Class IX

Robotics (Introduction to Data and Programming with Python)

Lesson 2
Introduction to Data Types and Variables

Video Tutorials
Variables | Python Programming |
Python Programming - Fundamental Concepts, Literals, Format
Python Programming Tutorial - Identifiers and keywords
Python Programming Tutorial - Input-Output function and Comments

Character Set
A character set is a set of valid characters acceptable by a programming language in
scripting. Python character set is a valid set of characters recognized by the Python language. These
are the characters we can use during writing a script in Python. Python supports all ASCII / Unicode
characters that include:

• Alphabets: All capital (A-Z) and small (a-z) alphabets.

• Digits: All digits 0-9.
• Special Symbols: Python supports all kind of special symbols like, ” ‘ l ; : ! ~ @ # $ % ^
`&*()_+–={}[]\.
• White Spaces: White spaces like tab space, blank space, newline, and carriage
return.
• Other: All ASCII and UNICODE characters are supported by Python that constitutes
the Python character set.

Tokens
A token is the smallest individual unit in a python program. All statements and instructions
in a program are built with tokens. The various tokens in python are :
1. Keywords: Keywords are words that have some special meaning or significance in a
programming language. They can’t be used as variable names, function names, or any other
random purpose. They are used for their special features. In Python we have 33 keywords
some of them are: try, False, True, class, break, continue, and, as, assert, while, for, in, raise,
except, or, not, if, elif, print, import, etc.
2. Identifiers: Identifiers are the names given to any variable, function, class, list, methods,
etc. for their identification. Python is a case-sensitive language, and it has some rules and
regulations to name an identifier. Here are some rules to name an identifier:-
• As stated above, Python is case-sensitive. So, case matters in naming identifiers. And
hence a and A are two different identifiers.
• Identifier starts with a capital letter (A-Z) , a small letter (a-z) or an underscore( _ ). It
can’t start with any other character.
• Except for letters and underscore, digits can also be a part of identifier but can’t be
the first character of it.
• Any other special characters or whitespaces are strictly prohibited in an identifier.
• An identifier can’t be a keyword.

3. Literals or Values: Literals are the fixed values or data items used in a source code.
Python supports different types of literals such as:
(i) String Literals: The text written in single, double, or triple quotes represents the string
literals in Python. For example: “Computer Science”, ‘sam’, etc. We can also use triple
quotes to write multi-line strings.
# Examples of string literals
string = 'Hello'
s = "World"
A = "'Python is a
high-level and
general purpose language'"
(ii) Character Literals: Character literal is also a string literal type in which the character is
enclosed in single or double-quotes.
# Character Literals
a = 'G'
b = "W"
(iii) Numeric Literals: These are the literals written in form of numbers. Python supports the
following numerical literals:
• Integer Literal: It includes both positive and negative numbers along with 0. It
doesn’t include fractional parts. It can also include binary, decimal, octal,
hexadecimal literal.
 • Float Literal: It includes both positive and negative real numbers. It also includes
fractional parts.
• Complex Literal: It includes a+bi numeral, here a represents the real part and b
represents the complex part.
# Numeric Literals
a=5
b = 10.3
c = -17
(iv) Boolean Literals: Boolean literals have only two values in Python. These are True and
False.
(v) Literals Collections: Literals collections in python includes list, tuple, dictionary, and sets.
1. List: It is a list of elements represented in square brackets with commas in between.
These variables can be of any data type and can be changed as well.
2. Tuple: It is also a list of comma-separated elements or values in round brackets. The
values can be of any data type but can’t be changed.
3. Dictionary: It is the unordered set of key-value pairs.
4. Set: It is the unordered collection of elements in curly braces ‘{}’.
# A list literal collection
my_list = [23, "Python", 1.2, 'Character']

# A tuple literal collection

my_tuple = (1, 3, 6, 'world')

# A dictionary literal collection

my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}

# A set literal collection

my_set = {5, 3, 7, 9}

4. Operators: These are the tokens responsible for performing an operation in an

expression. The variables on which operation is applied are called operands. Operators can
be unary or binary. Unary operators are the ones acting on a single operand like
complement operator, etc. While binary operators need two operands to operate.
5. Punctuators: These are the symbols that are used in Python to organize the structures,
statements, and expressions. Some of the Punctuators are: [ ] { } ( ) @ -
= += *= //= **== = , etc.
Python Data Types
Python Data types are the classification or categorization of data items. It represents the kind
of value that tells what operations can be performed on a particular data. Since everything is
an object in Python programming, Python data types are classes and variables are instances
(objects) of these classes. The following are the standard or built-in data types in Python:
• Numeric
• Sequence Type
• Boolean
• Set
• Dictionary
• Binary Types(memoryview, bytearray, bytes)

1. Numeric Data Types in Python

The numeric data type in Python represents the data that has a numeric value. A numeric
value can be an integer, a floating number, or even a complex number. These values are
defined as Python int, Python float, and Python complex classes in Python.
• Integers – This value is represented by int class. It contains positive or negative
whole numbers (without fractions or decimals). In Python, there is no limit to how
long an integer value can be.
• Float – This value is represented by the float class. It is a real number with a floating-
point representation. It is specified by a decimal point. Optionally, the character e or
E followed by a positive or negative integer may be appended to specify scientific
notation.
• Complex Numbers – A complex number is represented by a complex class. It is
specified as (real part) + (imaginary part)j. For example – 2+3j

2. Sequence Data Types in Python

The sequence Data Type in Python is the ordered collection of similar or different Python
data types. Sequences allow storing of multiple values in an organized and efficient fashion.
There are several sequence data types of Python:
• Python String
• Python List
• Python Tuple
Strings in Python are arrays of bytes representing Unicode characters. A string is a collection
of one or more characters put in a single quote, double-quote, or triple-quote. In Python,
there is no character data type Python, a character is a string of length one. It is represented
by str class.

