Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition

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Python Pocket Reference

0177, 0x9ff

Octal and hex integer constants

3+4j, 3.0+4.0j, 3J

Complex numbers

Operations

Number types support all number operations (see Table 6,

earlier in this book). In mixed-type expressions, Python con-

verts operands up to the type of the “highest” type, where

integer is lower than long, which is lower than floating-point,

which is lower than complex.

In Version 2.2 and later, integer results are automatically

promoted to longs instead of overflowing, so there is no need

to manually code an integer with a trailing letter “L” to force

long precision. Also, in Version 2.2 and later, there are two

flavors of division (

/ and //).

Strings

Strings are immutable (i.e., unchangeable) arrays of charac-

ters, accessed by offset.

Literals

Strings are written as a series of characters in quotes.

"Python's", 'Python"s'

Double and single quotes work the same, and each can

embed unescaped quotes of the other kind.

"""This is a

multiline block"""

Triple-quoted blocks collect lines into a single string,

with end-of-line markers (

\n) inserted between the origi-

nal lines.

Specific Built-in Types

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'Python\'s\n'

Backslash escape code sequences (see Table 7) are

replaced with the special-character byte values they rep-

resent (e.g.,

'\n' is a byte with binary value 012).

"This" "is" "concatenated" ...