Python in a nutshell [Part-1]
Anurag Pandey
Posted on May 22, 2020
Lets start with the Hello World of Python.
>>> print("Hello, World")
Hello, World
>>>
We know one rule, a computer program does only what we have specified it to do. So how did the print function printed a new line character?
Lets investigate the print function with one of our bestfriends called the help function.
>>> help(print)
print(value, ..., sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)
Prints the values to a stream, or to sys.stdout by default.
Optional keyword arguments:
file: a file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
sep: string inserted between values, default a space.
end: string appended after the last value, default a newline.
flush: whether to forcibly flush the stream.
(Type q to exit the help)
So from this we can understand that after printing the value, it entered a new line character. Lets see different arguments in action:
>>> print("Hello, World", end='')
Hello, World>>> print(1, 2, 3)
1 2 3
>>> print(1, 2, 3, sep='-')
1-2-3
>>>
Okay next thing now is to take input from the user, which can be done as:
>>> a = input("Enter your name:")
Enter your name: Anurag
>>> print(a)
Anurag
>>>
The input function returns a string. Don't worry about different data types, we will cover them later.
You can find the type of an object using type function:
>>> type(a)
<class 'str'>
So the object returned by the input function is of class str.
Lets try our new bestfriend help function on it:
>>> help(input)
Help on built-in function input in module builtins:
input(prompt=None, /)
Read a string from standard input. The trailing newline is stripped.
The prompt string, if given, is printed to standard output without a
trailing newline before reading input.
If the user hits EOF (*nix: Ctrl-D, Windows: Ctrl-Z+Return), raise EOFError.
On *nix systems, readline is used if available.
It is important to remember what type of object a function returns.
Takeaways:
- Make help function your best friend.
- Use type function to find the type of an object.
- Know what to provide to a function and more importantly what it returns.
In Part-2, we will discuss about the importing different modules and different data structures in Python.
P.S : Python 2 Python 3 is used.
Posted on May 22, 2020
Join Our Newsletter. No Spam, Only the good stuff.
Sign up to receive the latest update from our blog.