[Tutorial] Learning programming with Python, part II

[Acid_Snake]

Part II.
Ok, now that you have mastered strings and integers lets move to variables.
A variable is a name that stores different values, these values can be strings, integers, boolean, classes, lists, tuples, dictionaries and even other variables.

Let's see how to assign variables:

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x = "hello"
y = 1
z = True
w = x
s = some_class()

As you can see the variable x stores a string, y stores an integer, z stores a bool.
The variable w does not really store another variable, it actually becomes the same as the other variable:

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>>> x = "hello"
>>> w = x
>>> print x
hello
>>> print w
hello

The variable s has a class, imagine we have a class some_class() and inside we have a function some_function() that prints "Hello", we would need to use a variable in the class and call the function as if inside the variable. Doing this:

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>>> some_class().some_function()
Hello

Is the same as this:

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>>> s = some_class()
>>> s.some_function()
Hello

More on classes and functions later.

Now onto collections.
In python there are three types of collections: tuples, lists and dictionaries.

Lists: a list is just that, a list of values given to a variable. If before we saw how to make variables with one value, here we'll learn how to give different values to one variable, is as simple as:

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x = ["hello", 1, True, some_class()]

The fist value is 0, then 1, 2, 3 and so on, we need to know the number of the value to call it:

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>>> print x[0]
hello
>>> print x[1]
1
>>> print x[2]
True
>>> print x[3]
<__main__.some_class instance at 0xb77d096c>

for a better knowledge of the values position it is better to use one line per value and use the number symbol (#) along with the number of the value:

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x = [
"hello",      #0
1,      #1
True,   #2
some_class()    #3
]

The result is the same and the readability is better.

Tuples: tuples are created similarly to lists, but work differently:

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>>> x = ("hello", 1, True)
>>> print x
('hello', 1, True)

You don't need to use brackets:

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>>> x = "hello", 1, True
>>> print x
('hello', 1, True)

Dictionaries: dictionaries are used to associate a value to another value:

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>>> x = {"hello":"world", "hola":"mundo"}
>>> print x["hello"]
world
>>> print x["hola"]
mundo

OK, I think that is all for now, alcohol is starting to affect my concentration

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