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Lesson 4Working with Basic Python Data Types

Python supports a variety of basic data types that determine how content in a program will work and interact. This lesson covers variables typed as numbers and Booleans. The lesson also introduces operators and how to use them to change the value of a variable to produce an updated output.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Use a variety of data types in Python, including numbers and Booleans.
• Use Python to perform operations using numbers.
• Use Python to perform logic operations using Booleans.

REVIEW OF DATA TYPES

Every modern programming language uses data types to determine what actions are possible for specific values in a program. For example, numbers can be used in mathematical calculations while Boolean values can be used to create conditional activities within a program.

In programming languages like Java and C#, programmers must explicitly define the variable's type when they declare a variable. Python, however, automatically types variables, which means that it logically assigns a data type to the value of a variable based on the value itself. In other words, if we define a variable using just a number, Python treats it as a number. If we put the value in quotation marks, Python treats it as a string.

Within this lesson, we will review the concept of variables, and then explore how Python processes numbers that are stored in numerically typed variables. There are a few key terms ...