Python – Literals

In this tutorial you will learn python in detail.

In Python literal is a data that is given in a variable or constant. Python supports various literals. They are.

1. String literals
2. Numeric literals
3. Boolean literals
4. Special literals
5. Literal collections

Let us study in details about them

1. String literal

When a sequence of characters is enclosed in quotes, it forms string literal. A string can use single, double or triple quotes. A character literal has a single character enclosed in quotes.

Example:

string = "This is Python"
char = "C"
multiline_str = """This is a multiline string with more than one line code."""
unicode = u"\u00dcnic\u00f6de"
raw_
print(string)
str = r"raw \n string"
print(char)
print(multiline_str)
print(unicode)
print(raw_str)

Output:

This is Python
CThis is a multiline string with more than one line code.
Ünicöde
raw \n string

In the above program, string literal is “This is Python” and a character literal is “C”..

The value assigned to the “multiline_str” in triple-quotes “”” is a multi-line string literal.

Unicode literal is u”\u00dcnic\u00f6de” which supports characters other than English. In this case, \u00dc represents Ü and \u00f6 represents ö.

Raw string literal is r”raw \n string”.

2. Numeric literals

These literals are immutable i.e., unchangeable. Numeric literals can belong to three different numerical types: they are Integer, Float, and Complex.

Examples:

a = 0b1010 #Binary Literals
b = 100 #Decimal Literal
c = 0o310 #Octal Literal
d = 0x12c #Hexadecimal Literal

#Float Literal
float_1 = 10.5
float_2 = 1.5e2

#Complex Literal
x = 2.15j

print(a, b, c, d)
print(float_1, float_2)
print(x, x.imag, x.real)

Output:

10 100 200 300
10.5 150.0
2.15j 2.15 0.0

• In the above program a variable is assigned with binary literal, b is assigned with decimal literal, c variable is assigned with octal literal and d is a hexadecimal literal.
• float_1 and float_2 variables are floating point literals.
• Complex literal 2.15j is assigned to variable x. this complex value has an imaginary and real literal.

3. Boolean literals

A Boolean literal can have either True or False

Example:

x = (1 == True)
y = (1 == False)
a = True + 5
b = False + 20
print ("x is", x)
print ("y is", y)
print ("a:", a)
print ("b:", b)

Output:

x is True
y is False
a: 6
b: 20

The value of True represents 1 and value of False represents 0

4. Special literal

Python provides one special literal called None. It is used to specify that the field has not been created.

Example:

x1=10 
x2=None  
print(x1)  
print(x2)

Output:

10
None

5. Literal collections

There are four different literal collections in python such as List literals, Tuple literals, Dict literals, and Set literals.

List:

List literal can have values of different datatypes. They are mutable and are separated by comma (,). They are enclosed in square brackets [].

Example:

list=['David',673,10.4,'Peter']   
list1=[476,'Rose']   
print(list)   
print (list + list1)

Output:

[‘David’, 673, 10.4, ‘Peter’]
[‘David’, 673, 10.4, ‘Peter’, 476, ‘Rose’]

Tuple:

Tuple is also a collection of different data-types. It is immutable, separated by comma (,), and is enclosed in parentheses ().

Example:

tup = (10,20,"Sri",[3,4,5]) 
print (tup) 

Output:

(10, 20, 'Sri', [3, 4, 5])

Dictionary:

Dictionary stores data in key-value pair, enclosed by curly braces {} and each pair is separated by comma (,).

Example:

Dict = {‘name’: ‘David’, ‘Roll_no’: 120, ‘Age’: 30}
Print (Dict)

Output:

{‘name’:  ‘David’ , ‘Roll_no’:  120,  ‘Age’:  30}

Set:

Sets are a collection of unordered datasets. They enclosed by {} and each element is separated by (,).

Example:

set = {'apple','grapes','guava','papaya'} 
print(set)

Output:

{'guava', 'apple', 'grapes', 'papaya'}