What Is Variable

This section provides a quick introduction variables. A variable in Python is a symbolic name of a data object.

What Is Variable? A variable in Python is a symbolic name of a data object. Or you can say that a variable is an object name.

There several important features about Python variables.

1. An object can have 0, 1, or many names.

# create an object with no name assigned
>>> 'apple'
'apple'

# create an object and assign a name "x"
>>> x = 'apple'

# assign the object named "x" with another name "y"
>>> y = x

2. A variable can also be considered as an storage for a reference or a pointer to the object.

# create an object with no reference stored
>>> 'apple'
'apple'

# create an object with reference stored in "x"
>>> x = 'apple'

# copy the reference in "x" to "y"
>>> y = x

3. Its object value is used, when a variable is being operated.

# variable "x" is referring to "int" object for integer 3
>>> x = 3

# object's value 3 is being operated: 3*3
>>> x*x
9

4. a variable must be assigned (defined) with an object, before using it in operations.

# variable "y" has not been assigned with any object
>>> y*y
NameError: name 'y' is not defined

5. Variable names are case sensitive.

# 'x' and 'X' are 2 different variables
>>> x = 3
>>> X*X
NameError: name 'X' is not defined

6. A variable can be reassigned to another object of any data type at any time.

# create a "str" object and assign a name "x"
>>> x = 'apple'

# "x" is reassigned to another object
>>> x = [9, 1, 1]

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Running Python Code Online

 Python on macOS Computers

 Python on Linux Computers

 Built-in Data Types

Variables, Operations and Expressions

What Is Variable

 What Is Operation

 What Is Expression

 Conditional Expression - Ternary Operation

 Assignment Expression - Walrus Operation

 Statements - Execution Units

 Function Statement and Function Call

 Iterators, Generators and List Comprehensions

 Classes and Instances

 Modules and Module Files

 Packages and Package Directories

 "sys" and "os" Modules

 "pathlib" - Object-Oriented Filesystem Paths

 "pip" - Package Installer for Python

 SciPy.org - Python Libraries for Science

 pandas - Data Analysis and Manipulation

 Anaconda - Python Environment Manager

 Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB