Python course: Operators

Arithmetic operators

Operator	Description	Example
+	Addition	3 + 5 returns 8
-	Subtraction	7 - 2 returns 5
*	Multiplication	2 * 4 returns 8
/	Division (float)	7 / 2 returns 3.5
//	Division (integer)	7 // 2 returns 3
%	Modulus (remainder)	7 % 2 returns 1
**	Exponentiation	2 ** 3 returns 8

Assigning operators

Operator	Example	Equivalent to
=	x = 5	x = 5
+=	x += 3	x = x + 3
-=	x -= 2	x = x - 2
*=	x *= 4	x = x * 4
/=	x /= 2	x = x / 2
//=	x //= 3	x = x // 3
%=	x %= 2	x = x % 2
**=	x **= 3	x = x ** 3

Comparison operators

Operator	Description	Example	Evaluates to
==	Equals to	5 == 5	True
!=	Not equals to	5 != 5	False
>	Greater than	5 > 3	True
<	Less than	5 < 3	False
>=	Greater than or equals to	5 >= 5	True
<=	Less than or equals to	5 <= 3	False

Operator is

This is a special comparison operator used to check whether the memory address is the same.

Checking for equality of memory addresses is not something you come across very often in Python programs, as it is a low-level concept. But it's nice to know some basic details about it.

See next some examples to clarify the differences between the is and == operators:

a = [1, 2]
b = [1, 2]

is_a_same_value_as_b = (a == b) # Do they have the same value? 
print(is_a_same_value_as_b) # => True 

is_a_same_memory_address_as_b = (a is b) # Do they point to the same memory address ?
print(is_a_same_memory_address_as_b) # => False 

memory_address_of_a = id(a) 
print(memory_address_of_a) # => 140712901292736 

memory_address_of_b = id(b)
print(memory_address_of_b) # => 140712899331840

Logical operators

Operator	Description	Example
and	Returns True if all operands are True	True and False returns False
or	Returns True if at least one operand is True	True or False returns True
not	Returns True if the operand is False	not True returns False

More examples:

# OPERATOR "AND":
a = True and True # Both are True 
print(a) # => True

b = True and (1 == 2) and True # At least one is False 
print(b) # => False

c = ("jim" == "jim") and True and (5 > 1) # All are True 
print(c) # => True

d = False and False and (1 == 1) # At least one is False 
print(d) # => False

# OPERATOR "OR":
e = True or False or False # At least one is True 
print(e) # => True

f = (1 == 1) or (2 == 2) # Parentheses are crucial here to remove ambiguity.
# Also, at least one is True 
print(f) # => True

g = (1 > 2) or (2 == 1) or False # None of them are True 
print(g) # => False

h = False or False # None of them are True 
print(h) # => False

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Membership operators

Operator	Description	Example
in	Evaluates to True if a value is found in a collection	3 in [1, 2, 3, 4]returns True
not in	Evaluates to True if a value is not found in a collection	5 not in [1, 2, 3, 4] returns True

These operators work with collections such as tuples, lists, sets and dicts:

some_dict = {"name": "angela", "salary": 1000.0} 

a = "name" in some_dict.keys()
print(a) # => True 

b = "name" in some_dict # Uses some_dict.keys() as default
print(b) # => True 

c = "angela" in some_dict.values()
print(c) # => True 

d = "name" not in some_dict
print(d) # => False 

some_tuple = ("jim", "pam", "kevin") 
e = "michael" not in some_tuple
print(e) # => True 

f = "jim" in some_tuple
print(f) # => True

Operator precedence

This is an important concept, since it defines the order in which operations are performed. It works the same as in mathematical operations, where parentheses has higher precedence, meaning they are evaluated first:

a = (1 + 10) - (6 + 4) # Meaning (11) - (10)
print(a) # => 1

Bitwise operators

In Python, bitwise operators (| , & , ^, ~, <<, and >>) are mainly used for integer values and binary data. They can also be used for boolean values (True and False) which are internally represented as integers (1 and 0).

These operators are more used in the context of binary manipulation, which is a concept covered in the Bytes chapter. Read more about them here.

Both | and & operators are used for concatenation and intersection, respectively. If you have read the Sets post, then you have already seen them.

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