ("False")
Thus, in Python all the continuous lines indented with same number of spaces would form a
block. The following example has various statement blocks −
Do not try to understand the logic at this point of time. Just make sure you understood various
blocks even if they are without braces.

import sys

try:

# open file stream

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 file = open(file_name, "w")

except IOError:

print "There was an error writing to", file_name

sys.exit()

print "Enter '", file_finish,

print "' When finished"

while file_text != file_finish:

file_text = raw_input("Enter text: ")

if file_text == file_finish:

# close the file

file.close

break

file.write(file_text)

file.write("\n")

file.close()

file_name = raw_input("Enter filename: ")

if len(file_name) == 0:

print "Next time please enter something"

sys.exit()

try:

file = open(file_name, "r")

except IOError:

print "There was an error reading file"

sys.exit()

file_text = file.read()

file.close()

print file_text

Python Multi-Line Statements

Statements in Python typically end with a new line. Python does, however, allow the use of
the line continuation character (\) to denote that the line should continue. For example −
total = item_one + \

item_two + \
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 item_three
Statements contained within the [], {}, or () brackets do not need to use the line continuation
character. For example following statement works well in Python −
days = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday',

'Thursday', 'Friday']

Quotations in Python
Python accepts single ('), double (") and triple (''' or """) quotes to denote string literals, as
long as the same type of quote starts and ends the string.
The triple quotes are used to span the string across multiple lines. For example, all the
following are legal −
word = 'word'

sentence = "This is a sentence."

paragraph = """This is a paragraph. It is

made up of multiple lines and sentences."""

Comments in Python
A comment is a programmer-readable explanation or annotation in the Python source code.
They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for humans to
understand, and are ignored by Python interpreter
Just like most modern languages, Python supports single-line (or end-of-line) and multi-line
(block) comments. Python comments are very much similar to the comments available in
PHP, BASH and Perl Programming languages.
A hash sign (#) that is not inside a string literal begins a comment. All characters after the #
and up to the end of the physical line are part of the comment and the Python interpreter
ignores them.
# First comment

print ("Hello, World!") # Second comment

This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
You can type a comment on the same line after a statement or expression −
name = "Madisetti" # This is again comment
You can comment multiple lines as follows −
# This is a comment.

# This is a comment, too.

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# This is a comment, too.

# I said that already.

Following triple-quoted string is also ignored by Python interpreter and can be used as a
multiline comments:
'''

This is a multiline

comment.

'''

Using Blank Lines in Python Programs

A line containing only whitespace, possibly with a comment, is known as a blank line and
Python totally ignores it.
In an interactive interpreter session, you must enter an empty physical line to terminate a
multiline statement.

Waiting for the User

The following line of the program displays the prompt, the statement saying “Press the
enter key to exit”, and waits for the user to take action −
#!/usr/bin/python

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

Here, "\n\n" is used to create two new lines before displaying the actual line. Once the user
presses the key, the program ends. This is a nice trick to keep a console window open until
the user is done with an application.

Multiple Statements on a Single Line

The semicolon ( ; ) allows multiple statements on the single line given that neither
statement starts a new code block. Here is a sample snip using the semicolon −
import sys; x = 'foo'; sys.stdout.write(x + '\n')

Multiple Statement Groups as Suites

A group of individual statements, which make a single code block are called suites in
Python. Compound or complex statements, such as if, while, def, and class require a
header line and a suite.
Header lines begin the statement (with the keyword) and terminate with a colon ( : ) and are
followed by one or more lines which make up the suite. For example −
if expression :

suite

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elif expression :

suite

else :

suite

Command Line Arguments in Python

Many programs can be run to provide you with some basic information about how they
should be run. Python enables you to do this with -h −
$ python -h
usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Options and arguments (and corresponding environment variables):
-c cmd : program passed in as string (terminates option list)
-d : debug output from parser (also PYTHONDEBUG=x)
-E : ignore environment variables (such as PYTHONPATH)
-h : print this help message and exit

[ etc. ]
You can also program your script in such a way that it should accept various
options. Command Line Arguments is an advanced topic and should be studied a bit later
once you have gone through rest of the Python concepts.

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 Python - Comments
Python comments are programmer-readable explanation or annotations in the Python
source code. They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for
humans to understand, and are ignored by Python interpreter. Comments enhance the
readability of the code and help the programmers to understand the code very carefully.
Just like most modern languages, Python supports single-line (or end-of-line) and multi-line
(block) comments. Python comments are very much similar to the comments available in
PHP, BASH and Perl Programming languages.
There are three types of comments available in Python

 Single line Comments

 Multiline Comments
 Docstring Comments

Single Line Comments

A hash sign (#) that is not inside a string literal begins a comment. All characters after the #
and up to the end of the physical line are part of the comment and the Python interpreter
ignores them.
Example
Following is an example of a single line comment in Python:
# This is a single line comment in python

print ("Hello, World!")

This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
You can type a comment on the same line after a statement or expression −
name = "Madisetti" # This is again comment
Multi-Line Comments
Python does not provide a direct way to comment multiple line. You can comment multiple
lines as follows −
# This is a comment.
# This is a comment, too.
# This is a comment, too.
# I said that already.
Following triple-quoted string is also ignored by Python interpreter and can be used as a
multiline comments:
'''
This is a multiline
comment.
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'''
Example
Following is the example to show the usage of multi-line comments:
'''

This is a multiline

comment.

'''

print ("Hello, World!")

This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
Docstring Comments
Python docstrings provide a convenient way to provide a help documentation with Python
modules, functions, classes, and methods. The docstring is then made available via the
__doc__ attribute.
def add(a, b):

"""Function to add the value of a and b"""

return a+b

print(add.__doc__)
This produces the following result −
Function to add the value of a and b

19
 Python - Variables
Python variables are the reserved memory locations used to store values with in a Python
Program. This means that when you create a variable you reserve some space in the
memory.
Based on the data type of a variable, Python interpreter allocates memory and decides
what can be stored in the reserved memory. Therefore, by assigning different data types to
Python variables, you can store integers, decimals or characters in these variables.

Creating Python Variables

Python variables do not need explicit declaration to reserve memory space or you can say
to create a variable. A Python variable is created automatically when you assign a value to
it. The equal sign (=) is used to assign values to variables.
The operand to the left of the = operator is the name of the variable and the operand to the
right of the = operator is the value stored in the variable. For example −
counter = 100 # Creates an integer variable

miles = 1000.0 # Creates a floating point variable

name = "Zara Ali" # Creates a string variable

Printing Python Variables

Once we create a Python variable and assign a value to it, we can print it
using print() function. Following is the extension of previous example and shows how to
print different variables in Python:
counter = 100 # Creates an integer variable

miles = 1000.0 # Creates a floating point variable

name = "Zara Ali" # Creates a string variable

print (counter)

print (miles)

print (name)
Here, 100, 1000.0 and "Zara Ali" are the values assigned to counter, miles,
and name variables, respectively. When running the above Python program, this produces
the following result −
100
1000.0
Zara Ali
Delete a Variable
You can delete the reference to a number object by using the del statement. The syntax of
the del statement is −

20
del var1[,var2[,var3[....,varN]]]]
You can delete a single object or multiple objects by using the del statement. For example −
del var

del var_a, var_b

Example
Following examples shows how we can delete a variable and if we try to use a deleted
variable then Python interpreter will throw an error:
counter = 100

print (counter)

del counter

print (counter)
This will produce the following result:
100
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 7, in <module>
print (counter)
NameError: name 'counter' is not defined
Multiple Assignment
Python allows you to assign a single value to several variables simultaneously which
means you can create multiple variables at a time. For example −
a = b = c = 100

print (a)

print (b)

print (c)
This produces the following result:
100
100
100
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,"Zara Ali"

print (a)
21
print (b)

print (c)
This produces the following result:
1
2
Zara Ali
Here, two integer objects with values 1 and 2 are assigned to variables a and b
respectively, and one string object with the value "Zara Ali" is assigned to the variable c.

Python Variable Names

Every Python variable should have a unique name like a, b, c. A variable name can be
meaningful like color, age, name etc. There are certain rules which should be taken care
while naming a Python variable:

 A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore character

 A variable name cannot start with a number or any special character like $, (, * % etc.
 A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (A-z, 0-9,
and _ )
 Python variable names are case-sensitive which means Name and NAME are two
different variables in Python.
 Python reserved keywords cannot be used naming the variable.

Example
Following are valid Python variable names:
counter = 100

_count = 100

name1 = "Zara"

name2 = "Nuha"

Age = 20

zara_salary = 100000

print (counter)

print (_count)

print (name1)

print (name2)

print (Age)

print (zara_salary)
This will produce the following result:

22
100
100
Zara
Nuha
20
100000
Example
Following are invalid Python variable names:
1counter = 100

$_count = 100

zara-salary = 100000

print (1counter)

print ($count)

print (zara-salary)
This will produce the following result:
File "main.py", line 3
1counter = 100
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Python Local Variable
Python Local Variables are defined inside a function. We can not access variable outside
the function.
A Python functions is a piece of reusable code and you will learn more about function in Python
- Functions tutorial.
Following is an example to show the usage of local variables:
def sum(x,y):

sum = x + y

return sum

print(sum(5, 10))
15
Python Global Variable
Any variable created outside a function can be accessed within any function and so they
have global scope. Following is an example of global variables:
x = 5

y = 10

23
def sum():

sum = x + y

return sum

print(sum())
This will produce the following result:
15

24
 Python - Data Types
Python Data Types are used to define the type of a variable. It defines what type of data we
are going to store in a variable. 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 built-in data types which we will discuss with in this tutorial:

 Numeric - int, float, complex

 String - str
 Sequence - list, tuple, range
 Binary - bytes, bytearray, memoryview
 Mapping - dict
 Boolean - bool
 Set - set, frozenset
 None - NoneType

Python Numeric Data Type

Python numeric data types store numeric values. Number objects are created when you
assign a value to them. For example −
var1 = 1

var2 = 10

var3 = 10.023
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 −

int long float complex

10 51924361L 0.0 3.14j

100 -0x19323L 15.20 45.j

-786 0122L -21.9 9.322e-36j

080 0xDEFABCECBDAECBFBAEl 32.3+e18 .876j

25
 -0490 535633629843L -90. -.6545+0J

-0x260 -052318172735L -32.54e100 3e+26J

0x69 -4721885298529L 70.2-E12 4.53e-7j

 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.
Example
Following is an example to show the usage of Integer, Float and Complex numbers:
# integer variable.

a=100

print("The type of variable having value", a, " is ", type(a))

# float variable.

b=20.345

print("The type of variable having value", b, " is ", type(b))

# complex variable.

c=10+3j

print("The type of variable having value", c, " is ", type(c))

Python String Data Type

Python Strings 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 in Python. For example −
str = 'Hello World!'

print (str) # Prints complete string

print (str[0]) # Prints first character of the string

26
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 List Data Type
Python Lists are the most versatile compound data types. A Python list contains items
separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets ([]). To some extent, Python
lists are similar to arrays in C. One difference between them is that all the items belonging
to a Python list can be of different data type where as C array can store elements related to
a particular data type.
The values stored in a Python 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. For
example −
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']

27
Python Tuple Data Type
Python tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to a list. A Python 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 −
tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

tinytuple = (123, 'john')

print (tuple) # Prints the complete tuple

print (tuple[0]) # Prints first element of the tuple

print (tuple[1:3]) # Prints elements of the tuple starting from 2nd till
3rd

print (tuple[2:]) # Prints elements of the tuple starting from 3rd element

print (tinytuple * 2) # Prints the contents of the tuple twice

print (tuple + tinytuple) # Prints concatenated tuples

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 −
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 Ranges
Python range() is an in-built function in Python which returns a sequence of numbers
starting from 0 and increments to 1 until it reaches a specified number.
We use range() function with for and while loop to generate a sequence of numbers.
Following is the syntax of the function:
range(start, stop, step)

28
Here is the description of the parameters used:

 start: Integer number to specify starting position, (Its optional, Default: 0)

 stop: Integer number to specify starting position (It's mandatory)
 step: Integer number to specify increment, (Its optional, Default: 1)

Examples
Following is a program which uses for loop to print number from 0 to 4 −
for i in range(5):

print(i)
This produce the following result −
0
1
2
3
4
Now let's modify above program to print the number starting from 1 instead of 0:
for i in range(1, 5):

print(i)
This produce the following result −
1
2
3
4
Again, let's modify the program to print the number starting from 1 but with an increment of
2 instead of 1:
for i in range(1, 5, 2):

print(i)
This produce the following result −
1
3
Python Dictionary
Python 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 −
dict = {}

29
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']
Python dictionaries have no concept of order among elements. It is incorrect to say that the
elements are "out of order"; they are simply unordered.