Lists are just like arrays, declared in other languages which is an ordered collection of data.
It is very flexible as the items in a list do not need to be of the same type.

Just like a list, a tuple is also an ordered collection of Python objects. The only difference
between a tuple and a list is that tuples are immutable i.e. tuples cannot be modified after
they are created. It is represented by a tuple class.

3. Boolean Data Type in Python

Python Data type with one of the two built-in values, True or False. Boolean objects that are
equal to True are truthy (true), and those equal to False are falsy (false). However non-
Boolean objects can be evaluated in a Boolean context as well and determined to be true or
false. It is denoted by the class bool.

4. Set Data Type in Python

In Python Data Types, a Set is an unordered collection of data types that is iterable,
mutable, and has no duplicate elements. The order of elements in a set is undefined though
it may consist of various elements.

5. Dictionary Data Type in Python

A dictionary in Python is an unordered collection of data values, used to store data values
like a map, unlike other Python Data Types that hold only a single value as an element, a
Dictionary holds a key: value pair. Key-value is provided in the dictionary to make it more
optimized. Each key-value pair in a Dictionary is separated by a colon : , whereas each key is
separated by a ‘comma’.
Getting the Data Type:
You can get the data type of any object by using the type() function:
Example:
Print the data type of the variable x:
x=5
print(type(x))
Python Comments
Comments can be used to explain Python code. Comments can be used to make the code
more readable. Comments can be used to prevent execution when testing code.

Creating a Comment:
Comments starts with a #, and Python will ignore them:
#This is a comment
print("Hello, World!")

Comments can be placed at the end of a line, and Python will ignore the rest of the line:
print("Hello, World!") #This is a comment

Multi Line Comment

Python does not really have a syntax for multi-line comments.
To add a multiline comment, you could insert a # for each line:

#This is a comment
#written in
#more than just one line
print("Hello, World!")

OR

"""
This is a comment
written in
more than just one line
"""
print("Hello, World!")

Creating Variables
Variables are containers for storing data values.
Unlike other programming languages, Python has no command for declaring a variable.
A variable is created the moment you first assign a value to it.

x = 5
y = "John"
print(x)
print(y)

String variables can be declared either by using single or double quotes:

x = "John"
# is the same as
x = 'John'

Assign Value to Multiple Variables

Python allows you to assign values to multiple variables in one line:

x, y, z = "Orange", "Banana", "Cherry"

print(x)
print(y)
print(z)

And you can assign the same value to multiple variables in one line:

x = y = z = "Orange"
print(x)
print(y)
print(z)

Output Variables

The Python print statement is often used to output variables.

To combine both text and a variable, Python uses the + character:

x = "awesome"
print("Python is " + x)

You can also use the + character to add a variable to another variable:

x = "Python is "
y = "awesome"
z = x + y
print(z)

Indentation in Python

Python indentation refers to adding white space before a statement to a particular block of
code. In another word, all the statements with the same space to the right, belong to the
same code block.
Python indentation is a way of telling a Python interpreter that the group of statements
belongs to a particular block of code. A block is a combination of all these statements. Block
can be regarded as the grouping of statements for a specific purpose. Most programming
languages like C, C++, and Java use braces { } to define a block of code. Python uses
indentation to highlight the blocks of code. Whitespace is used for indentation in Python. All
statements with the same distance to the right belong to the same block of code. If a block
has to be more deeply nested, it is simply indented further to the right.
To indicate a block of code in Python, you must indent each line of the block by the same
whitespace. Python uses 4 spaces as indentation by default. However, the number of
spaces is up to you, but a minimum of 1 space has to be used.

Python User Input

Taking input is a way of interacting with users or get data to provide some result. Python
provides two built-in methods to read the data from the keyboard. These methods are
given below.
o input(prompt)
o raw_input(prompt)
input (): This function first takes the input from the user and converts it into a string. The
type of the returned object always will be <class ‘str’>. It does not evaluate the expression it
just returns the complete statement as String.
# Python program showing
# a use of input()

val = input("Enter your value: ")

print(val)

How the input function works in Python :

• When input() function executes program flow will be stopped until the user has
given input.
• The text or message displayed on the output screen to ask a user to enter an input
value is optional i.e. the prompt, which will be printed on the screen is optional.
• Whatever you enter as input, the input function converts it into a string. if you enter
an integer value still input() function converts it into a string. You need to explicitly
convert it into an integer in your code using typecasting.

raw_input(): This function works in older version (like Python 2.x). This function takes
exactly what is typed from the keyboard, converts it to string, and then returns it to the
variable in which we want to store it.
Python | Output using print() function
Python print() function prints the message to the screen or any other standard output
device. Though it is not necessary to pass arguments in the print() function, it requires an
empty parenthesis at the end that tells Python to execute the function rather than calling it
by name.

name = "John"
age = 30

print("Name:", name)
print("Age:", age)

How print() works in Python?

You can pass variables, strings, numbers, or other data types as one or more parameters
when using the print() function. Then, these parameters are represented as strings by their
respective str() functions. To create a single output string, the transformed strings are
concatenated with spaces between them.

name = "Alice"
age = 25

print("Hello, my name is", name, "and I am", age, "years old.")

Python String Literals

String literals in Python’s print statement are primarily used to format or design how a
specific string appears when printed using the print() function.
• \n: This string literal is used to add a new blank line while printing a statement.

print("GeeksforGeeks \n is best for DSA Content.")