Data Types in Python
Data Types
Data types in a programming language define a way how the variables are stored and manipulated in the programs. There are many native data-types in Python (Boolean, Numbers, Strings, Lists, Sets, Tuples, and Dictionaries). However, Python is a dynamically typed programming language, and we don need to explicitly provide the type of variable.
Variables in Python can be broadly categorized as given in the picture below.
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| Python data types |
- Boolean, can have either True or False value.
- Numbers can be integers for example 12, 1889, and 755552 or floats values like 17.5 and 0.36 fractions, fraction values like 1/7 or 2/5.
- Python even supports complex numbers.
- Strings are sequences of Unicode characters like ‘I am a string’.
- We can also use bytes and byte arrays, for example, JPEG image file.
- Lists are built-in ordered sequences of values in Python. Lists have a number of extra functions and properties. Lists can be appended to a list without recreating a new one.
- Tuples are ordered, immutable sequences of values. Like strings, tuples are a collection of data, but strings are only a collection of characters. Tuples are a way of storing many pieces of data under one a single variable name.
- Sets are unordered collections of immutable values. Multiple occurrences of elements are not allowed in Set.
- We can store and retrieve values with the help of keys in a dictionary. Dictionaries are mutable and indexed.
We can summerise these data types in the following table,
| Name | Type | Description |
| Integers |
int |
Whole numbers: 1,4,51 |
| Floating Point |
float |
Decimal point numbers: 12.354, 0.89 |
| Strings |
str |
An ordered sequence of characters: "hello", "Python" |
| Lists |
list |
An ordered sequence of objects :[10,23.47,"Python",True] |
| Dictionaries |
dict |
Unordered key-value pairs {"a":10,"b":"Python","c":True} |
| Tuples |
tup |
An ordered sequence of objects (25, "Python",17.58) |
| Sets |
set |
An unordered collection of unique objects {"a","b","c"} |
| Booleans |
bool |
Logical values indicating true or false |
Mutable and Immutable Data types
We can divide all the data types into two broad categories on the basis of their mutability in Python. They can be mutable or immutable.
- Mutable - If the value of the variable can be changed once it is assigned a value.
- Immutable - If the value of the variable can not be changed once it is assigned a value.
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| Data types |
