Variables.md

Variables

Variables are easy to understand. They are simply containers with a name that store values.

Let’s use the same example from before:

print("Hello, world!")

We can, for example, turn "Hello, world!" into a variable like this:

message = "Hello, world!"

print(message)

Now, every time we use message in our code, we are referring to the string "Hello, world!".

To create a variable, you simply write the variable name, followed by an equals sign (=), and then the value you want to assign to it, as shown in the example above.

There are a few rules to name variables:

• Variable names can only contain letters, digits and underscores (_)
• A variable name cannot start with a digit
• Variable names are case-sensitive (myVar is different than myvar)

Avoid using python keywords as variable names:

# This is wrong
print = "Hello, world!"

Apart from that, you can use variables just like you would use the values themselves.

print(5 + 10) # Result is 15

This is the same as:

number_1 = 5
number_2 = 10

print(number_1 + number_2) # Result is 15

Which is also the same as:

number_1 = 5
number_2 = 10

number_3 = number_1 + number_2

print(number_3) # Result is 15

Be mindful when naming variables and try to choose names that clearly describe what they represent.

Next topic: Basic Data Types