Python Boolean Data Types

Python boolean type is one of built-in data types which represents one of the two values
either True or False. Python bool() function allows you to evaluate the value of any
expression and returns either True or False based on the expression.
Examples
Following is a program which prints the value of boolean variables a and b −
a = True

# display the value of a

print(a)

# display the data type of a

print(type(a))
This produce the following result −
true
<class 'bool'>
Following is another program which evaluates the expressions and prints the return values:
30
# Returns false as a is not equal to b

a = 2

b = 4

print(bool(a==b))

# Following also prints the same

print(a==b)

# Returns False as a is None

a = None

print(bool(a))

# Returns false as a is an empty sequence

a = ()

print(bool(a))

# Returns false as a is 0

a = 0.0

print(bool(a))

# Returns false as a is 10

a = 10

print(bool(a))
This produce the following result −
False
False
False
False
False
True
Python Data Type Conversion
Sometimes, you may need to perform conversions between the built-in data types. To
convert data between different Python data types, you simply use the type name as a
function.

31
Conversion to int
Following is an example to convert number, float and string into integer data type:
a = int(1) # a will be 1

b = int(2.2) # b will be 2

c = int("3") # c will be 3

print (a)

print (b)

print (c)
This produce the following result −
1
2
3
Conversion to float
Following is an example to convert number, float and string into float data type:
a = float(1) # a will be 1.0

b = float(2.2) # b will be 2.2

c = float("3.3") # c will be 3.3

print (a)

print (b)

print (c)
This produce the following result −
1.0
2.2
3.3
Conversion to string
Following is an example to convert number, float and string into string data type:
a = str(1) # a will be "1"

b = str(2.2) # b will be "2.2"

c = str("3.3") # c will be "3.3"

print (a)

print (b)
32
print (c)
This produce the following result −
1
2.2
3.3
Data Type Conversion Functions
There are several built-in functions to perform conversion from one data type to another.
These functions return a new object representing the converted value.

Sr.No. Function & Description

1
int(x [,base])
Converts x to an integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.

2
long(x [,base] )
Converts x to a long integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.

3
float(x)
Converts x to a floating-point number.

4
complex(real [,imag])
Creates a complex number.

5
str(x)
Converts object x to a string representation.

6
repr(x)
Converts object x to an expression string.

7
eval(str)
Evaluates a string and returns an object.

8
tuple(s)
Converts s to a tuple.

33
9
list(s)
Converts s to a list.

10
set(s)
Converts s to a set.

11
dict(d)
Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of (key,value) tuples.

12
frozenset(s)
Converts s to a frozen set.

13
chr(x)
Converts an integer to a character.

14
unichr(x)
Converts an integer to a Unicode character.

15
ord(x)
Converts a single character to its integer value.

16
hex(x)
Converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.

17
oct(x)
Converts an integer to an octal string.

34
 Python - Operators
Python operators are the constructs which can manipulate the value of operands. These
are symbols used for the purpose of logical, arithmetic and various other operations.
Consider the expression 4 + 5 = 9. Here, 4 and 5 are called operands and + is
called operator. In this tutorial, we will study different types of Python operators.

Types of Python Operators

Python language supports the following types of operators.

 Arithmetic Operators
 Comparison (Relational) Operators
 Assignment Operators
 Logical Operators
 Bitwise Operators
 Membership Operators
 Identity Operators

Let us have a quick look on all these operators one by one.

Python Arithmetic Operators

Python arithmetic operators are used to perform mathematical operations on numerical
values. These operations are Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Modulus,
Expoents and Floor Division.

Operator Name Example

+ Addition 10 + 20 = 30

- Subtraction 20 – 10 = 10

* Multiplication 10 * 20 = 200

/ Division 20 / 10 = 2

% Modulus 22 % 10 = 2

** Exponent 4**2 = 16

// Floor Division 9//2 = 4

Example
Following is an example which shows all the above operations:

35
a = 21

b = 10

# Addition

print ("a + b : ", a + b)

# Subtraction

print ("a - b : ", a - b)

# Multiplication

print ("a * b : ", a * b)

# Division

print ("a / b : ", a / b)

# Modulus

print ("a % b : ", a % b)

# Exponent

print ("a ** b : ", a ** b)

# Floor Division

print ("a // b : ", a // b)

This produce the following result −
a + b : 31
a - b : 11
a * b : 210
a / b : 2.1
a%b: 1
a ** b : 16679880978201
a // b : 2
Python Comparison Operators
Python comparison operators compare the values on either sides of them and decide the
relation among them. They are also called relational operators. These operators are equal,
not equal, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to and less than or equal to.
36
 Operator Name Example

== Equal 4 == 5 is not true.

!= Not Equal 4 != 5 is true.

> Greater Than 4 > 5 is not true.

< Less Than 4 < 5 is true.

>= Greater than or Equal to 4 >= 5 is not true.

<= Less than or Equal to 4 <= 5 is true.

Example
Following is an example which shows all the above comparison operations:
a = 4

b = 5

# Equal

print ("a == b : ", a == b)

# Not Equal

print ("a != b : ", a != b)

# Greater Than

print ("a > b : ", a > b)

# Less Than

print ("a < b : ", a < b)

# Greater Than or Equal to

print ("a >= b : ", a >= b)

37
# Less Than or Equal to

print ("a <= b : ", a <= b)

This produce the following result −
a == b : False
a != b : True
a > b : False
a < b : True
a >= b : False
a <= b : True
Python Assignment Operators
Python assignment operators are used to assign values to variables. These operators
include simple assignment operator, addition assign, subtraction assign, multiplication
assign, division and assign operators etc.

Operator Name Example

= Assignment Operator a = 10

+= Addition Assignment a += 5 (Same as a = a + 5)

-= Subtraction Assignment a -= 5 (Same as a = a - 5)

*= Multiplication Assignment a *= 5 (Same as a = a * 5)

/= Division Assignment a /= 5 (Same as a = a / 5)

%= Remainder Assignment a %= 5 (Same as a = a %

5)

**= Exponent Assignment a **= 2 (Same as a = a **

2)

//= Floor Division Assignment a //= 3 (Same as a = a // 3)

Example
Following is an example which shows all the above assignment operations:
# Assignment Operator

a = 10

38
# Addition Assignment

a += 5

print ("a += 5 : ", a)

# Subtraction Assignment

a -= 5

print ("a -= 5 : ", a)

# Multiplication Assignment

a *= 5

print ("a *= 5 : ", a)

# Division Assignment

a /= 5

print ("a /= 5 : ",a)

# Remainder Assignment

a %= 3

print ("a %= 3 : ", a)

# Exponent Assignment

a **= 2

print ("a **= 2 : ", a)

# Floor Division Assignment

a //= 3

print ("a //= 3 : ", a)

This produce the following result −
a += 5 : 105
a -= 5 : 100
a *= 5 : 500
a /= 5 : 100.0
a %= 3 : 1.0
a **= 2 : 1.0
39
a //= 3 : 0.0
Python Bitwise Operators
Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit by bit operation. Assume if a = 60; and b =
13; Now in the binary format their values will be 0011 1100 and 0000 1101 respectively.
Following table lists out the bitwise operators supported by Python language with an
example each in those, we use the above two variables (a and b) as operands −
a = 0011 1100
b = 0000 1101
--------------------------
a&b = 12 (0000 1100)
a|b = 61 (0011 1101)
a^b = 49 (0011 0001)
~a = -61 (1100 0011)
a << 2 = 240 (1111 0000)
a>>2 = 15 (0000 1111)
There are following Bitwise operators supported by Python language

Operator Name Example

& Binary AND Sets each bit to 1 if both bits are 1

| Binary OR Sets each bit to 1 if one of two bits

is 1

^ Binary XOR Sets each bit to 1 if only one of two

bits is 1

~ Binary Ones Complement Inverts all the bits

<< Binary Left Shift Shift left by pushing zeros in from

the right and let the leftmost bits fall
off

>> Binary Right Shift Shift right by pushing copies of the

leftmost bit in from the left, and let
the rightmost bits fall off

Example
Following is an example which shows all the above bitwise operations:
40
a = 60 # 60 = 0011 1100

b = 13 # 13 = 0000 1101

# Binary AND

c = a & b # 12 = 0000 1100

print ("a & b : ", c)

# Binary OR

c = a | b # 61 = 0011 1101

print ("a | b : ", c)

# Binary XOR

c = a ^ b # 49 = 0011 0001

print ("a ^ b : ", c)

# Binary Ones Complement

c = ~a; # -61 = 1100 0011

print ("~a : ", c)

# Binary Left Shift

c = a << 2; # 240 = 1111 0000

print ("a << 2 : ", c)

# Binary Right Shift

c = a >> 2; # 15 = 0000 1111

print ("a >> 2 : ", c)

This produce the following result −
a & b : 12
a | b : 61
a ^ b : 49
~a : -61
a >> 2 : 240
a >> 2 : 15

41
Python Logical Operators
There are following logical operators supported by Python language. Assume variable a
holds 10 and variable b holds 20 then
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

and Logical If both the operands are true then condition becomes (a and b) is true.
AND true.

or Logical OR If any of the two operands are non-zero then condition (a or b) is true.
becomes true.

not Logical Used to reverse the logical state of its operand. Not(a and b) is false.
NOT

Python Membership Operators

Python’s membership operators test for membership in a sequence, such as strings, lists,
or tuples. There are two membership operators as explained below −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

in Evaluates to true if it finds a variable in the specified x in y, here in

sequence and false otherwise. results in a 1 if x
is a member of
sequence y.

not in Evaluates to true if it does not finds a variable in the specified x not in y, here
sequence and false otherwise. not in results in a
1 if x is not a
member of
sequence y.

Python Identity Operators

Identity operators compare the memory locations of two objects. There are two Identity
operators explained below −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

42
is Evaluates to true if the variables on either side of the x is y,
operator point to the same object and false here is results
otherwise. in 1 if id(x)
equals id(y).

is not Evaluates to false if the variables on either side of x is not y,

the operator point to the same object and true here is
otherwise. not results in
1 if id(x) is not
equal to id(y).

Python Operators Precedence

The following table lists all operators from highest precedence to lowest.
[ Show Example ]

Sr.No. Operator & Description

1
**
Exponentiation (raise to the power)

2
~+-
Complement, unary plus and minus (method names for the last two
are +@ and -@)

3
* / % //
Multiply, divide, modulo and floor division

4
+-
Addition and subtraction

5
>> <<
Right and left bitwise shift

6
&
Bitwise 'AND'

43
7
^|
Bitwise exclusive `OR' and regular `OR'

8
<= < > >=
Comparison operators

9
<> == !=
Equality operators

10
= %= /= //= -= += *= **=
Assignment operators

11
is is not
Identity operators

12
in not in
Membership operators

13
not or and
Logical operators

44
 Python - Decision Making
Decision making is anticipation of conditions occurring while execution of the program and
specifying actions taken according to the conditions.
Decision structures evaluate multiple expressions which produce TRUE or FALSE as
outcome. You need to determine which action to take and which statements to execute if
outcome is TRUE or FALSE otherwise.
Following is the general form of a typical decision making structure found in most of the
programming languages −

Python programming language assumes any non-zero and non-null values as TRUE, and
if it is either zero or null, then it is assumed as FALSE value.
Python programming language provides following types of decision making statements.
Click the following links to check their detail.

Sr.No. Statement & Description

1 if statements
An if statement consists of a boolean expression followed by one or
more statements.

2 if...else statements
An if statement can be followed by an optional else statement,
which executes when the boolean expression is FALSE.

45
3 nested if statements
You can use one if or else if statement inside another if or else
if statement(s).

Let us go through each decision making briefly −

Single Statement Suites

If the suite of an if clause consists only of a single line, it may go on the same line as the
header statement.
Here is an example of a one-line if clause −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var = 100
if ( var == 100 ) : print "Value of expression is 100"
print "Good bye!"
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Value of expression is 100
Good bye!

46
 Python - Loops
In general, statements are executed sequentially: The first statement in a function is
executed first, followed by the second, and so on. There may be a situation when you need
to execute a block of code several number of times.
Programming languages provide various control structures that allow for more complicated
execution paths.
A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements multiple times.
The following diagram illustrates a loop statement −

Python programming language provides following types of loops to handle looping

requirements.

Sr.No. Loop Type & Description

1 while loop
Repeats a statement or group of statements while a given condition
is TRUE. It tests the condition before executing the loop body.

2 for loop
Executes a sequence of statements multiple times and abbreviates
the code that manages the loop variable.

3 nested loops
You can use one or more loop inside any another while, for or

47
 do..while loop.

Loop Control Statements

Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence. When execution
leaves a scope, all automatic objects that were created in that scope are destroyed.
Python supports the following control statements. Click the following links to check their
detail.
Let us go through the loop control statements briefly

Sr.No. Control Statement & Description

1 break statement
Terminates the loop statement and transfers execution to the
statement immediately following the loop.

2 continue statement
Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and immediately
retest its condition prior to reiterating.

3 pass statement
The pass statement in Python is used when a statement is required
syntactically but you do not want any command or code to execute.

48
 Python - Numbers
Number data types store numeric values. They are immutable data types, means that
changing the value of a number data type results in a newly allocated object.
Number objects are created when you assign a value to them. For example −
var1 = 1
var2 = 10
You can also delete the reference to a number object by using the del statement. The
syntax of the del statement is −
del var1[,var2[,var3[....,varN]]]]
You can delete a single object or multiple objects by using the del statement. For example
−
del var
del var_a, var_b
Python supports four different numerical types −
 int (signed integers) − They are often called just integers or ints, are positive or
negative whole numbers with no decimal point.
 long (long integers ) − Also called longs, they are integers of unlimited size, written
like integers and followed by an uppercase or lowercase L.
 float (floating point real values) − Also called floats, they represent real numbers
and are written with a decimal point dividing the integer and fractional parts. Floats
may also be in scientific notation, with E or e indicating the power of 10 (2.5e2 = 2.5 x
102 = 250).
 complex (complex numbers) − are of the form a + bJ, where a and b are floats and
J (or j) represents the square root of -1 (which is an imaginary number). The real part
of the number is a, and the imaginary part is b. Complex numbers are not used much
in Python programming.
Examples
Here are some examples of numbers

int long Float complex

10 51924361L 0.0 3.14j

100 -0x19323L 15.20 45.j

-786 0122L -21.9 9.322e-36j

080 0xDEFABCECBDAECBFBAEL 32.3+e18 .876j

-0490 535633629843L -90. -.6545+0J

49
-0x260 -052318172735L -32.54e100 3e+26J

0x69 -4721885298529L 70.2-E12 4.53e-7j

 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 a + bj, where a is the real part and b is the imaginary part of the complex number.
Number Type Conversion
Python converts numbers internally in an expression containing mixed types to a common
type for evaluation. But sometimes, you need to coerce a number explicitly from one type to
another to satisfy the requirements of an operator or function parameter.
 Type int(x) to convert x to a plain integer.
 Type long(x) to convert x to a long integer.
 Type float(x) to convert x to a floating-point number.
 Type complex(x) to convert x to a complex number with real part x and imaginary
part zero.
 Type complex(x, y) to convert x and y to a complex number with real part x and
imaginary part y. x and y are numeric expressions
Mathematical Functions
Python includes following functions that perform mathematical calculations.

Sr.No. Function & Returns ( description )

1 abs(x)
The absolute value of x: the (positive) distance between x and zero.

2 ceil(x)
The ceiling of x: the smallest integer not less than x

3 cmp(x, y)
-1 if x < y, 0 if x == y, or 1 if x > y

4 exp(x)
The exponential of x: ex

5 fabs(x)
The absolute value of x.

50
6 floor(x)
The floor of x: the largest integer not greater than x

7 log(x)
The natural logarithm of x, for x> 0

8 log10(x)
The base-10 logarithm of x for x> 0.

9 max(x1, x2,...)
The largest of its arguments: the value closest to positive infinity

10 min(x1, x2,...)
The smallest of its arguments: the value closest to negative infinity

11 modf(x)
The fractional and integer parts of x in a two-item tuple. Both parts
have the same sign as x. The integer part is returned as a float.

12 pow(x, y)
The value of x**y.

13 round(x [,n])
x rounded to n digits from the decimal point. Python rounds away
from zero as a tie-breaker: round(0.5) is 1.0 and round(-0.5) is -1.0.

14 sqrt(x)
The square root of x for x > 0

Random Number Functions

Random numbers are used for games, simulations, testing, security, and privacy
applications. Python includes following functions that are commonly used.

Sr.No. Function & Description

1 choice(seq)
A random item from a list, tuple, or string.

51
2 randrange ([start,] stop [,step])
A randomly selected element from range(start, stop, step)

3 random()
A random float r, such that 0 is less than or equal to r and r is less
than 1

4 seed([x])
Sets the integer starting value used in generating random numbers.
Call this function before calling any other random module function.
Returns None.

5 shuffle(lst)
Randomizes the items of a list in place. Returns None.

6 uniform(x, y)
A random float r, such that x is less than or equal to r and r is less
than y

Trigonometric Functions
Python includes following functions that perform trigonometric calculations.

Sr.No. Function & Description

1 acos(x)
Return the arc cosine of x, in radians.

2 asin(x)
Return the arc sine of x, in radians.

3 atan(x)
Return the arc tangent of x, in radians.

4 atan2(y, x)
Return atan(y / x), in radians.

5 cos(x)

52
 Return the cosine of x radians.

6 hypot(x, y)
Return the Euclidean norm, sqrt(x*x + y*y).

7 sin(x)
Return the sine of x radians.

8 tan(x)
Return the tangent of x radians.

9 degrees(x)
Converts angle x from radians to degrees.

10 radians(x)
Converts angle x from degrees to radians.

Mathematical Constants
The module also defines two mathematical constants −

Sr.No. Constants & Description

1
pi
The mathematical constant pi.

2
e
The mathematical constant e.

53
 Python - Strings
Strings are amongst the most popular types in Python. We can create them simply by
enclosing characters in quotes. Python treats single quotes the same as double quotes.
Creating strings is as simple as assigning a value to a variable. For example −
var1 = 'Hello World!'
var2 = "Python Programming"

Accessing Values in Strings

Python does not support a character type; these are treated as strings of length one, thus
also considered a substring.
To access substrings, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or indices to
obtain your substring. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var1 = 'Hello World!'

var2 = "Python Programming"

print "var1[0]: ", var1[0]

print "var2[1:5]: ", var2[1:5]
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
var1[0]: H
var2[1:5]: ytho
Updating Strings
You can "update" an existing string by (re)assigning a variable to another string. The new
value can be related to its previous value or to a completely different string altogether. For
example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var1 = 'Hello World!'

print "Updated String :- ", var1[:6] + 'Python'
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Updated String :- Hello Python
Escape Characters
Following table is a list of escape or non-printable characters that can be represented with
backslash notation.
An escape character gets interpreted; in a single quoted as well as double quoted strings.

54
Backslash Hexadecimal Description
notation character

\a 0x07 Bell or alert

\b 0x08 Backspace

\cx Control-x

\C-x Control-x

\e 0x1b Escape

\f 0x0c Formfeed

\M-\C-x Meta-Control-x

\n 0x0a Newline

\nnn Octal notation, where n is in the range

0.7

\r 0x0d Carriage return

\s 0x20 Space

\t 0x09 Tab

\v 0x0b Vertical tab

\x Character x

\xnn Hexadecimal notation, where n is in the

range 0.9, a.f, or A.F

55
String Special Operators
Assume string variable a holds 'Hello' and variable b holds 'Python', then −

Operator Description Example

+ Concatenation - Adds values on either side of the a + b will

operator give
HelloPython

* Repetition - Creates new strings, concatenating a*2 will give

multiple copies of the same string -HelloHello

[] Slice - Gives the character from the given index a[1] will
give e

[:] Range Slice - Gives the characters from the given a[1:4] will
range give ell

in Membership - Returns true if a character exists in the H in a will

given string give 1

not in Membership - Returns true if a character does not M not in a

exist in the given string will give 1

r/R Raw String - Suppresses actual meaning of Escape print r'\n'

characters. The syntax for raw strings is exactly the prints \n
same as for normal strings with the exception of the and print
raw string operator, the letter "r," which precedes the R'\n'prints
quotation marks. The "r" can be lowercase (r) or \n
uppercase (R) and must be placed immediately
preceding the first quote mark.

