A Beginner's Guide to Python

input()

The simplest way to take input is using the input() function which first takes the input from the user, then evaluates the expression and finally converts the entered value into the string format (irrespective of format or type of entered value).

The input() method accepts a string message which is an optional and meant to be displayed on the output console to ask a user to enter input value. Let’s have a look at the syntax.

Code:

num = input ("Enter number:")   

print(num)

split()

Using split() method, we can take multiple values in one line. Split method breaks the given input by the specified separator. If separator is not provided, then any white space is a separator. Let’s have a look at the syntax and example to understand in a better way.

Code:

x, y = input("Enter a two value: ").split()   

print("Number of boys: ", x)   

print("Number of girls: ", y)

print()

Python programming language provides print() function to present the output of a program. The simplest way to present or display a program output to the console is using the print() function where you can pass zero or more expressions separated by commas. Let’s have a look at the example:

Example 1

Print two integers value:

a=7   

b=9 

print(a, b)

Example 2

Print string and integer value using print command:

num = input ("Enter number :")   

print('number entered is : ', num)

By default, python print() function use space ‘ ’ as separator between arguments passed in print() function but we can modify or use any character, number or string as separator. ‘sep’ (Optional) parameter in print() function can be used to specify the character or number or string as a separator to separate the arguments passed in print().

print('Male', 'Female', sep='/')

print('09','12','2018', sep='-')

‘end’ (Optional) parameter in print() function can be used to specify the character or number or string to print at the end. Default is new line character ‘\n’.

print("Welcome to" , end = ' ')   

print("Python Progamming Course", end = ' ')

Formatting output using String modulo operator (%)

The String modulo operator (%) can be used for string formatting by adding a placeholder in the string which later replaced with the values in tuple. String modulo operator ( % ) can be used to replace any integer, float or string values. Let’s have a look at the example to understand better.

print("Integer : % 2d, Float : % 5.2f" %(1, 05.333))

Formatting output using format method

use {} to mark where a variable will be substituted and can provide detailed formatting directives. We can either use the exact position of variable to be substituted or empty {} will substitute the variables in the order mentioned. Let’s have a look at the example where we have used a position of the object.

print('{0} {1} {2}'.format('Python', 'Programming', 'Course'))

Comments are descriptions that help programmers better understand the intent and functionality of the program.

They are completely ignored by the Python interpreter.

Advantages of Using Comments:

Using comments in programs makes our code more understandable. It makes the program more readable which helps us remember why certain blocks of code were written.

Other than that, comments can also be used to ignore some code while testing other blocks of code. This offers a simple way to prevent the execution of some lines or write a quick pseudo-code for the program.

How to Write Better Comments?

Use comments to describe what a function does and not the specific details on how the function does it.

Try to remove as many redundant comments as possible. Try writing code that can explain itself, using better function/variable name choice.

Try to make the comments as short and concise as possible.