Python PDF

Python
Programming
Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and high-level
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). This tutorial gives enough understanding on Python
programming language.
Why to Learn Python?

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 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.
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.
Hello World using Python.

Just to give you a little excitement about Python, I'm going to give you a small
conventional Python Hello World program, You can try it using Demo link.
print ("Hello, Python!");

Applications of Python
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.
Audience
This Python tutorial is designed for software programmers who need to learn Python
programming language from scratch.
Prerequisites
You should have a basic understanding of Computer Programming terminologies. A
basic understanding of any of the programming languages is a plus.
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.
 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.
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.
Local Environment Setup

Open a terminal window and type "python" to find out if it is already installed and
which version is installed.
 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
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 –
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.
 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.
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.
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 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 with
version 1.6.
6
-c cmd
run Python script sent in as cmd string
7
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.
Note − All the examples given in subsequent chapters are executed with Python 2.4.3
version available on CentOS flavor of Linux.
We already have set up Python Programming environment online, so that you can
execute all the available examples online at the same time when you are learning
theory. Feel free to modify any example and execute it online.
The Python language has many similarities to Perl, C, and Java. However, there are
some definite differences between the languages.
First Python Program

Let us execute programs in different modes of programming.
Interactive Mode Programming
Invoking the interpreter without passing a script file as a parameter brings up the
following prompt −
$ python
Python 2.4.3 (#1, Nov 11 2010, 13:34:43)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
>>>
Type the following text at the Python prompt and press the Enter −
>>> print "Hello, Python!"
If you are running new version of Python, then you would need to use print statement
with parenthesis as in print ("Hello, Python!");. However in Python version 2.4.3,
this produces the following result −
Hello, Python!
Script Mode Programming
Invoking the interpreter with a script parameter begins 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. Python files have extension .py.
Type the following source code in a test.py file −
print "Hello, Python!"

We assume that you have Python interpreter set in PATH variable. Now, try to run
this program as follows −
$ python test.py
This produces the following result −
Hello, Python!
Let us try another way to execute a Python script. Here is the modified test.py file −
#!/usr/bin/python
print "Hello, Python!"

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
Hello, Python!
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 −
 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.
 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.
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 exec not
assert finally or
break for pass
class from print
continue global raise
def if return
del import try
elif in while
else is with
except lambda yield
Lines and Indentation

Python 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 −
Note − 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.
#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
try:
# open file stream
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
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 + \
item_three
Statements contained within the [], {}, or () brackets do not need to use the line
continuation character. For example −
days = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday',
'Thursday', 'Friday']
Quotation 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 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.
#!/usr/bin/python
# First comment
print "Hello, Python!" # second comment
Hello, Python!
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.
# 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

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
elif expression :
suite
else :
suite
Command Line Arguments

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.
Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store values. This means that
when you create a variable you reserve some space in memory.
Based on the data type of a variable, the interpreter allocates memory and decides
what can be stored in the reserved memory. Therefore, by assigning different data
types to variables, you can store integers, decimals or characters in these variables.
Assigning Values to Variables

Python variables do not need explicit declaration to reserve memory space. The
declaration happens automatically when you assign a value to a variable. 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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
counter = 100 # An integer assignment

miles = 1000.0 # A floating point
name = "John" # A string
print counter
print miles
print name
Here, 100, 1000.0 and "John" are the values assigned to counter, miles,
and name variables, respectively. This produces the following result −
100
1000.0
John
Multiple Assignment
Python allows you to assign a single value to several variables simultaneously. For
example −
a = b = c = 1
Here, an integer object is created with the value 1, and all three variables are
assigned to the same memory location. You can also assign multiple objects to
multiple variables. For example −
a,b,c = 1,2,"john"
Here, two integer objects with values 1 and 2 are assigned to variables a and b
respectively, and one string object with the value "john" is assigned to the variable c.
Standard Data Types

The data stored in memory can be of many types. For example, a person's age is
stored as a numeric value and his or her address is stored as alphanumeric
characters. Python has various standard data types that are used to define the
operations possible on them and the storage method for each of them.
Python has five standard data types −
 Numbers
 String
 List
 Tuple
 Dictionary
Python Numbers
Number data types store numeric values. Number objects are created when you
assign a value to them. For example −
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)

