Chapter 2 - Variables and Expressions

variable

a named item that holds a value

assignment statement

assigns a variable with a value using =

incrementing the value

increasing a variable’s value by 1

identifier (name)

a sequence of letters, underscores, and digits that must start with a letter or an underscore

reserved words (keywords)

words that are part of the language and cannot be used as a programmer-defined name

floating-point number

a real number with a decimal point

floating-point literal

a number written as a decimal even if the numbers after the decimal point are 0

scientific notation

1.0e-2

overflow

when a value is too large to be stored in the memory allocated by the interpreter

expression

a combination of items that evaluates to a value

literal

a specific value in code

operator

a symbol that performs a built-in calculations

order of operations

1. parentheses

2. exponent

3. negation

4. multiplication/division

5. addition/subtraction

floor division operator (//)

used to round down the result of a floating-point division to the closest smaller whole number value

modulo operator (%)

evaluates the remainder of the division of two integer operands

module

Python code located in another file that can be imported

function

a list of statements that can be executed simply by referring to the function’s name

function call

the processing of invoking a function

argument

the item passed to a function

ceil(x)

round up value

factorial(x)

factorial

fmod(x,y)

remainder of division

fabs(x)

absolute value

floor(x)

round-down value

fsum(x)

floating-point sum of a range, list, or array

exp(x)

exponential function e^x

pow(x,y)

raise x to the power of y

log(x, (base))

natural logarithm

sqrt(x)

square root

raw string

putting an r before a string literal so that escape sequences are ignored