% Format - Performs String formatting See at next

section

String Formatting Operator

One of Python's coolest features is the string format operator %. This operator is unique to
strings and makes up for the pack of having functions from C's printf() family. Following is a
simple example −
56
 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print "My name is %s and weight is %d kg!" % ('Zara', 21)

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
My name is Zara and weight is 21 kg!
Here is the list of complete set of symbols which can be used along with % −

Format Symbol Conversion

%c Character

%s string conversion via str() prior to formatting

%i signed decimal integer

%d signed decimal integer

%u unsigned decimal integer

%o octal integer

%x hexadecimal integer (lowercase letters)

%X hexadecimal integer (UPPERcase letters)

%e exponential notation (with lowercase 'e')

%E exponential notation (with UPPERcase 'E')

%f floating point real number

%g the shorter of %f and %e

%G the shorter of %f and %E

Other supported symbols and functionality are listed in the following table −

57
 Symbol Functionality

* argument specifies width or precision

- left justification

+ display the sign

<sp> leave a blank space before a positive number

# add the octal leading zero ( '0' ) or hexadecimal leading

'0x' or '0X', depending on whether 'x' or 'X' were used.

0 pad from left with zeros (instead of spaces)

% '%%' leaves you with a single literal '%'

(var) mapping variable (dictionary arguments)

m.n. m is the minimum total width and n is the number of

digits to display after the decimal point (if appl.)

Triple Quotes
Python's triple quotes comes to the rescue by allowing strings to span multiple lines,
including verbatim NEWLINEs, TABs, and any other special characters.
The syntax for triple quotes consists of three consecutive single or double quotes.
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

para_str = """this is a long string that is made up of

several lines and non-printable characters such as
TAB ( \t ) and they will show up that way when displayed.
NEWLINEs within the string, whether explicitly given like
this within the brackets [ \n ], or just a NEWLINE within
the variable assignment will also show up.
"""
print para_str
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result. Note how every single
special character has been converted to its printed form, right down to the last NEWLINE at

58
the end of the string between the "up." and closing triple quotes. Also note that NEWLINEs
occur either with an explicit carriage return at the end of a line or its escape code (\n) −
this is a long string that is made up of
several lines and non-printable characters such as
TAB ( ) and they will show up that way when displayed.
NEWLINEs within the string, whether explicitly given like
this within the brackets [
], or just a NEWLINE within
the variable assignment will also show up.
Raw strings do not treat the backslash as a special character at all. Every character you put
into a raw string stays the way you wrote it −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print 'C:\\nowhere'
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
C:\nowhere
Now let's make use of raw string. We would put expression in r'expression' as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print r'C:\\nowhere'
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
C:\\nowhere
Unicode String
Normal strings in Python are stored internally as 8-bit ASCII, while Unicode strings are
stored as 16-bit Unicode. This allows for a more varied set of characters, including special
characters from most languages in the world. I'll restrict my treatment of Unicode strings to
the following −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print u'Hello, world!'

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Hello, world!
As you can see, Unicode strings use the prefix u, just as raw strings use the prefix r.

59
Built-in String Methods
Python includes the following built-in methods to manipulate strings −

Sr.No. Methods with Description

1 capitalize()
Capitalizes first letter of string

2 center(width, fillchar)
Returns a space-padded string with the original string centered to a
total of width columns.

3 count(str, beg= 0,end=len(string))

Counts how many times str occurs in string or in a substring of string
if starting index beg and ending index end are given.

4 decode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')
Decodes the string using the codec registered for encoding. encoding
defaults to the default string encoding.

5 encode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')
Returns encoded string version of string; on error, default is to raise a
ValueError unless errors is given with 'ignore' or 'replace'.

6 endswith(suffix, beg=0, end=len(string))

Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and
ending index end are given) ends with suffix; returns true if so and
false otherwise.

7 expandtabs(tabsize=8)
Expands tabs in string to multiple spaces; defaults to 8 spaces per
tab if tabsize not provided.

8 find(str, beg=0 end=len(string))

Determine if str occurs in string or in a substring of string if starting
index beg and ending index end are given returns index if found and -
1 otherwise.

9 index(str, beg=0, end=len(string))

60
 Same as find(), but raises an exception if str not found.

10 isalnum()
Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are
alphanumeric and false otherwise.

11 isalpha()
Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are
alphabetic and false otherwise.

12 isdigit()
Returns true if string contains only digits and false otherwise.

13 islower()
Returns true if string has at least 1 cased character and all cased
characters are in lowercase and false otherwise.

14 isnumeric()
Returns true if a unicode string contains only numeric characters and
false otherwise.

15 isspace()
Returns true if string contains only whitespace characters and false
otherwise.

16 istitle()
Returns true if string is properly "titlecased" and false otherwise.

17 isupper()
Returns true if string has at least one cased character and all cased
characters are in uppercase and false otherwise.

18 join(seq)
Merges (concatenates) the string representations of elements in
sequence seq into a string, with separator string.

19 len(string)
Returns the length of the string

61
20 ljust(width[, fillchar])
Returns a space-padded string with the original string left-justified to
a total of width columns.

21 lower()
Converts all uppercase letters in string to lowercase.

22 lstrip()
Removes all leading whitespace in string.

23 maketrans()
Returns a translation table to be used in translate function.

24 max(str)
Returns the max alphabetical character from the string str.

25 min(str)
Returns the min alphabetical character from the string str.

26 replace(old, new [, max])

Replaces all occurrences of old in string with new or at most max
occurrences if max given.

27 rfind(str, beg=0,end=len(string))
Same as find(), but search backwards in string.

28 rindex( str, beg=0, end=len(string))

Same as index(), but search backwards in string.

29 rjust(width,[, fillchar])
Returns a space-padded string with the original string right-justified to
a total of width columns.

30 rstrip()
Removes all trailing whitespace of string.

31 split(str="", num=string.count(str))

62
 Splits string according to delimiter str (space if not provided) and
returns list of substrings; split into at most num substrings if given.

32 splitlines( num=string.count('\n'))
Splits string at all (or num) NEWLINEs and returns a list of each line
with NEWLINEs removed.

33 startswith(str, beg=0,end=len(string))
Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and
ending index end are given) starts with substring str; returns true if so
and false otherwise.

34 strip([chars])
Performs both lstrip() and rstrip() on string.

35 swapcase()
Inverts case for all letters in string.

36 title()
Returns "titlecased" version of string, that is, all words begin with
uppercase and the rest are lowercase.

37 translate(table, deletechars="")
Translates string according to translation table str(256 chars),
removing those in the del string.

38 upper()
Converts lowercase letters in string to uppercase.

39 zfill (width)
Returns original string leftpadded with zeros to a total of width
characters; intended for numbers, zfill() retains any sign given (less
one zero).

40 isdecimal()
Returns true if a unicode string contains only decimal characters and
false otherwise.

63
 Python - Lists
The most basic data structure in Python is the sequence. Each element of a sequence is
assigned a number - its position or index. The first index is zero, the second index is one,
and so forth.
Python has six built-in types of sequences, but the most common ones are lists and tuples,
which we would see in this tutorial.
There are certain things you can do with all sequence types. These operations include
indexing, slicing, adding, multiplying, and checking for membership. In addition, Python has
built-in functions for finding the length of a sequence and for finding its largest and smallest
elements.

Python Lists
The list is a most versatile datatype available in Python which can be written as a list of
comma-separated values (items) between square brackets. Important thing about a list is
that items in a list need not be of the same type.
Creating a list is as simple as putting different comma-separated values between square
brackets. For example −
list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];
list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ];
list3 = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
Similar to string indices, list indices start at 0, and lists can be sliced, concatenated and so
on.

Accessing Values in Lists

To access values in lists, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or indices
to obtain value available at that index. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ];
print "list1[0]: ", list1[0]
print "list2[1:5]: ", list2[1:5]
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
list1[0]: physics
list2[1:5]: [2, 3, 4, 5]
Updating Lists
You can update single or multiple elements of lists by giving the slice on the left-hand side
of the assignment operator, and you can add to elements in a list with the append() method.
For example −

64
 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

print "Value available at index 2 : "
print list[2]
list[2] = 2001;
print "New value available at index 2 : "
print list[2]
Note − append() method is discussed in subsequent section.
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Value available at index 2 :
1997
New value available at index 2 :
2001
Delete List Elements
To remove a list element, you can use either the del statement if you know exactly which
element(s) you are deleting or the remove() method if you do not know. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

print list1
del list1[2];
print "After deleting value at index 2 : "
print list1
When the above code is executed, it produces following result −
['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000]
After deleting value at index 2 :
['physics', 'chemistry', 2000]
Note − remove() method is discussed in subsequent section.

Basic List Operations

Lists respond to the + and * operators much like strings; they mean concatenation and
repetition here too, except that the result is a new list, not a string.
In fact, lists respond to all of the general sequence operations we used on strings in the
prior chapter.

Python Expression Results Description

len([1, 2, 3]) 3 Length

65
 [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6] [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Concatenation

['Hi!'] * 4 ['Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!'] Repetition

3 in [1, 2, 3] True Membership

for x in [1, 2, 3]: print x, 123 Iteration

Indexing, Slicing, and Matrixes

Because lists are sequences, indexing and slicing work the same way for lists as they do
for strings.
Assuming following input −
L = ['spam', 'Spam', 'SPAM!']
Python Expression Results Description

L[2] SPAM! Offsets start at zero

L[-2] Spam Negative: count from the right

L[1:] ['Spam', 'SPAM!'] Slicing fetches sections

Built-in List Functions & Methods

Python includes the following list functions −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 cmp(list1, list2)
Compares elements of both lists.

2 len(list)
Gives the total length of the list.

3 max(list)
Returns item from the list with max value.

4 min(list)
Returns item from the list with min value.

66
5 list(seq)
Converts a tuple into list.

Python includes following list methods

Sr.No. Methods with Description

1 list.append(obj)
Appends object obj to list

2 list.count(obj)
Returns count of how many times obj occurs in list

3 list.extend(seq)
Appends the contents of seq to list

4 list.index(obj)
Returns the lowest index in list that obj appears

5 list.insert(index, obj)
Inserts object obj into list at offset index

6 list.pop(obj=list[-1])
Removes and returns last object or obj from list

7 list.remove(obj)
Removes object obj from list

8 list.reverse()
Reverses objects of list in place

9 list.sort([func])
Sorts objects of list, use compare func if given

67
 Python - Tuples
A tuple is a collection of objects which ordered and immutable. Tuples are sequences, just
like lists. The differences between tuples and lists are, the tuples cannot be changed unlike
lists and tuples use parentheses, whereas lists use square brackets.
Creating a tuple is as simple as putting different comma-separated values. Optionally you
can put these comma-separated values between parentheses also. For example −
tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);
tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 );
tup3 = "a", "b", "c", "d";
The empty tuple is written as two parentheses containing nothing −
tup1 = ();
To write a tuple containing a single value you have to include a comma, even though there
is only one value −
tup1 = (50,);
Like string indices, tuple indices start at 0, and they can be sliced, concatenated, and so on.

