Lecture 3: Data Types, Input/Output, and Basic Functions

Vocabulary flashcards covering core programming concepts from Lecture 3 including Python data types, type conversions, escape sequences, standard input/output, string formatting, and functions.

Variable Type

The property of a variable that dictates how the computer should interpret a specific sequence of 1s and 0s stored in memory.

Integer

A standard built-in data type that represents positive or negative whole numbers without a decimal point.

Floating-Point Number

A numerical data type representing numbers with a decimal point, modeled using a mantissa and an exponent.

Mantissa

The numerical portion of a floating-point number in scientific notation (e.g., $1234.567 = 1.234567 \times 10^3$) that contains the significant digits, assumed to have one digit before the decimal point.

Boolean

A fundamental data type that can store only one of two possible values: True or False.

String

A data type describing text composed of individual characters strung together and enclosed within quotation marks.

Escape Character

A backslash (\) placed before a character in a string to specify special interpretations, such as \n for a newline, \t for a tab, or \" for literal quotes.

Console

A window or screen display that shows standard output from a program and receives standard user input.

String Concatenation

The operation of joining two strings together end-to-end using the + operator.

Truncation

The operation performed when converting a floating-point number to an integer, where any fractional portion is dropped off and only the whole number remains.

repr() Function

A Python function alternative to str() that converts a value into a string representation displaying explicit formatting such as quotation marks and escape sequences.

sep Parameter

An optional parameter in Python's print() function that specifies the string inserted between multiple printed items, defaulting to a single space.

end Parameter

An optional parameter in Python's print() function that specifies what character or string is printed at the end of the output, defaulting to a newline.

f-string

A formatted string literal in Python, indicated by an f prefix, allowing variables and expressions placed inside curly braces {} to be evaluated and formatted directly within the string.

Format Specifiers

Alignment flags used within formatted strings to align text to the left (

input() Function

A built-in Python function that prompts for and reads input typed by the user from the console, always returning the data as a string.

Function

A named snippet of code that performs a specific task and can be executed multiple times throughout a program.