 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
-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.
Python Strings
Strings in Python are identified as a contiguous set of characters represented in the
quotation marks. Python allows for either pairs of single or double quotes. Subsets of
strings can be taken using the slice operator ([ ] and [:] ) with indexes starting at 0 in
the beginning of the string and working their way from -1 at the end.
The plus (+) sign is the string concatenation operator and the asterisk (*) is the
repetition operator. For example −
#!/usr/bin/python
str = 'Hello World!'

print str # Prints complete string
print str[0] # Prints first character of the string
print str[2:5] # Prints characters starting from 3rd to 5th
print str[2:] # Prints string starting from 3rd character
print str * 2 # Prints string two times
print str + "TEST" # Prints concatenated string
This will produce the following result −
Hello World!
H
llo
llo World!
Hello World!Hello World!
Hello World!TEST
Python Lists
Lists are the most versatile of Python's compound data types. A list contains items
separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets ([]). To some extent, lists
are similar to arrays in C. One difference between them is that all the items belonging
to a list can be of different data type.
The values stored in a list can be accessed using the slice operator ([ ] and [:]) with
indexes starting at 0 in the beginning of the list and working their way to end -1. The
plus (+) sign is the list concatenation operator, and the asterisk (*) is the repetition
operator. For example −
#!/usr/bin/python
list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

tinylist = [123, 'john']
print list # Prints complete list

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

tinytuple = (123, 'john')
print tuple # Prints complete list

print tuple[0] # Prints first element of the list
print tuple[1:3] # Prints elements starting from 2nd till
3rd
print tuple[2:] # Prints elements starting from 3rd element
print tinytuple * 2 # Prints list two times
print tuple + tinytuple # Prints concatenated lists
('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2)
abcd
(786, 2.23)
(2.23, 'john', 70.2)
(123, 'john', 123, 'john')
('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.2, 123, 'john')
The following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple,
which is not allowed. Similar case is possible with lists −
#!/usr/bin/python
tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]
tuple[2] = 1000 # Invalid syntax with tuple
list[2] = 1000 # Valid syntax with list
Python Dictionary
Python's dictionaries are kind of hash table type. They work like associative arrays or
hashes found in Perl and consist of key-value pairs. A dictionary key can be almost
any Python type, but are usually numbers or strings. Values, on the other hand, can
be any arbitrary Python object.
Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces ({ }) and values can be assigned and
accessed using square braces ([]). For example −
#!/usr/bin/python
dict = {}
dict['one'] = "This is one"
dict[2] = "This is two"
tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}
print dict['one'] # Prints value for 'one' key

print dict[2] # Prints value for 2 key
print tinydict # Prints complete dictionary
print tinydict.keys() # Prints all the keys
print tinydict.values() # Prints all the values
This is one
This is two
{'dept': 'sales', 'code': 6734, 'name': 'john'}
['dept', 'code', 'name']
['sales', 6734, 'john']
Dictionaries have no concept of order among elements. It is incorrect to say that the
elements are "out of order"; they are simply unordered.
Data Type Conversion

Sometimes, you may need to perform conversions between the built-in types. To
convert between types, you simply use the type name as a function.
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.
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.
Operators are the constructs which can manipulate the value of operands.
Consider the expression 4 + 5 = 9. Here, 4 and 5 are called operands and + is called
operator.
Types of Operator
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 look on all operators one by one.
Python Arithmetic Operators

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then −
[ Show Example ]
Operator Description Example
+ Addition Adds values on either side of the operator. a+b=

30
- Subtraction Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand. a–b=-
10
* Multiplies values on either side of the operator a*b=

Multiplication 200
/ Division Divides left hand operand by right hand operand b/a=2
% Modulus Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and returns b%a=
remainder 0
** Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators a**b =10

to the
power 20
// Floor Division - The division of operands where the result is 9//2 = 4

the quotient in which the digits after the decimal point are and
removed. But if one of the operands is negative, the result is 9.0//2.0
floored, i.e., rounded away from zero (towards negative = 4.0, -
infinity) − 11//3 = -
4, -
11.0//3 =
-4.0
Python Comparison Operators