Accessing Values in Tuples

To access values in tuple, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or
indices to obtain value available at that index. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);

tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 );
print "tup1[0]: ", tup1[0];
print "tup2[1:5]: ", tup2[1:5];
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
tup1[0]: physics
tup2[1:5]: [2, 3, 4, 5]
Updating Tuples
Tuples are immutable which means you cannot update or change the values of tuple
elements. You are able to take portions of existing tuples to create new tuples as the
following example demonstrates −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup1 = (12, 34.56);

tup2 = ('abc', 'xyz');

# Following action is not valid for tuples

68
# tup1[0] = 100;

# So let's create a new tuple as follows

tup3 = tup1 + tup2;
print tup3;
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
(12, 34.56, 'abc', 'xyz')
Delete Tuple Elements
Removing individual tuple elements is not possible. There is, of course, nothing wrong with
putting together another tuple with the undesired elements discarded.
To explicitly remove an entire tuple, just use the del statement. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);

print tup;
del tup;
print "After deleting tup : ";
print tup;
This produces the following result. Note an exception raised, this is because after del
tup tuple does not exist any more −
('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000)
After deleting tup :
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 9, in <module>
print tup;
NameError: name 'tup' is not defined
Basic Tuples Operations
Tuples respond to the + and * operators much like strings; they mean concatenation and
repetition here too, except that the result is a new tuple, not a string.
In fact, tuples respond to all of the general sequence operations we used on strings in the
prior chapter −

Python Expression Results Description

len((1, 2, 3)) 3 Length

(1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Concatenation

('Hi!',) * 4 ('Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!') Repetition

69
 3 in (1, 2, 3) True Membership

for x in (1, 2, 3): print x, 123 Iteration

Indexing, Slicing, and Matrixes

Because tuples are sequences, indexing and slicing work the same way for tuples as they
do for strings. Assuming following input −
L = ('spam', 'Spam', 'SPAM!')

Python Expression Results Description

L[2] 'SPAM!' Offsets start at zero

L[-2] 'Spam' Negative: count from the

right

L[1:] ['Spam', 'SPAM!'] Slicing fetches sections

No Enclosing Delimiters
Any set of multiple objects, comma-separated, written without identifying symbols, i.e.,
brackets for lists, parentheses for tuples, etc., default to tuples, as indicated in these short
examples −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print 'abc', -4.24e93, 18+6.6j, 'xyz';

x, y = 1, 2;
print "Value of x , y : ", x,y;
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
abc -4.24e+93 (18+6.6j) xyz
Value of x , y : 1 2
Built-in Tuple Functions
Python includes the following tuple functions −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 cmp(tuple1, tuple2)

70
 Compares elements of both tuples.

2 len(tuple)
Gives the total length of the tuple.

3 max(tuple)
Returns item from the tuple with max value.

4 min(tuple)
Returns item from the tuple with min value.

5 tuple(seq)
Converts a list into tuple.

71
 Python - Dictionary
Each key is separated from its value by a colon (:), the items are separated by commas,
and the whole thing is enclosed in curly braces. An empty dictionary without any items is
written with just two curly braces, like this: {}.
Keys are unique within a dictionary while values may not be. The values of a dictionary can
be of any type, but the keys must be of an immutable data type such as strings, numbers,
or tuples.

Accessing Values in Dictionary

To access dictionary elements, you can use the familiar square brackets along with the key
to obtain its value. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
dict['Name']: Zara
dict['Age']: 7
If we attempt to access a data item with a key, which is not part of the dictionary, we get an
error as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice']
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
dict['Alice']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice'];
KeyError: 'Alice'
Updating Dictionary
You can update a dictionary by adding a new entry or a key-value pair, modifying an
existing entry, or deleting an existing entry as shown below in the simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

72
dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}
dict['Age'] = 8; # update existing entry
dict['School'] = "DPS School"; # Add new entry

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
dict['Age']: 8
dict['School']: DPS School
Delete Dictionary Elements
You can either remove individual dictionary elements or clear the entire contents of a
dictionary. You can also delete entire dictionary in a single operation.
To explicitly remove an entire dictionary, just use the del statement. Following is a simple
example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

del dict['Name']; # remove entry with key 'Name'
dict.clear(); # remove all entries in dict
del dict ; # delete entire dictionary

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']
This produces the following result. Note that an exception is raised because after del
dict dictionary does not exist any more −
dict['Age']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 8, in <module>
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age'];
TypeError: 'type' object is unsubscriptable
Note − del() method is discussed in subsequent section.

Properties of Dictionary Keys

Dictionary values have no restrictions. They can be any arbitrary Python object, either
standard objects or user-defined objects. However, same is not true for the keys.
There are two important points to remember about dictionary keys −
(a) More than one entry per key not allowed. Which means no duplicate key is allowed.
When duplicate keys encountered during assignment, the last assignment wins. For
example −
Live Demo

73
#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Name': 'Manni'}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
dict['Name']: Manni
(b) Keys must be immutable. Which means you can use strings, numbers or tuples as
dictionary keys but something like ['key'] is not allowed. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7};
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods
Python includes the following dictionary functions −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 cmp(dict1, dict2)
Compares elements of both dict.

2 len(dict)
Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the
number of items in the dictionary.

3 str(dict)
Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary

4 type(variable)
Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is
dictionary, then it would return a dictionary type.

Python includes following dictionary methods −

74
Sr.No. Methods with Description

1 dict.clear()
Removes all elements of dictionary dict

2 dict.copy()
Returns a shallow copy of dictionary dict

3 dict.fromkeys()
Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value.

4 dict.get(key, default=None)
For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary

5 dict.has_key(key)
Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise

6 dict.items()
Returns a list of dict's (key, value) tuple pairs

7 dict.keys()
Returns list of dictionary dict's keys

8 dict.setdefault(key, default=None)
Similar to get(), but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in
dict

9 dict.update(dict2)
Adds dictionary dict2's key-values pairs to dict

10 dict.values()
Returns list of dictionary dict's values

75
 Python - Date & Time
A Python program can handle date and time in several ways. Converting between date
formats is a common chore for computers. Python's time and calendar modules help track
dates and times.

What is Tick?
Time intervals are floating-point numbers in units of seconds. Particular instants in time are
expressed in seconds since 00:00:00 hrs January 1, 1970(epoch).
There is a popular time module available in Python which provides functions for working
with times, and for converting between representations. The function time.time() returns the
current system time in ticks since 00:00:00 hrs January 1, 1970(epoch).

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import time; # This is required to include time module.

ticks = time.time()
print "Number of ticks since 12:00am, January 1, 1970:", ticks
This would produce a result something as follows −
Number of ticks since 12:00am, January 1, 1970: 7186862.73399
Date arithmetic is easy to do with ticks. However, dates before the epoch cannot be
represented in this form. Dates in the far future also cannot be represented this way - the
cutoff point is sometime in 2038 for UNIX and Windows.

What is TimeTuple?
Many of Python's time functions handle time as a tuple of 9 numbers, as shown below −

Index Field Values

0 4-digit year 2008

1 Month 1 to 12

2 Day 1 to 31

3 Hour 0 to 23

4 Minute 0 to 59

76
 5 Second 0 to 61 (60 or 61 are leap-seconds)

6 Day of Week 0 to 6 (0 is Monday)

7 Day of year 1 to 366 (Julian day)

8 Daylight savings -1, 0, 1, -1 means library determines

DST

The above tuple is equivalent to struct_time structure. This structure has following
attributes −

Index Attributes Values

0 tm_year 2008

1 tm_mon 1 to 12

2 tm_mday 1 to 31

3 tm_hour 0 to 23

4 tm_min 0 to 59

5 tm_sec 0 to 61 (60 or 61 are leap-seconds)

6 tm_wday 0 to 6 (0 is Monday)

7 tm_yday 1 to 366 (Julian day)

8 tm_isdst -1, 0, 1, -1 means library determines

DST

Getting current time

To translate a time instant from a seconds since the epoch floating-point value into a time-
tuple, pass the floating-point value to a function (e.g., localtime) that returns a time-tuple
with all nine items valid.
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
77
import time;

localtime = time.localtime(time.time())
print "Local current time :", localtime
This would produce the following result, which could be formatted in any other presentable
form −
Local current time : time.struct_time(tm_year=2013, tm_mon=7,
tm_mday=17, tm_hour=21, tm_min=26, tm_sec=3, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=198, tm_isdst=0)
Getting formatted time
You can format any time as per your requirement, but simple method to get time in
readable format is asctime() −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import time;

localtime = time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()) )

print "Local current time :", localtime
This would produce the following result −
Local current time : Tue Jan 13 10:17:09 2009
Getting calendar for a month
The calendar module gives a wide range of methods to play with yearly and monthly
calendars. Here, we print a calendar for a given month ( Jan 2008 ) −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import calendar

cal = calendar.month(2008, 1)
print "Here is the calendar:"
print cal
This would produce the following result −
Here is the calendar:
January 2008
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

78
The time Module
There is a popular time module available in Python which provides functions for working
with times and for converting between representations. Here is the list of all available
methods −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 time.altzone
The offset of the local DST timezone, in seconds west of UTC, if one
is defined. This is negative if the local DST timezone is east of UTC
(as in Western Europe, including the UK). Only use this if daylight is
nonzero.

2 time.asctime([tupletime])
Accepts a time-tuple and returns a readable 24-character string such
as 'Tue Dec 11 18:07:14 2008'.

3 time.clock( )
Returns the current CPU time as a floating-point number of seconds.
To measure computational costs of different approaches, the value of
time.clock is more useful than that of time.time().

4 time.ctime([secs])
Like asctime(localtime(secs)) and without arguments is like asctime( )

5 time.gmtime([secs])
Accepts an instant expressed in seconds since the epoch and returns
a time-tuple t with the UTC time. Note : t.tm_isdst is always 0

6 time.localtime([secs])
Accepts an instant expressed in seconds since the epoch and returns
a time-tuple t with the local time (t.tm_isdst is 0 or 1, depending on
whether DST applies to instant secs by local rules).

7 time.mktime(tupletime)
Accepts an instant expressed as a time-tuple in local time and
returns a floating-point value with the instant expressed in seconds
since the epoch.

79
8 time.sleep(secs)
Suspends the calling thread for secs seconds.

9 time.strftime(fmt[,tupletime])
Accepts an instant expressed as a time-tuple in local time and
returns a string representing the instant as specified by string fmt.

10 time.strptime(str,fmt='%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y')

Parses str according to format string fmt and returns the instant in
time-tuple format.

11 time.time( )
Returns the current time instant, a floating-point number of seconds
since the epoch.

12 time.tzset()
Resets the time conversion rules used by the library routines. The
environment variable TZ specifies how this is done.

Let us go through the functions briefly −

There are following two important attributes available with time module −

Sr.No. Attribute with Description

1
time.timezone
Attribute time.timezone is the offset in seconds of the local time zone
(without DST) from UTC (>0 in the Americas; <=0 in most of Europe,
Asia, Africa).

2
time.tzname
Attribute time.tzname is a pair of locale-dependent strings, which are
the names of the local time zone without and with DST, respectively.

The calendar Module

The calendar module supplies calendar-related functions, including functions to print a text
calendar for a given month or year.
By default, calendar takes Monday as the first day of the week and Sunday as the last one.
To change this, call calendar.setfirstweekday() function.

80
Here is a list of functions available with the calendar module −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1
calendar.calendar(year,w=2,l=1,c=6)
Returns a multiline string with a calendar for year year formatted into
three columns separated by c spaces. w is the width in characters of
each date; each line has length 21*w+18+2*c. l is the number of lines
for each week.

