Basics of Python

My previous post was just an introduction to Python. It just gave the general details about it like who created it, its advantages, etc. Now, I am going to write about the basics of Python. These include syntax, comments, variables, data types etc.

Python can be installed in your Laptop/PC from the official website here for macOS users ,here for windows users, here for Linux/UNIX users and here for other OS users.

1. Syntax

Syntax refers to a set of rules that defines how a program shall be written and interpreted in Python. In simple terms, it is the way code is written in Python.

  print("Hello World!")

In the snippet given above, print("Hello World!") is a piece of code. It is because of the syntax of Python that this code is written like print("Hello World!"), not like Hello World!("print") etc.

2. Variables

Variables in Python are used to store values. They are declared by assigning a value to a name. For example-

#Variables-

a=2
b=3

In the above code snippet, a and b are variables which have been assigned the values 2 and 3 respectively.

3. Data Types

Python has several built-in data types, including integers (int), floating-point numbers (float), strings (str), and lists (list). For example-

#Data Types

#Integers
a=175

#Floating point numbers
b=12.65

#Strings
c="Hello World!"

#Lists
d=[1, -3, 9.4, 'Hi']

There are many more data types in Python, which have been covered in another post. You can find it here- Data Types in Python

4. Operators

Python has a variety of operators that can be used to perform operations on variables, including arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /), comparison operators (>, >=, <, <=, ==, !=), and logical operators (and, or, not).

You can find more about operators here- Python Operators: Part-1 and Python Operators: Part-2

For example-

#Operators
a=2
b=3

#Arithmetic operators
print(a+b)
print(a*b)

#Comparison operators
print(a>b)
print(a<b)

#Logical operators
print(a is not b)

The output-

5
6
False
True
True

5. Conditional Statements

Python has conditional statements, which allow you to execute different parts of your code based on certain conditions. The most commonly used conditional statements are if and if-else.

Read more about conditional statements here- Conditional Statements in Python

For example-

#Conditional statements

a=3
b=7
if a>b:
  print("a>b.")
else:
  print("a<b.")

The output-

a<b.

6. Loops

Python supports two types of loops: for loops and while loops. For loops are used to iterate over a sequence (such as a list or a string), and while loops are used to repeat a block of code while a certain condition is True.

Read more about loops here- For Loop in Python and While Loop in Python

For example-

#Loops
nums=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

#For loop
for x in nums:
  print(x)

#While loop
a=1
while a<3:
  print(a)
  a+=1

The output-

1
2
3
4
5
1
2

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These are the basics of python that you need to know to know to start coding in Python. Hope this article was interesting. Please don't hesitate to drop a comment below if you have any doubts, feedback or suggestions.

Happy Coding,
Aarav Iyer