These operators compare the values on either sides of them and decide the relation
among them. They are also called Relational operators.
[ Show Example ]
== If the values of two operands are equal, then the condition (a == b)

becomes true. is not
true.
!= If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes (a != b)

true. is true.
<> If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes (a <> b)
true. is true.
This is
similar to
!=
operator.
> If the value of left operand is greater than the value of right (a > b) is
operand, then condition becomes true. not true.
< If the value of left operand is less than the value of right (a < b) is
operand, then condition becomes true. true.
>= If the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of (a >= b)
right operand, then condition becomes true. is not
true.
<= If the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of (a <= b)
right operand, then condition becomes true. is true.
Python Assignment Operators

[ Show Example ]
= Assigns values from right side operands to left side c=a+b

operand assigns
value of a
+ b into c
+= Add AND It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the c += a is
result to left operand equivalent
to c = c +
a
-= Subtract It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign c -= a is
AND the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c -
a
*= Multiply It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assign c *= a is
AND the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c *
a
/= Divide AND It divides left operand with the right operand and assign c /= a is
the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c /
a
%= Modulus It takes modulus using two operands and assign the result c %= a is
AND to left operand equivalent
to c = c %
a
**= Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators c **= a is

AND and assign value to the left operand equivalent
to c = c **
a
//= Floor It performs floor division on operators and assign value to c //= a is
Division the left operand equivalent
to c = c //
a
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 = 0000 1100
a|b = 0011 1101
a^b = 0011 0001
~a = 1100 0011
There are following Bitwise operators supported by Python language
[ Show Example ]
& Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both (a & b)
operands (means
0000 1100)
| Binary OR It copies a bit if it exists in either operand. (a | b) = 61

(means
0011 1101)
^ Binary XOR It copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not (a ^ b) = 49
both. (means
0011 0001)
~ Binary Ones (~a ) = -61

Complement (means
1100 0011
in 2's
It is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits. complement
form due to
a signed
binary
number.
<< Binary Left Shift The left operands value is moved left by the a << 2 =
number of bits specified by the right operand. 240 (means
1111 0000)
>> Binary Right The left operands value is moved right by the a >> 2 = 15
Shift number of bits specified by the right operand. (means
0000 1111)
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 ]
and Logical If both the operands are true then condition becomes true. (a and b)
AND is true.
or Logical OR If any of the two operands are non-zero then condition (a or b)

becomes true. is true.
not Logical Used to reverse the logical state of its operand. Not(a
NOT and b) is
false.
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 ]
in Evaluates to true if it finds a variable in the specified sequence x in y,

and false otherwise. here in
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,
sequence and false otherwise. here 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 ]
is Evaluates to true if the variables on either side of the x is y,

operator point to the same object and false otherwise. here is results
in 1 if id(x)
equals id(y).
is not Evaluates to false if the variables on either side of the x is not y,

operator point to the same object and true otherwise. here is
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'
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
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.
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 −
#!/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!
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 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.
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
-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.
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.
1 choice(seq)
A random item from a list, tuple, or string.
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.
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)
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.
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

var2 = "Python Programming"
print "var1[0]: ", var1[0]

print "var2[1:5]: ", var2[1:5]
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

print "Updated String :- ", var1[:6] + 'Python'
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.
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
String Special Operators

Assume string variable a holds 'Hello' and variable b holds 'Python', then −
+ Concatenation - Adds values on either side of the operator a + b will

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

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 range a[1:4] will
give ell
in Membership - Returns true if a character exists in the given H in a will

string give 1
not in Membership - Returns true if a character does not exist in the M not in a
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 same as prints \n
for normal strings with the exception of the raw string and print
operator, the letter "r," which precedes the quotation marks. R'\n'prints
The "r" can be lowercase (r) or uppercase (R) and must be \n
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
print "My name is %s and weight is %d kg!" % ('Zara', 21)

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 −
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.
#!/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 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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
print 'C:\\nowhere'
C:\nowhere
Now let's make use of raw string. We would put expression in r'expression' as
follows −
#!/usr/bin/python
print r'C:\\nowhere'
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
print u'Hello, world!'