2
calendar.firstweekday( )
Returns the current setting for the weekday that starts each week. By
default, when calendar is first imported, this is 0, meaning Monday.

3
calendar.isleap(year)
Returns True if year is a leap year; otherwise, False.

4
calendar.leapdays(y1,y2)
Returns the total number of leap days in the years within
range(y1,y2).

5
calendar.month(year,month,w=2,l=1)
Returns a multiline string with a calendar for month month of year
year, one line per week plus two header lines. w is the width in
characters of each date; each line has length 7*w+6. l is the number
of lines for each week.

6
calendar.monthcalendar(year,month)
Returns a list of lists of ints. Each sublist denotes a week. Days
outside month month of year year are set to 0; days within the month
are set to their day-of-month, 1 and up.

7
calendar.monthrange(year,month)
Returns two integers. The first one is the code of the weekday for the
first day of the month month in year year; the second one is the
number of days in the month. Weekday codes are 0 (Monday) to 6
(Sunday); month numbers are 1 to 12.

81
8
calendar.prcal(year,w=2,l=1,c=6)
Like print calendar.calendar(year,w,l,c).

9
calendar.prmonth(year,month,w=2,l=1)
Like print calendar.month(year,month,w,l).

10
calendar.setfirstweekday(weekday)
Sets the first day of each week to weekday code weekday. Weekday
codes are 0 (Monday) to 6 (Sunday).

11
calendar.timegm(tupletime)
The inverse of time.gmtime: accepts a time instant in time-tuple form
and returns the same instant as a floating-point number of seconds
since the epoch.

12
calendar.weekday(year,month,day)
Returns the weekday code for the given date. Weekday codes are 0
(Monday) to 6 (Sunday); month numbers are 1 (January) to 12
(December).

Other Modules & Functions

If you are interested, then here you would find a list of other important modules and
functions to play with date & time in Python −
 The datetime Module
 The pytz Module
 The dateutil Module

82
 Python - Functions
A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single, related
action. Functions provide better modularity for your application and a high degree of code
reusing.
As you already know, Python gives you many built-in functions like print(), etc. but you can
also create your own functions. These functions are called user-defined functions.

Defining a Function
You can define functions to provide the required functionality. Here are simple rules to
define a function in Python.
 Function blocks begin with the keyword def followed by the function name and
parentheses ( ( ) ).
 Any input parameters or arguments should be placed within these parentheses. You
can also define parameters inside these parentheses.
 The first statement of a function can be an optional statement - the documentation
string of the function or docstring.
 The code block within every function starts with a colon (:) and is indented.
 The statement return [expression] exits a function, optionally passing back an
expression to the caller. A return statement with no arguments is the same as return
None.
Syntax
def functionname( parameters ):
"function_docstring"
function_suite
return [expression]
By default, parameters have a positional behavior and you need to inform them in the same
order that they were defined.

Example
The following function takes a string as input parameter and prints it on standard screen.
def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return

Calling a Function
Defining a function only gives it a name, specifies the parameters that are to be included in
the function and structures the blocks of code.
Once the basic structure of a function is finalized, you can execute it by calling it from
another function or directly from the Python prompt. Following is the example to call
printme() function −
Live Demo

83
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme("I'm first call to user defined function!")
printme("Again second call to the same function")
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
I'm first call to user defined function!
Again second call to the same function
Pass by reference vs value
All parameters (arguments) in the Python language are passed by reference. It means if
you change what a parameter refers to within a function, the change also reflects back in
the calling function. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def changeme( mylist ):
"This changes a passed list into this function"
mylist.append([1,2,3,4]);
print "Values inside the function: ", mylist
return

# Now you can call changeme function

mylist = [10,20,30];
changeme( mylist );
print "Values outside the function: ", mylist
Here, we are maintaining reference of the passed object and appending values in the same
object. So, this would produce the following result −
Values inside the function: [10, 20, 30, [1, 2, 3, 4]]
Values outside the function: [10, 20, 30, [1, 2, 3, 4]]
There is one more example where argument is being passed by reference and the
reference is being overwritten inside the called function.
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def changeme( mylist ):

84
 "This changes a passed list into this function"
mylist = [1,2,3,4]; # This would assig new reference in mylist
print "Values inside the function: ", mylist
return

# Now you can call changeme function

mylist = [10,20,30];
changeme( mylist );
print "Values outside the function: ", mylist
The parameter mylist is local to the function changeme. Changing mylist within the function
does not affect mylist. The function accomplishes nothing and finally this would produce the
following result −
Values inside the function: [1, 2, 3, 4]
Values outside the function: [10, 20, 30]
Function Arguments
You can call a function by using the following types of formal arguments −

 Required arguments
 Keyword arguments
 Default arguments
 Variable-length arguments
Required arguments
Required arguments are the arguments passed to a function in correct positional order.
Here, the number of arguments in the function call should match exactly with the function
definition.
To call the function printme(), you definitely need to pass one argument, otherwise it gives a
syntax error as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme()
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 11, in <module>
printme();
TypeError: printme() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given)
85
Keyword arguments
Keyword arguments are related to the function calls. When you use keyword arguments in
a function call, the caller identifies the arguments by the parameter name.
This allows you to skip arguments or place them out of order because the Python
interpreter is able to use the keywords provided to match the values with parameters. You
can also make keyword calls to the printme() function in the following ways −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme( str = "My string")
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
My string
The following example gives more clear picture. Note that the order of parameters does not
matter.
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( name, age ):
"This prints a passed info into this function"
print "Name: ", name
print "Age ", age
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( age=50, name="miki" )
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Name: miki
Age 50
Default arguments
A default argument is an argument that assumes a default value if a value is not provided in
the function call for that argument. The following example gives an idea on default
arguments, it prints default age if it is not passed −
Live Demo

86
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( name, age = 35 ):
"This prints a passed info into this function"
print "Name: ", name
print "Age ", age
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( age=50, name="miki" )
printinfo( name="miki" )
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Name: miki
Age 50
Name: miki
Age 35
Variable-length arguments
You may need to process a function for more arguments than you specified while defining
the function. These arguments are called variable-length arguments and are not named in
the function definition, unlike required and default arguments.
Syntax for a function with non-keyword variable arguments is this −
def functionname([formal_args,] *var_args_tuple ):
"function_docstring"
function_suite
return [expression]
An asterisk (*) is placed before the variable name that holds the values of all nonkeyword
variable arguments. This tuple remains empty if no additional arguments are specified
during the function call. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( arg1, *vartuple ):
"This prints a variable passed arguments"
print "Output is: "
print arg1
for var in vartuple:
print var
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( 10 )
printinfo( 70, 60, 50 )
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
87
Output is:
10
Output is:
70
60
50
The Anonymous Functions
These functions are called anonymous because they are not declared in the standard
manner by using the def keyword. You can use the lambda keyword to create small
anonymous functions.
 Lambda forms can take any number of arguments but return just one value in the
form of an expression. They cannot contain commands or multiple expressions.
 An anonymous function cannot be a direct call to print because lambda requires an
expression
 Lambda functions have their own local namespace and cannot access variables
other than those in their parameter list and those in the global namespace.
 Although it appears that lambda's are a one-line version of a function, they are not
equivalent to inline statements in C or C++, whose purpose is by passing function
stack allocation during invocation for performance reasons.
Syntax
The syntax of lambda functions contains only a single statement, which is as follows −
lambda [arg1 [,arg2,.....argn]]:expression
Following is the example to show how lambda form of function works −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

sum = lambda arg1, arg2: arg1 + arg2;

# Now you can call sum as a function

print "Value of total : ", sum( 10, 20 )
print "Value of total : ", sum( 20, 20 )
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Value of total : 30
Value of total : 40
The return Statement
The statement return [expression] exits a function, optionally passing back an expression to
the caller. A return statement with no arguments is the same as return None.
All the above examples are not returning any value. You can return a value from a function
as follows −
Live Demo

88
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def sum( arg1, arg2 ):
# Add both the parameters and return them."
total = arg1 + arg2
print "Inside the function : ", total
return total;

# Now you can call sum function

total = sum( 10, 20 );
print "Outside the function : ", total
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Inside the function : 30
Outside the function : 30
Scope of Variables
All variables in a program may not be accessible at all locations in that program. This
depends on where you have declared a variable.
The scope of a variable determines the portion of the program where you can access a
particular identifier. There are two basic scopes of variables in Python −

 Global variables
 Local variables
Global vs. Local variables
Variables that are defined inside a function body have a local scope, and those defined
outside have a global scope.
This means that local variables can be accessed only inside the function in which they are
declared, whereas global variables can be accessed throughout the program body by all
functions. When you call a function, the variables declared inside it are brought into scope.
Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

total = 0; # This is global variable.

# Function definition is here
def sum( arg1, arg2 ):
# Add both the parameters and return them."
total = arg1 + arg2; # Here total is local variable.
print "Inside the function local total : ", total
return total;

# Now you can call sum function

sum( 10, 20 );
print "Outside the function global total : ", total
89
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Inside the function local total : 30
Outside the function global total : 0

90
 Python - Modules
A module allows you to logically organize your Python code. Grouping related code into a
module makes the code easier to understand and use. A module is a Python object with
arbitrarily named attributes that you can bind and reference.
Simply, a module is a file consisting of Python code. A module can define functions, classes
and variables. A module can also include runnable code.

Example
The Python code for a module named aname normally resides in a file named aname.py.
Here's an example of a simple module, support.py
def print_func( par ):
print "Hello : ", par
return

The import Statement

You can use any Python source file as a module by executing an import statement in some
other Python source file. The import has the following syntax −
import module1[, module2[,... moduleN]
When the interpreter encounters an import statement, it imports the module if the module is
present in the search path. A search path is a list of directories that the interpreter searches
before importing a module. For example, to import the module support.py, you need to put
the following command at the top of the script −
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import module support

import support

# Now you can call defined function that module as follows

support.print_func("Zara")
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Hello : Zara
A module is loaded only once, regardless of the number of times it is imported. This
prevents the module execution from happening over and over again if multiple imports
occur.

The from...import Statement

Python's from statement lets you import specific attributes from a module into the current
namespace. The from...import has the following syntax −
from modname import name1[, name2[, ... nameN]]
For example, to import the function fibonacci from the module fib, use the following
statement −

91
from fib import fibonacci
This statement does not import the entire module fib into the current namespace; it just
introduces the item fibonacci from the module fib into the global symbol table of the
importing module.

The from...import * Statement

It is also possible to import all names from a module into the current namespace by using
the following import statement −
from modname import *
This provides an easy way to import all the items from a module into the current
namespace; however, this statement should be used sparingly.

Locating Modules
When you import a module, the Python interpreter searches for the module in the following
sequences −
 The current directory.
 If the module isn't found, Python then searches each directory in the shell variable
PYTHONPATH.
 If all else fails, Python checks the default path. On UNIX, this default path is normally
/usr/local/lib/python/.
The module search path is stored in the system module sys as the sys.path variable. The
sys.path variable contains the current directory, PYTHONPATH, and the installation-
dependent default.

