Python Programming On Win32

Numeric Types

There are four numeric types: plain integers, long integers, floating-point numbers, and complex numbers . Plain integers (also just called integers) are implemented using long in C, which gives them at least 32 bits of precision. Long integers have unlimited precision. Floating-point numbers are implemented using double in C. All bets on their precision are off unless you happen to know the machine you are working with.

Complex numbers have a real and imaginary part, which are both implemented using double in C. To extract these parts from a complex number z, use z .real and z .imag.

Numbers are created by numeric literals or as the result of built-in functions and operators. Unadorned integer literals (including hex and octal numbers) yield plain integers. Integer literals with an L or l suffix yield long integers (L is preferred because 1l looks too much like eleven!). Numeric literals containing a decimal point or an exponent sign yield floating-point numbers. Appending j or J to a numeric literal yields a complex number.

Python fully supports mixed arithmetic: when a binary arithmetic operator has operands of different numeric types, the operand with the “smaller” type is converted to that of the other, where a plain integer is smaller than a long integer is smaller than a floating point is smaller than a complex. Comparisons between numbers of mixed type use the same rule.^[1] The functions int(), long(), float(), and complex() can force numbers to a specific ...