Datatypes

Numbers

Numbers are simplest …

  • Integer (int) - sign is irrelevant

  • Floating point (float)

  • Complex (complex)

  • Boolean (bool)

More powerful types …

  • Sequences with very powerful operations

    • Immutable sequences: Strings, Bytes, Tuples

    • Lists

  • Sets

    • Mappings: key to value

Integer Numbers

Range …

  • Represent numbers in an unlimited range - limited only by available memory

Integer literals …

  • Decimal: 1234, -1234

  • Octal: 0o01234 == 1*8**3+2*8**2+3*8**1+4*8**0 == 668

  • Hexadecimal: 0x1234} == 1*16**3+2*16**2+3*16**1+4*16**0 == 4660

  • Binary: 0b100110

Integer Numbers: Comparison

Comparison operators

<

less than

<=

less or equal

>

greater than

>=

greater or equal

==

equal

!=

not equal

Integer Numbers: Arithmetic

Arithmetic operators

+

addition

-

subtraction

*

multiplication

/

division

//

floor division

%

modulo

**

exponentiation

-

negation (unary)

Shortcut: self modification (not only for the + operator)

i = i + 7
i += 7

Operator Precedence

Boring but important: precedence rules

  • Exponentiation comes first (binds strongest)

  • Negation

  • *, /, % (left associative)

  • +, - (binary operators)

  • Comparison operators

Not boring — necessary in programming

  • If in doubt, use explicit braces: 2 * 7 % 3 != 2 * (7 % 3)

  • If not in doubt, think about colleagues

    • If in doubt, use explicit braces

Floating Point Numbers

Floating point vs. Integer

  • Operators listed above also valid for floating point numbers

  • Not unbounded

    • … otherwise \(\pi\) would consume all memory

Literals

  • Decimal point: 3.14159265359

  • Exponent: 2.3e12, 1.5e-34

Numbers: Python2 vs. Python 3 (1)

Incompatibility alert!

  • There is no pure integer division in 3

  • int only if possible

  • float otherwise

  • … as opposed to 2

Reason:

  • Python is also a beginners language

  • There are many other incompatibilities as well

  • … the entire object model has changed

Python 2

Python 3

 
>>> 3/2
1
>>> type(3/2)
<type 'int'>

>>> 3/2
1.5
>>> type(3/2)
<class 'float'>

Numbers: Python2 vs. Python 3 (2)

General advice regarding numbers

  • Do not rely on the division operator / to do floor division

    • Portably, 3/2 != 1

    • Not easy when coming from Java or C

    • … or just about any other language

  • Don’t differentiate between int and float

  • Use explicit floor division, //

    • Portably, 3//2 == 1

Strings: Python 2

Python 2 strings …

  • A string could have just about any encoding

  • Strings were raw bytes, basically

  • Everybody had to know where the string came from

  • Could be ASCII, could be Unicode, could be bytes, could be …

  • Type unicode — added as an afterthought

  • File I/O done without an idea of encoding

Problems …

  • Implicit conversions back and forth

  • Clearly defined but not at all obvious

  • ⟶ Mixing text and binary

Strings: Python 2 — Confusion

>>> type('abc')
<type 'str'>
>>> 'abc'
'abc'
>>> len('abc')
3

  • That was easy

  • ASCII

 
>>> type('äöü')
<type 'str'>
>>> 'äöü'
'\xc3\xa4\xc3\xb6\xc3\xbc'
>>> len('äöü')
6
>>> 'äöü'[0]
'\xc3'

  • Content comes from terminal

  • ⟶ UTF-8 (in my case)

  • Umlauts are 2 bytes in UTF-8

  • ⟶ Gosh!

Strings: Python 2 - unicode (1)

Good news

>>> type(u'äöü')
<type 'unicode'>
>>> u'äöü'
u'\xe4\xf6\xfc'
>>> len(u'äöü')
3
>>> u'äöü'[0]
u'\xe4'

    • Explicit type unicode

    • Content is typed * (I still don’t get it)

Strings: Python 2 — unicode (2)

Bad news

>>> type(u'abc' + 'def')
<type 'unicode'>
>>> type(u'abc' + b'def')
<type 'unicode'>

    • Can be mixed with str

    • Can be mixed with bytes (which is another afterthought)

      • ⟶ Semantics not entirely clear

    • ⟶ Chaos

    • ⟶ Bugs, bugs, bugs …

Strings: Python 3

Strings are always Unicode - Basta!

  • Major reason for the 2 to 3 move

    • Python 2 Unicode is a mess

  • No unicode type anymore

  • No mixing of str and bytes

  • Sources which create strings know about encodings - and create Unicode strings accordingly

    • File I/O

Python 3, Generally

Which version should I choose

  • Answer 1: Python 3

  • Answer 2: unless you have a compelling reason not to

    • Large Python 2 codebase

    • Ancient distro version (though there are Python 3 packages available for most)

So much for Python 2 vs. 3 …

Datatype Conversions

Conversion between types …

>>> str(42)
'42'
>>> int('42')
42
>>> int('10', 16)
16
>>> float('12.3')
12.3
>>> int(12.3)
12

  • Conversions

  • Better viewed as constructors of the corresponding types

  • Common theme across the language