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Chapter 2: Variables

Variables,
expressions, and statements
Values and types
A value is one of the basic things a program works with, like a letter or a number. The values we have seen so far
are 1, 2, and “Hello, World!”

These values belong to different types: 2 is an integer, and “Hello, World!” is a string, so called because it contains
a “string” of letters. You (and the interpreter) can identify strings because they are enclosed in quotation marks.

The print statement also works for integers. We use the python command to start the interpreter.

python
>>> print(4)
4

If you are not sure what type a value has, the interpreter can tell you.

>>> type('Hello, World!')

<class 'str'>
>>> type(17)
<class 'int'>

Not surprisingly, strings belong to the type str and integers belong to the type int . Less obviously, numbers
with a decimal point belong to a type called float , because these numbers are represented in a format called
floating point.

>>> type(3.2)
<class 'float'>

What about values like “17” and “3.2”? They look like numbers, but they are in quotation marks like strings.

>>> type('17')
<class 'str'>
>>> type('3.2')
<class 'str'> Select Language ▼
They’re strings.
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When you type a large integer, you might be tempted to use commas between groups of three digits, as in
1,000,000. This is not a legal integer in Python, but it is legal:

>>> print(1,000,000)
1 0 0

Well, that’s not what we expected at all! Python interprets 1,000,000 as a comma-separated sequence of integers,
which it prints with spaces between.

This is the first example we have seen of a semantic error: the code runs without producing an error message, but
it doesn’t do the “right” thing.

Variables
One of the most powerful features of a programming language is the ability to manipulate variables. A variable is a
name that refers to a value.

An assignment statement creates new variables and gives them values:

>>> message = 'And now for something completely different'

>>> n = 17
>>> pi = 3.1415926535897931

This example makes three assignments. The first assigns a string to a new variable named message ; the second
assigns the integer 17 to n ; the third assigns the (approximate) value of π to pi .

To display the value of a variable, you can use a print statement:

>>> print(n)
17
>>> print(pi)
3.141592653589793

The type of a variable is the type of the value it refers to.

>>> type(message)
<class 'str'>
>>> type(n)
<class 'int'>
>>> type(pi)
<class 'float'>

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Variable names and keywords
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Programmers generally choose names for their variables that are meaningful and document what the variable is
used for.

Variable names can be arbitrarily long. They can contain both letters and numbers, but they cannot start with a
number. It is legal to use uppercase letters, but it is a good idea to begin variable names with a lowercase letter
(you’ll see why later).

The underscore character ( _ ) can appear in a name. It is often used in names with multiple words, such as
my_name or airspeed_of_unladen_swallow . Variable names can start with an underscore character, but we

generally avoid doing this unless we are writing library code for others to use.

If you give a variable an illegal name, you get a syntax error:

>>> 76trombones = 'big parade'

SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> more@ = 1000000
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> class = 'Advanced Theoretical Zymurgy'
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

76trombones is illegal because it begins with a number. more@ is illegal because it contains an illegal character,

@. But what’s wrong with class ?

It turns out that class is one of Python’s keywords. The interpreter uses keywords to recognize the structure of
the program, and they cannot be used as variable names.

Python reserves 35 keywords:

and del from None True

as elif global nonlocal try
assert else if not while
break except import or with
class False in pass yield
continue finally is raise async
def for lambda return await

You might want to keep this list handy. If the interpreter complains about one of your variable names and you don’t
know why, see if it is on this list.

Statements
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A statement is a unit of code that the Python interpreter can execute. We have seen two kinds of statements: print
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being an expression statement and assignment.

When you type a statement in interactive mode, the interpreter executes it and displays the result, if there is one.

A script usually contains a sequence of statements. If there is more than one statement, the results appear one at
a time as the statements execute.

For example, the script

print(1)
x = 2
print(x)

produces the output

1
2

The assignment statement produces no output.

Operators and operands

Operators are special symbols that represent computations like addition and multiplication. The values the
operator is applied to are called operands.

The operators + , - , * , / , and ** perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation, as
in the following examples:

20+32
hour-1
hour*60+minute
minute/60
5**2
(5+9)*(15-7)

There has been a change in the division operator between Python 2.x and Python 3.x. In Python 3.x, the result of
this division is a floating point result:

>>> minute = 59
>>> minute/60
0.9833333333333333

The division operator in Python 2.0 would divide two integers and truncate the result to an integer:

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>>> minute = 59
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>>> minute/60
0

To obtain the same answer in Python 3.0 use floored ( // integer) division.

>>> minute = 59
>>> minute//60
0

In Python 3.0 integer division functions much more as you would expect if you entered the expression on a
calculator.

Expressions
An expression is a combination of values, variables, and operators. A value all by itself is considered an
expression, and so is a variable, so the following are all legal expressions (assuming that the variable x has been
assigned a value):

17
x
x + 17

If you type an expression in interactive mode, the interpreter evaluates it and displays the result:

>>> 1 + 1
2

But in a script, an expression all by itself doesn’t do anything! This is a common source of confusion for beginners.

Exercise 1: Type the following statements in the Python interpreter to see what they do:

5
x = 5
x + 1

Order of operations
When more than one operator appears in an expression, the order of evaluation depends on the rules of
precedence. For mathematical operators, Python follows mathematical convention. The acronym PEMDAS is a
useful way to remember the rules:

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Parentheses have the highest precedence and can be used to force an expression to evaluate in the order
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you want. Since expressions in parentheses are evaluated first, 2 * (3-1) is 4, and (1+1)**(5-2) is 8.

You can also use parentheses to make an expression easier to read, as in (minute * 100) / 60 , even if it
doesn’t change the result.

Exponentiation has the next highest precedence, so 2**1+1 is 3, not 4, and 3*1**3 is 3, not 27.

Multiplication and Division have the same precedence, which is higher than Addition and Subtraction, which
also have the same precedence. So 2*3-1 is 5, not 4, and 6+4/2 is 8, not 5.

Operators with the same precedence are evaluated from left to right. So the expression 5-3-1 is 1, not 3,
because the 5-3 happens first and then 1 is subtracted from 2.

When in doubt, always put parentheses in your expressions to make sure the computations are performed in the
order you intend.

Modulus operator
The modulus operator works on integers and yields the remainder when the first operand is divided by the second.
In Python, the modulus operator is a percent sign ( % ). The syntax is the same as for other operators:

>>> quotient = 7 // 3
>>> print(quotient)
2
>>> remainder = 7 % 3
>>> print(remainder)
1

So 7 divided by 3 is 2 with 1 left over.

The modulus operator turns out to be surprisingly useful. For example, you can check whether one number is
divisible by another: if x % y is zero, then x is divisible by y .

You can also extract the right-most digit or digits from a number. For example, x % 10 yields the right-most digit of
x (in base 10). Similarly, x % 100 yields the last two digits.

String operations
The + operator works with strings, but it is not addition in the mathematical sense. Instead it performs
concatenation, which means joining the strings by linking them end to end. For example:

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>>> first = 10
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>>> second = 15
>>> print(first+second)
25
>>> first = '100'
>>> second = '150'
>>> print(first + second)
100150

The * operator also works with strings by multiplying the content of a string by an integer. For example:

>>> first = 'Test '

>>> second = 3
>>> print(first * second)
Test Test Test

Asking the user for input

Sometimes we would like to take the value for a variable from the user via their keyboard. Python provides a built-
in function called input that gets input from the keyboard1. When this function is called, the program stops and
waits for the user to type something. When the user presses Return or Enter , the program resumes and input
returns what the user typed as a string.

>>> inp = input()

Some silly stuff
>>> print(inp)
Some silly stuff

Before getting input from the user, it is a good idea to print a prompt telling the user what to input. You can pass a
string to input to be displayed to the user before pausing for input:

>>> name = input('What is your name?\n')

What is your name?
Chuck
>>> print(name)
Chuck

The sequence \n at the end of the prompt represents a newline, which is a special character that causes a line
break. That’s why the user’s input appears below the prompt.

If you expect the user to type an integer, you can try to convert the return value to int using the int() function:

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>>> prompt = 'What...is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?\n'
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>>> speed = input(prompt)
What...is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
17
>>> int(speed)
17
>>> int(speed) + 5
22

But if the user types something other than a string of digits, you get an error:

>>> speed = input(prompt)

What...is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
What do you mean, an African or a European swallow?
>>> int(speed)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10:

We will see how to handle this kind of error later.

Comments
As programs get bigger and more complicated, they get more difficult to read. Formal languages are dense, and it
is often difficult to look at a piece of code and figure out what it is doing, or why.

For this reason, it is a good idea to add notes to your programs to explain in natural language what the program is
doing. These notes are called comments, and in Python they start with the # symbol:

# compute the percentage of the hour that has elapsed

percentage = (minute * 100) / 60

In this case, the comment appears on a line by itself. You can also put comments at the end of a line:

percentage = (minute * 100) / 60 # percentage of an hour

Everything from the # to the end of the line is ignored; it has no effect on the program.

Comments are most useful when they document non-obvious features of the code. It is reasonable to assume that
the reader can figure out what the code does; it is much more useful to explain why.

This comment is redundant with the code and useless:

v = 5 # assign 5 to v

This comment contains useful information that is not in the code:

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v = 5 # velocity in meters/second.
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Good variable names can reduce the need for comments, but long names can make complex expressions hard to
read, so there is a trade-off.

Choosing mnemonic variable names

As long as you follow the simple rules of variable naming, and avoid reserved words, you have a lot of choice
when you name your variables. In the beginning, this choice can be confusing both when you read a program and
when you write your own programs. For example, the following three programs are identical in terms of what they
accomplish, but very different when you read them and try to understand them.

a = 35.0
b = 12.50
c = a * b
print(c)

hours = 35.0
rate = 12.50
pay = hours * rate
print(pay)

x1q3z9ahd = 35.0
x1q3z9afd = 12.50
x1q3p9afd = x1q3z9ahd * x1q3z9afd
print(x1q3p9afd)

The Python interpreter sees all three of these programs as exactly the same but humans see and understand
these programs quite differently. Humans will most quickly understand the intent of the second program because
the programmer has chosen variable names that reflect their intent regarding what data will be stored in each
variable.

We call these wisely chosen variable names “mnemonic variable names”. The word mnemonic2 means “memory
aid”. We choose mnemonic variable names to help us remember why we created the variable in the first place.

While this all sounds great, and it is a very good idea to use mnemonic variable names, mnemonic variable names
can get in the way of a beginning programmer’s ability to parse and understand code. This is because beginning
programmers have not yet memorized the reserved words (there are only 33 of them) and sometimes variables
with names that are too descriptive start to look like part of the language and not just well-chosen variable names.

Take a quick look at the following Python sample code which loops through some data. We will cover loops soon,
but for now try to just puzzle through what this means:
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for word in words:
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print(word)

What is happening here? Which of the tokens (for, word, in, etc.) are reserved words and which are just variable
names? Does Python understand at a fundamental level the notion of words? Beginning programmers have
trouble separating what parts of the code must be the same as this example and what parts of the code are simply
choices made by the programmer.

The following code is equivalent to the above code:

for slice in pizza:

print(slice)

It is easier for the beginning programmer to look at this code and know which parts are reserved words defined by
Python and which parts are simply variable names chosen by the programmer. It is pretty clear that Python has no
fundamental understanding of pizza and slices and the fact that a pizza consists of a set of one or more slices.

But if our program is truly about reading data and looking for words in the data, pizza and slice are very un-
mnemonic variable names. Choosing them as variable names distracts from the meaning of the program.

After a pretty short period of time, you will know the most common reserved words and you will start to see the
reserved words jumping out at you:

for word in words:

print(word)

The parts of the code that are defined by Python ( for , in , print , and : ) are in bold and the programmer-
chosen variables ( word and words ) are not in bold. Many text editors are aware of Python syntax and will color
reserved words differently to give you clues to keep your variables and reserved words separate. After a while you
will begin to read Python and quickly determine what is a variable and what is a reserved word.

Debugging
At this point, the syntax error you are most likely to make is an illegal variable name, like class and yield , which
are keywords, or odd~job and US$ , which contain illegal characters.

If you put a space in a variable name, Python thinks it is two operands without an operator:

>>> bad name = 5

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

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>>> month = 09
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File "<stdin>", line 1
month = 09
^
SyntaxError: invalid token

For syntax errors, the error messages don’t help much. The most common messages are SyntaxError: invalid
syntax and SyntaxError: invalid token , neither of which is very informative.

The runtime error you are most likely to make is a “use before def;” that is, trying to use a variable before you have
assigned a value. This can happen if you spell a variable name wrong:

>>> principal = 327.68

>>> interest = principle * rate
NameError: name 'principle' is not defined

Variables names are case sensitive, so LaTeX is not the same as latex .

At this point, the most likely cause of a semantic error is the order of operations. For example, to evaluate 1/2π,
you might be tempted to write

>>> 1.0 / 2.0 * pi

But the division happens first, so you would get π/2, which is not the same thing! There is no way for Python to
know what you meant to write, so in this case you don’t get an error message; you just get the wrong answer.

Glossary
assignment
A statement that assigns a value to a variable.
concatenate
To join two operands end to end.
comment
Information in a program that is meant for other programmers (or anyone reading the source code) and has no
effect on the execution of the program.
evaluate
To simplify an expression by performing the operations in order to yield a single value.
expression
A combination of variables, operators, and values that represents a single result value.
floating point
A type that represents numbers with fractional parts.
integer
A type that represents whole numbers.
keyword
A reserved word that is used by the compiler to parse a program; you cannot use keywords like if , def , and
while as variable names. Select Language ▼
mnemonic
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A memory aid. We often give variables mnemonic names to help us remember what is stored in the variable.
modulus operator
An operator, denoted with a percent sign ( % ), that works on integers and yields the remainder when one number
is divided by another.
operand
One of the values on which an operator operates.
operator
A special symbol that represents a simple computation like addition, multiplication, or string concatenation.
rules of precedence
The set of rules governing the order in which expressions involving multiple operators and operands are
evaluated.
statement
A section of code that represents a command or action. So far, the statements we have seen are assignments and
print expression statement.
string
A type that represents sequences of characters.
type
A category of values. The types we have seen so far are integers (type int ), floating-point numbers (type
float ), and strings (type str ).
value
One of the basic units of data, like a number or string, that a program manipulates.
variable
A name that refers to a value.

Exercises
Exercise 2: Write a program that uses input to prompt a user for their name and then welcomes them.

Enter your name: Chuck

Hello Chuck

Exercise 3: Write a program to prompt the user for hours and rate per hour to compute gross pay.

Enter Hours: 35
Enter Rate: 2.75
Pay: 96.25

We won’t worry about making sure our pay has exactly two digits after the decimal place for now. If you want, you
can play with the built-in Python round function to properly round the resulting pay to two decimal places.

Exercise 4: Assume that we execute the following assignment statements:

width = 17
height = 12.0

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For each of the following expressions, write the value of the expression and the type (of the value of the
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expression).

1. width//2

2. width/2.0

3. height/3

4. 1 + 2 * 5

Use the Python interpreter to check your answers.

Exercise 5: Write a program which prompts the user for a Celsius temperature, convert the temperature to
Fahrenheit, and print out the converted temperature.

1. In Python 2.0, this function was named raw_input .↩

2. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic) for an extended

description of the word “mnemonic”.↩

If you find a mistake in this book, feel free to send me a fix using Github .

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