The PYTHONPATH Variable

The PYTHONPATH is an environment variable, consisting of a list of directories. The
syntax of PYTHONPATH is the same as that of the shell variable PATH.
Here is a typical PYTHONPATH from a Windows system −
set PYTHONPATH = c:\python20\lib;
And here is a typical PYTHONPATH from a UNIX system −
set PYTHONPATH = /usr/local/lib/python
Namespaces and Scoping
Variables are names (identifiers) that map to objects. A namespace is a dictionary of
variable names (keys) and their corresponding objects (values).
A Python statement can access variables in a local namespace and in the global
namespace. If a local and a global variable have the same name, the local variable
shadows the global variable.
Each function has its own local namespace. Class methods follow the same scoping rule as
ordinary functions.
Python makes educated guesses on whether variables are local or global. It assumes that
any variable assigned a value in a function is local.
92
Therefore, in order to assign a value to a global variable within a function, you must first use
the global statement.
The statement global VarName tells Python that VarName is a global variable. Python
stops searching the local namespace for the variable.
For example, we define a variable Money in the global namespace. Within the
function Money, we assign Money a value, therefore Python assumes Money as a local
variable. However, we accessed the value of the local variable Money before setting it, so
an UnboundLocalError is the result. Uncommenting the global statement fixes the problem.
#!/usr/bin/python

Money = 2000
def AddMoney():
# Uncomment the following line to fix the code:
# global Money
Money = Money + 1

print Money
AddMoney()
print Money

The dir( ) Function

The dir() built-in function returns a sorted list of strings containing the names defined by a
module.
The list contains the names of all the modules, variables and functions that are defined in a
module. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Import built-in module math

import math

content = dir(math)
print content
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
['__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', 'acos', 'asin', 'atan',
'atan2', 'ceil', 'cos', 'cosh', 'degrees', 'e', 'exp',
'fabs', 'floor', 'fmod', 'frexp', 'hypot', 'ldexp', 'log',
'log10', 'modf', 'pi', 'pow', 'radians', 'sin', 'sinh',
'sqrt', 'tan', 'tanh']
Here, the special string variable __name__ is the module's name, and __file__ is the
filename from which the module was loaded.

93
The globals() and locals() Functions
The globals() and locals() functions can be used to return the names in the global and local
namespaces depending on the location from where they are called.
If locals() is called from within a function, it will return all the names that can be accessed
locally from that function.
If globals() is called from within a function, it will return all the names that can be accessed
globally from that function.
The return type of both these functions is dictionary. Therefore, names can be extracted
using the keys() function.

The reload() Function

When the module is imported into a script, the code in the top-level portion of a module is
executed only once.
Therefore, if you want to reexecute the top-level code in a module, you can use
the reload() function. The reload() function imports a previously imported module again. The
syntax of the reload() function is this −
reload(module_name)
Here, module_name is the name of the module you want to reload and not the string
containing the module name. For example, to reload hello module, do the following −
reload(hello)
Packages in Python
A package is a hierarchical file directory structure that defines a single Python application
environment that consists of modules and subpackages and sub-subpackages, and so on.
Consider a file Pots.py available in Phone directory. This file has following line of source
code −
#!/usr/bin/python

def Pots():
print "I'm Pots Phone"
Similar way, we have another two files having different functions with the same name as
above −
 Phone/Isdn.py file having function Isdn()
 Phone/G3.py file having function G3()
Now, create one more file __init__.py in Phone directory −

 Phone/__init__.py
To make all of your functions available when you've imported Phone, you need to put
explicit import statements in __init__.py as follows −
from Pots import Pots
from Isdn import Isdn
94
from G3 import G3
After you add these lines to __init__.py, you have all of these classes available when you
import the Phone package.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Now import your Phone Package.

import Phone

Phone.Pots()
Phone.Isdn()
Phone.G3()
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
I'm Pots Phone
I'm 3G Phone
I'm ISDN Phone
In the above example, we have taken example of a single functions in each file, but you can
keep multiple functions in your files. You can also define different Python classes in those
files and then you can create your packages out of those classes.

95
 Python - Files I/O
This chapter covers all the basic I/O functions available in Python. For more functions,
please refer to standard Python documentation.

Printing to the Screen

The simplest way to produce output is using the print statement where you can pass zero or
more expressions separated by commas. This function converts the expressions you pass
into a string and writes the result to standard output as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print "Python is really a great language,", "isn't it?"

This produces the following result on your standard screen −
Python is really a great language, isn't it?
Reading Keyboard Input
Python provides two built-in functions to read a line of text from standard input, which by
default comes from the keyboard. These functions are −

 raw_input
 input
The raw_input Function
The raw_input([prompt]) function reads one line from standard input and returns it as a
string (removing the trailing newline).
#!/usr/bin/python

str = raw_input("Enter your input: ")

print "Received input is : ", str
This prompts you to enter any string and it would display same string on the screen. When I
typed "Hello Python!", its output is like this −
Enter your input: Hello Python
Received input is : Hello Python
The input Function
The input([prompt]) function is equivalent to raw_input, except that it assumes the input is a
valid Python expression and returns the evaluated result to you.
#!/usr/bin/python

str = input("Enter your input: ")

print "Received input is : ", str
This would produce the following result against the entered input −
96
Enter your input: [x*5 for x in range(2,10,2)]
Recieved input is : [10, 20, 30, 40]
Opening and Closing Files
Until now, you have been reading and writing to the standard input and output. Now, we will
see how to use actual data files.
Python provides basic functions and methods necessary to manipulate files by default. You
can do most of the file manipulation using a file object.

The open Function

Before you can read or write a file, you have to open it using Python's built-
in open() function. This function creates a file object, which would be utilized to call other
support methods associated with it.
Syntax
file object = open(file_name [, access_mode][, buffering])
Here are parameter details −
 file_name − The file_name argument is a string value that contains the name of the
file that you want to access.
 access_mode − The access_mode determines the mode in which the file has to be
opened, i.e., read, write, append, etc. A complete list of possible values is given
below in the table. This is optional parameter and the default file access mode is read
(r).
 buffering − If the buffering value is set to 0, no buffering takes place. If the buffering
value is 1, line buffering is performed while accessing a file. If you specify the
buffering value as an integer greater than 1, then buffering action is performed with
the indicated buffer size. If negative, the buffer size is the system default(default
behavior).
Here is a list of the different modes of opening a file −

Sr.No. Modes & Description

1
r
Opens a file for reading only. The file pointer is placed at the
beginning of the file. This is the default mode.

2
rb
Opens a file for reading only in binary format. The file pointer is
placed at the beginning of the file. This is the default mode.

3
r+
Opens a file for both reading and writing. The file pointer placed at

97
 the beginning of the file.

4
rb+
Opens a file for both reading and writing in binary format. The file
pointer placed at the beginning of the file.

5
w
Opens a file for writing only. Overwrites the file if the file exists. If the
file does not exist, creates a new file for writing.

6
wb
Opens a file for writing only in binary format. Overwrites the file if the
file exists. If the file does not exist, creates a new file for writing.

7
w+
Opens a file for both writing and reading. Overwrites the existing file if
the file exists. If the file does not exist, creates a new file for reading
and writing.

8
wb+
Opens a file for both writing and reading in binary format. Overwrites
the existing file if the file exists. If the file does not exist, creates a
new file for reading and writing.

9
a
Opens a file for appending. The file pointer is at the end of the file if
the file exists. That is, the file is in the append mode. If the file does
not exist, it creates a new file for writing.

10
ab
Opens a file for appending in binary format. The file pointer is at the
end of the file if the file exists. That is, the file is in the append mode.
If the file does not exist, it creates a new file for writing.

11
a+
Opens a file for both appending and reading. The file pointer is at the
end of the file if the file exists. The file opens in the append mode. If

98
 the file does not exist, it creates a new file for reading and writing.

12
ab+
Opens a file for both appending and reading in binary format. The file
pointer is at the end of the file if the file exists. The file opens in the
append mode. If the file does not exist, it creates a new file for
reading and writing.

The file Object Attributes

Once a file is opened and you have one file object, you can get various information related
to that file.
Here is a list of all attributes related to file object −

Sr.No. Attribute & Description

1
file.closed
Returns true if file is closed, false otherwise.

2
file.mode
Returns access mode with which file was opened.

3
file.name
Returns name of the file.

4
file.softspace
Returns false if space explicitly required with print, true otherwise.

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name
print "Closed or not : ", fo.closed
print "Opening mode : ", fo.mode
print "Softspace flag : ", fo.softspace
This produces the following result −

99
Name of the file: foo.txt
Closed or not : False
Opening mode : wb
Softspace flag : 0
The close() Method
The close() method of a file object flushes any unwritten information and closes the file
object, after which no more writing can be done.
Python automatically closes a file when the reference object of a file is reassigned to
another file. It is a good practice to use the close() method to close a file.
Syntax
fileObject.close()
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name

# Close opend file

fo.close()
This produces the following result −
Name of the file: foo.txt
Reading and Writing Files
The file object provides a set of access methods to make our lives easier. We would see
how to use read() and write() methods to read and write files.

The write() Method

The write() method writes any string to an open file. It is important to note that Python
strings can have binary data and not just text.
The write() method does not add a newline character ('\n') to the end of the string −
Syntax
fileObject.write(string)
Here, passed parameter is the content to be written into the opened file.
Example
#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
fo.write( "Python is a great language.\nYeah its great!!\n")

100
# Close opend file
fo.close()
The above method would create foo.txt file and would write given content in that file and
finally it would close that file. If you would open this file, it would have following content.
Python is a great language.
Yeah its great!!
The read() Method
The read() method reads a string from an open file. It is important to note that Python
strings can have binary data. apart from text data.
Syntax
fileObject.read([count])
Here, passed parameter is the number of bytes to be read from the opened file. This
method starts reading from the beginning of the file and if count is missing, then it tries to
read as much as possible, maybe until the end of file.
Example
Let's take a file foo.txt, which we created above.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
str = fo.read(10);
print "Read String is : ", str
# Close opend file
fo.close()
This produces the following result −
Read String is : Python is
File Positions
The tell() method tells you the current position within the file; in other words, the next read
or write will occur at that many bytes from the beginning of the file.
The seek(offset[, from]) method changes the current file position. The offset argument
indicates the number of bytes to be moved. The from argument specifies the reference
position from where the bytes are to be moved.
If from is set to 0, it means use the beginning of the file as the reference position and 1
means use the current position as the reference position and if it is set to 2 then the end of
the file would be taken as the reference position.
Example
Let us take a file foo.txt, which we created above.
#!/usr/bin/python

101
# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
str = fo.read(10)
print "Read String is : ", str

# Check current position

position = fo.tell()
print "Current file position : ", position

# Reposition pointer at the beginning once again

position = fo.seek(0, 0);
str = fo.read(10)
print "Again read String is : ", str
# Close opend file
fo.close()
This produces the following result −
Read String is : Python is
Current file position : 10
Again read String is : Python is
Renaming and Deleting Files
Python os module provides methods that help you perform file-processing operations, such
as renaming and deleting files.
To use this module you need to import it first and then you can call any related functions.

The rename() Method

The rename() method takes two arguments, the current filename and the new filename.

