Week 2 Glossary

Here we provide a short glossary of important syntax features and functions of python that you should know after this week.

Syntax features:

• +: operator for adding two numbers, or for concatenating two strings

• -: operator for subtraction

• *: operator for multiplication, and also for string repetition

• /: operator for “true division”

• // operator for “floor division”

• %: operator for remainder

• **: operator for exponentiation
  
  

• (): for overriding operator precedence and for supplying arguments to function calls
  
  

• #: indicating the start of comments (lasting until the end of line)
  
  

• ==: operator for “equal to” comparisons

• !=: operator for “unequal to” comparisons

• >: operator for “greater than” comparisons

• <: operator for “less than” comparisons

• >=: operator for “greater than or equal to” comparisons

• <=: operator for “less than or equal to” comparisons
  
  

• and: operator to join two logical statements with an “and”

• or: operator to join two logical statements with an “or”

• not: operator to negate a logical statement
  
  

• in and not in: operator to check if a string is (or is not) contained in another

• is None and is not None: check if a variable is (or is not) None
  
  

• []: for indexing or slicing a python list
  
  

• : : for constructing a slice object of the form start:stop:step

Built-in python functions:

• print(): print out values
  
  

• abs(): absolute value of a number

• max(): maximum between a sequence of numbers

• min(): minimum between a sequence of numbers

• round(): rounding a number to fixed number of decimal places
  
  

• bool(): convert an object to a boolean value, if possible

• float(): convert an object to a floating point number, if possible

• int(): convert an object to an integer, if possible

• str(): convert an object to a string, if possible

• type(): determine the type of an object
  
  

• len(): find the length of a python list

List methods:

• .append(): append an element to a list

• .extend(): extend a python list using another list

• .index(): Find the first index of a list in which a value occurs