Hello, world!
As you can see, Unicode strings use the prefix u, just as raw strings use the prefix r.
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))

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
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))
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.
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ];
print "list1[0]: ", list1[0]
print "list2[1:5]: ", list2[1:5]
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 −
#!/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.
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
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
[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!']
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.
5 list(seq)
Converts a tuple into list.
Python includes following list methods
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
A tuple is a sequence of immutable Python objects. 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 −
#!/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];
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
tup1 = (12, 34.56);

tup2 = ('abc', 'xyz');
# Following action is not valid for tuples

# tup1[0] = 100;
# So let's create a new tuple as follows

tup3 = tup1 + tup2;
print tup3;
(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 −
#!/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 −
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
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!')

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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
print 'abc', -4.24e93, 18+6.6j, 'xyz';

x, y = 1, 2;
print "Value of x , y : ", x,y;
abc -4.24e+93 (18+6.6j) xyz
Value of x , y : 1 2
Built-in Tuple Functions

Python includes the following tuple functions −
1 cmp(tuple1, tuple2)
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.
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice']
dict['Alice']:
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

dict['Age'] = 8; # update existing entry
dict['School'] = "DPS School"; # Add new entry

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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

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']:
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Name': 'Manni'}

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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7}

dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7};
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods

Python includes the following dictionary functions −
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 −
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
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 12:00am, 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 12:00am, January
1, 1970(epoch).
Example
#!/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
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.
#!/usr/bin/python
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() −
#!/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 ) −
#!/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
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 −
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.
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.
Here is a list of functions available with the calendar module −
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.
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
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
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")
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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.
#!/usr/bin/python

def changeme( mylist ):
"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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

def printme( str ):
print str
return;

printme()
printme();
TypeError: printme() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given)
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

def printme( str ):
print str
return;

printme( str = "My string")
My string
The following example gives more clear picture. Note that the order of parameters
does not matter.
#!/usr/bin/python

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" )
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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

printinfo( age=50, name="miki" )
printinfo( name="miki" )
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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

printinfo( 10 )
printinfo( 70, 60, 50 )
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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 )
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python

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
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 −
#!/usr/bin/python
total = 0; # This is global variable.

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
Inside the function local total : 30
Outside the function global total : 0

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Why to Learn Python?

Hello World using Python.

print ("Hello, Python!");

Local Environment Setup

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

Unix and Linux Installation

Setting path at Unix/Linux

Setting path at Windows

Sr.No. Variable & Description

Script from the Command-line

python% script.py # Unix/Linux

C: >python script.py # Windows/DOS

First Python Program

print "Hello, Python!"

print "Hello, Python!"

and exec not

break for pass

class from print

continue global raise

del import try

except lambda yield

Lines and Indentation

Using Blank Lines

Waiting for the User

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

Multiple Statements on a Single Line

Multiple Statement Groups as Suites

Command Line Arguments

Assigning Values to Variables

counter = 100 # An integer assignment

Standard Data Types

 int (signed integers)

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

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

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

str = 'Hello World!'

list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

print list # Prints complete list

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

print tuple # Prints complete list

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}

print dict['one'] # Prints value for 'one' key

Data Type Conversion

Sr.No. Function & Description

Python Arithmetic Operators

Operator Description Example

+ Addition Adds values on either side of the operator. a+b=

* Multiplies values on either side of the operator a*b=

** Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators a**b =10

// Floor Division - The division of operands where the result is 9//2 = 4

Python Comparison Operators

Operator Description Example

== If the values of two operands are equal, then the condition (a == b)

!= If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes (a != b)

Python Assignment Operators

Operator Description Example

= Assigns values from right side operands to left side c=a+b

**= Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators c **= a is

Python Bitwise Operators

Operator Description Example

| Binary OR It copies a bit if it exists in either operand. (a | b) = 61

~ Binary Ones (~a ) = -61

Python Logical Operators

Operator Description Example

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

Python Membership Operators

Operator Description Example

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

Operator Description Example

Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators ab =10

= Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators c = a is

Return the Euclidean norm, sqrt(xx + yy).