Syntax
os.rename(current_file_name, new_file_name)
Example
Following is the example to rename an existing file test1.txt −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Rename a file from test1.txt to test2.txt

os.rename( "test1.txt", "test2.txt" )

The remove() Method

You can use the remove() method to delete files by supplying the name of the file to be
deleted as the argument.
Syntax
os.remove(file_name)
Example
Following is the example to delete an existing file test2.txt −
102
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Delete file test2.txt

os.remove("text2.txt")

Directories in Python
All files are contained within various directories, and Python has no problem handling these
too. The os module has several methods that help you create, remove, and change
directories.

The mkdir() Method

You can use the mkdir() method of the os module to create directories in the current
directory. You need to supply an argument to this method which contains the name of the
directory to be created.
Syntax
os.mkdir("newdir")
Example
Following is the example to create a directory test in the current directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Create a directory "test"

os.mkdir("test")

The chdir() Method

You can use the chdir() method to change the current directory. The chdir() method takes
an argument, which is the name of the directory that you want to make the current directory.
Syntax
os.chdir("newdir")
Example
Following is the example to go into "/home/newdir" directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Changing a directory to "/home/newdir"

os.chdir("/home/newdir")

The getcwd() Method

The getcwd() method displays the current working directory.

Syntax
os.getcwd()

103
Example
Following is the example to give current directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# This would give location of the current directory

os.getcwd()

The rmdir() Method

The rmdir() method deletes the directory, which is passed as an argument in the method.
Before removing a directory, all the contents in it should be removed.
Syntax
os.rmdir('dirname')
Example
Following is the example to remove "/tmp/test" directory. It is required to give fully qualified
name of the directory, otherwise it would search for that directory in the current directory.
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# This would remove "/tmp/test" directory.

os.rmdir( "/tmp/test" )

File & Directory Related Methods

There are three important sources, which provide a wide range of utility methods to handle
and manipulate files & directories on Windows and Unix operating systems. They are as
follows −
 File Object Methods: The file object provides functions to manipulate files.
 OS Object Methods: This provides methods to process files as well as directories.

104
 Python - Exceptions Handling
Python provides two very important features to handle any unexpected error in your Python
programs and to add debugging capabilities in them −
 Exception Handling − This would be covered in this tutorial. Here is a list standard
Exceptions available in Python: Standard Exceptions.
 Assertions − This would be covered in Assertions in Python tutorial.
List of Standard Exceptions −

Sr.No. Exception Name & Description

1
Exception
Base class for all exceptions

2
StopIteration
Raised when the next() method of an iterator does not point to any
object.

3
SystemExit
Raised by the sys.exit() function.

4
StandardError
Base class for all built-in exceptions except StopIteration and
SystemExit.

5
ArithmeticError
Base class for all errors that occur for numeric calculation.

6
OverflowError
Raised when a calculation exceeds maximum limit for a numeric
type.

7
FloatingPointError
Raised when a floating point calculation fails.

8
ZeroDivisionError
Raised when division or modulo by zero takes place for all numeric
105
 types.

9
AssertionError
Raised in case of failure of the Assert statement.

10
AttributeError
Raised in case of failure of attribute reference or assignment.

11
EOFError
Raised when there is no input from either the raw_input() or input()
function and the end of file is reached.

12
ImportError
Raised when an import statement fails.

13
KeyboardInterrupt
Raised when the user interrupts program execution, usually by
pressing Ctrl+c.

14
LookupError
Base class for all lookup errors.

15
IndexError
Raised when an index is not found in a sequence.

16
KeyError
Raised when the specified key is not found in the dictionary.

17
NameError
Raised when an identifier is not found in the local or global
namespace.

18
UnboundLocalError
Raised when trying to access a local variable in a function or method

106
 but no value has been assigned to it.

19
EnvironmentError
Base class for all exceptions that occur outside the Python
environment.

20
IOError
Raised when an input/ output operation fails, such as the print
statement or the open() function when trying to open a file that does
not exist.

21
IOError
Raised for operating system-related errors.

22
SyntaxError
Raised when there is an error in Python syntax.

23
IndentationError
Raised when indentation is not specified properly.

24
SystemError
Raised when the interpreter finds an internal problem, but when this
error is encountered the Python interpreter does not exit.

25
SystemExit
Raised when Python interpreter is quit by using the sys.exit()
function. If not handled in the code, causes the interpreter to exit.

26
TypeError
Raised when an operation or function is attempted that is invalid for
the specified data type.

27
ValueError
Raised when the built-in function for a data type has the valid type of
arguments, but the arguments have invalid values specified.

107
28
RuntimeError
Raised when a generated error does not fall into any category.

29
NotImplementedError
Raised when an abstract method that needs to be implemented in an
inherited class is not actually implemented.

Assertions in Python
An assertion is a sanity-check that you can turn on or turn off when you are done with your
testing of the program.
The easiest way to think of an assertion is to liken it to a raise-if statement (or to be more
accurate, a raise-if-not statement). An expression is tested, and if the result comes up false,
an exception is raised.
Assertions are carried out by the assert statement, the newest keyword to Python,
introduced in version 1.5.
Programmers often place assertions at the start of a function to check for valid input, and
after a function call to check for valid output.
The assert Statement
When it encounters an assert statement, Python evaluates the accompanying expression,
which is hopefully true. If the expression is false, Python raises
an AssertionError exception.
The syntax for assert is −
assert Expression[, Arguments]
If the assertion fails, Python uses ArgumentExpression as the argument for the
AssertionError. AssertionError exceptions can be caught and handled like any other
exception using the try-except statement, but if not handled, they will terminate the program
and produce a traceback.
Example
Here is a function that converts a temperature from degrees Kelvin to degrees Fahrenheit.
Since zero degrees Kelvin is as cold as it gets, the function bails out if it sees a negative
temperature −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
def KelvinToFahrenheit(Temperature):
assert (Temperature >= 0),"Colder than absolute zero!"
return ((Temperature-273)*1.8)+32
print KelvinToFahrenheit(273)
print int(KelvinToFahrenheit(505.78))
print KelvinToFahrenheit(-5)
108
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
32.0
451
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 9, in <module>
print KelvinToFahrenheit(-5)
File "test.py", line 4, in KelvinToFahrenheit
assert (Temperature >= 0),"Colder than absolute zero!"
AssertionError: Colder than absolute zero!
What is Exception?
An exception is an event, which occurs during the execution of a program that disrupts the
normal flow of the program's instructions. In general, when a Python script encounters a
situation that it cannot cope with, it raises an exception. An exception is a Python object
that represents an error.
When a Python script raises an exception, it must either handle the exception immediately
otherwise it terminates and quits.

Handling an exception
If you have some suspicious code that may raise an exception, you can defend your
program by placing the suspicious code in a try: block. After the try: block, include
an except: statement, followed by a block of code which handles the problem as elegantly
as possible.
Syntax
Here is simple syntax of try....except...else blocks −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except ExceptionI:
If there is ExceptionI, then execute this block.
except ExceptionII:
If there is ExceptionII, then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.
Here are few important points about the above-mentioned syntax −
 A single try statement can have multiple except statements. This is useful when the
try block contains statements that may throw different types of exceptions.
 You can also provide a generic except clause, which handles any exception.
 After the except clause(s), you can include an else-clause. The code in the else-
block executes if the code in the try: block does not raise an exception.
 The else-block is a good place for code that does not need the try: block's protection.
Example
This example opens a file, writes content in the, file and comes out gracefully because
there is no problem at all −
109
 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
else:
print "Written content in the file successfully"
fh.close()
This produces the following result −
Written content in the file successfully
Example
This example tries to open a file where you do not have write permission, so it raises an
exception −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "r")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
else:
print "Written content in the file successfully"
This produces the following result −
Error: can't find file or read data
The except Clause with No Exceptions
You can also use the except statement with no exceptions defined as follows −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except:
If there is any exception, then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.
This kind of a try-except statement catches all the exceptions that occur. Using this kind of
try-except statement is not considered a good programming practice though, because it
catches all exceptions but does not make the programmer identify the root cause of the
problem that may occur.

110
The except Clause with Multiple Exceptions
You can also use the same except statement to handle multiple exceptions as follows −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except(Exception1[, Exception2[,...ExceptionN]]]):
If there is any exception from the given exception list,
then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.

The try-finally Clause

You can use a finally: block along with a try: block. The finally block is a place to put any
code that must execute, whether the try-block raised an exception or not. The syntax of the
try-finally statement is this −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
Due to any exception, this may be skipped.
finally:
This would always be executed.
......................
You cannot use else clause as well along with a finally clause.

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
finally:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
If you do not have permission to open the file in writing mode, then this will produce the
following result −
Error: can't find file or read data
Same example can be written more cleanly as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
111
 try:
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
finally:
print "Going to close the file"
fh.close()
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
When an exception is thrown in the try block, the execution immediately passes to
the finally block. After all the statements in the finally block are executed, the exception is
raised again and is handled in the except statements if present in the next higher layer of
the try-except statement.

Argument of an Exception
An exception can have an argument, which is a value that gives additional information
about the problem. The contents of the argument vary by exception. You capture an
exception's argument by supplying a variable in the except clause as follows −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except ExceptionType, Argument:
You can print value of Argument here...
If you write the code to handle a single exception, you can have a variable follow the name
of the exception in the except statement. If you are trapping multiple exceptions, you can
have a variable follow the tuple of the exception.
This variable receives the value of the exception mostly containing the cause of the
exception. The variable can receive a single value or multiple values in the form of a tuple.
This tuple usually contains the error string, the error number, and an error location.
Example
Following is an example for a single exception −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Define a function here.

def temp_convert(var):
try:
return int(var)
except ValueError, Argument:
print "The argument does not contain numbers\n", Argument

# Call above function here.

temp_convert("xyz");
This produces the following result −
The argument does not contain numbers
112
invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'xyz'
Raising an Exceptions
You can raise exceptions in several ways by using the raise statement. The general syntax
for the raise statement is as follows.
Syntax
raise [Exception [, args [, traceback]]]
Here, Exception is the type of exception (for example, NameError) and argument is a value
for the exception argument. The argument is optional; if not supplied, the exception
argument is None.
The final argument, traceback, is also optional (and rarely used in practice), and if present,
is the traceback object used for the exception.
Example
An exception can be a string, a class or an object. Most of the exceptions that the Python
core raises are classes, with an argument that is an instance of the class. Defining new
exceptions is quite easy and can be done as follows −
def functionName( level ):
if level < 1:
raise "Invalid level!", level
# The code below to this would not be executed
# if we raise the exception
Note: In order to catch an exception, an "except" clause must refer to the same exception
thrown either class object or simple string. For example, to capture above exception, we
must write the except clause as follows −
try:
Business Logic here...
except "Invalid level!":
Exception handling here...
else:
Rest of the code here...

User-Defined Exceptions
Python also allows you to create your own exceptions by deriving classes from the standard
built-in exceptions.
Here is an example related to RuntimeError. Here, a class is created that is subclassed
from RuntimeError. This is useful when you need to display more specific information when
an exception is caught.
In the try block, the user-defined exception is raised and caught in the except block. The
variable e is used to create an instance of the class Networkerror.
class Networkerror(RuntimeError):
def __init__(self, arg):
self.args = arg

113
So once you defined above class, you can raise the exception as follows −
try:
raise Networkerror("Bad hostname")
except Networkerror,e:
print e.args

114