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Aswin Barath
Aswin Barath

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Data types in Python

Data types are one of the building blocks of python.
And You can do a lot of things with data types!

Fact: In python, all data types are implemented as an object.

A data type is like a specification of what kind of data we would like to store in memory and python has some built-in data types in these categories:

  • Text type: str
  • Numeric types: int, float, complex
  • Sequence types: list, tuple, range
  • Mapping type: dict
  • Set types: set, frozenset
  • Boolean type: bool
  • Binary types: bytes, bytearray, memoryview

Now, let's demistify all these data types by using type() function to display the data type of the variable.

Text type

str

  • str stands for string in python used for storing text in python.
  • Strings can be written either in single quotes or double qoutes in python, hence your choice.

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

Hello, world!
<class 'str'>
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Numeric types

int

  • int stands for integer used to store integers (positive and negative numbers).

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

4
<class 'int'>
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float

  • float stands for floating-point numbers (decimal point numbers)

Example:
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Output:

3.14
<class 'float'>
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complex

  • Complex numbers have a real and imaginary part, which are each a floating point number.
  • Complex numbers can be written in two forms:
  • real + (imag)j
  • complex(real, imag)

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

(5+10j)
<class 'complex'>
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Sequence types

list

  • A list is data type where you can store a collection of data
  • A list can also contain different data types
  • A list is ordered and changeable and allows duplicate members

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

['Captain America', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', 'Hulk', 'Black Widow', 'Hawkeye']
<class 'list'>
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tuple

  • A tuple is data type where you can store a collection of data
  • A tuple can also contain different data types
  • A tuple is ordered and unchangeable and allows duplicate members

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

('Captain America', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', 'Hulk', 'Black Widow', 'Hawkeye')
<class 'tuple'>
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range

  • The range type represents an immutable (unchangable) sequence of numbers
  • Commonly used for looping a specific number of times in for loops.

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

range(0, 10)
<class 'range'>
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Mapping type

dict

  • dict stands for dictionary in python
  • Dictionaries are used to store data values in key:value pairs
  • A dictionary is a collection which is unordered, changeable and does not allow duplicates

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

{'Learning': 'Programming', 'Language': 'Python', 'Day': 4}
<class 'dict'>
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Set types

set

  • A set is data type where you can store a collection of data
  • A set can also contain different data types
  • A set is unordered and unindexed and allows no duplicate members

Example:
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Output:

{'Black Widow', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', 'Hawkeye', 'Hulk', 'Captain America'}
<class 'set'>
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frozenset

  • frozenset data type can be created by frozenset() function
  • The frozenset() function accepts an iterable and returns an unchangeable frozenset object (which is like a set object, only unchangeable)

Example:
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Output:

frozenset({'cherry', 'banana', 'apple'})
<class 'frozenset'>
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Boolean type

bool

  • bool stands for boolean in python
  • Booleans represent one of two values: True or False

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

True
<class 'bool'>
False
<class 'bool'>
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Binary types

bytes

  • bytes data type can be created in two forms:
  • bytes() function
  • prefix 'b'

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

b'hello'
<class 'bytes'>
b'Hello'
<class 'bytes'>
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bytearray

  • bytearray() function returns a bytearray object
  • It can convert objects into bytearray objects

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

bytearray(b'\x00\x00\x00\x00')
<class 'bytearray'>
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memoryview

  • memoryview() function returns a memory view object from a specified object

Example:
Alt Text
Output:

<memory at 0x2b4f7a8a7408>
<class 'memoryview'>
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Note

As you might have observed earlier, some data types can be also implemented using their constructors.
This same technique can also be applied to every data type.
Example:
Alt Text
Output:

Hello, World!
4
3.14
(5+10j)
['Captain America', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', 'Hulk', 'Black Widow', 'Hawkeye']
('Captain America', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', 'Hulk', 'Black Widow', 'Hawkeye')
range(0, 10)
{'Learning': 'Programming', 'Language': 'Python', 'Day': 4}
{'apple', 'cherry', 'banana'}
frozenset({'banana', 'cherry', 'apple'})
True
False
b'\x00\x00\x00\x00'
bytearray(b'\x00\x00\x00\x00')
<memory at 0x2b8346a29408>
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Who Am I?

I’m Aswin Barath, a Software Engineering Nerd who loves building Web Applications, now sharing my knowledge through Blogging during the busy time of my freelancing work life. Here’s the link to all of my socials categorized by platforms under one place: https://linktr.ee/AswinBarath

Thank you so much for reading my blog🙂.

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