Generally, variables are containers for storing values. A variable is a memory location where you store a value. The value that you have stored may change in the future according to the specifications.
How are variables created in python?
Variables are easily created in python by assigning a value to them. Every variable in Python is an object. Let's create a variable as follows;
name = "Vincent"
The variable name
is created and assigned to a value of ''Vincent
". The variable name
is the container used for storing the value "Vincent"
.
Rules for naming a variable in python.
There are important rules we have to consider while declaring a variable in python. These include
- Variables in Python are case-sensitive. For example,
name = "Vincent"
is not the same as Name = "John"
. The variable name
starts with lowercase "n" while the other variable Name
starts with an uppercase "N". They are the same in English but not in python.
- The variable name cannot start with a number. A variable name can only start with a character or an underscore. For example
_number = 20
but not 1number = 20
.
- Special characters are prohibited in naming variables examples are !, @, #, $, %, etc.
Bonus: It is conventional to name variables using the camelcase method. For example schoolName = "Cambridge"
.
Datatypes in python.
Every value that we declare in python has a data type. Variables can store data of different types. In Python, the data type is set when you assign a value to a variable. Python has the following datatype built in by default.
Numerical data types:
- Floats:
number = 4.598
- Integer:
number = 254
- Complex:
number = 2j
String data types:
text = "Vincent"
Boolean type:
The boolean datatypes are only True
and False.
message = True
Sequence types:
- List:
list1 = ["brain", 2, "tongue"]
- Tuple:
tuple1 = ["train", 3, "corn"]
Dictionary types:
dict1 = {"name": "James", "age": 50}
Python set types:
- Set:
set1 = {"train", "silvia", "James"}
- frozenset
How to Know the type of any object.
You can get the data type of any object by using the type()
function:
name = "Bliss"
age = 30
answer = True
list1 = ["water", "bottles", "spoon"]
tuple1 = ("Milk", "yogurt", "sink")
number = 23.89
print(type(name)) #<class 'str'> string
print(type(age)) #<class 'int'> integer
print(type(answer)) #<class 'bool'> boolean
print(type(list1)) #<class 'list'> list
print(type(tuple1)) #<class 'tuple'> tuple
print(type(number)) # <class 'float'> float