The 4 Types of Python Variables: What You Need to Know!

When people want to preserve something for future use, they store it in a convenient location for easy access. That is a conceptual view of a variable. It is a container(names) that stores values in a program. Fundamentally, it allows data professionals to assign values to names. These names are then used to reference the values later on in the program. So, understanding variables is fundamental to data manipulation in Python programming.

Like all programming languages, Python uses the variable assignment symbol (=) to declare a variable. So that a name can only be called a variable only after it has been assigned a value. What sets Python apart from other programming languages, however, is that one can implicitly specify the type of variable.

Let us consider the character x for instance, x is converted to a variable the moment it is assigned the value 8. This is how variables are declared:

X = 8

In the above code, x is the variable name while 8 is the value assigned to x. A variable can contain different data types. The most basic ones are string, integer, float and Boolean. When it comes to complex data structures, variables can store, tuples, dictionaries and list data types. We will discuss data structures in a different article.

Declaring a String Variable

A string variable holds string values. These are sequences of characters. The hallmark of a string variable is that it is enclosed in a single or double quotes (','), (“,”)during declaration. When data professionals want to manipulate text-based data, they assign it a string variable. Once defined, it is impossible to change string values. The immutability means that Python uses built-in methods like replace(), toUpperCase() etc to format and slice including many other operations on string values string values.

This is a typical example of declaring a string variable:

name = “ant”

If we want to change the first character of the value 'ant' to upper case, we have to apply a method to the variable name as follows:

Name.capitalize()

The result would be the value 'Ant'. Declaring an Integer Variable

An integer(int) is a data type in Python that is used to hold whole numbers. A lot of computations can be performed with ‘int’ variables. Here is how to assign a value to an integer variable in Python:

X = 8

Declaring a Float Variable

A float is a data type that is declared with decimal values like the code below:

x =45.2

Declaring a Boolean Variable

This data type is a little different because it can only take on one of two possible values: true or false. As an example, we can declare the following:

Color = "blue"

Conservative = True

if Color == "blue" and Conservative:

print('You are a member of Conservative party.')

else: print('You are not a member of Conservative party.')

#code result

You are a member of the Conservative party.

Best Practices for Naming Variables

Variable names should reflect their purpose. Meaning that the names must be descriptive. Variable names should also follow a pattern. This means that naming should be consistent throughout the code to ensure readability.

It is also important to avoid using reserved words in Python in order to circumvent program errors. Following best practices also demands that descriptive names are concise and still communicative and not misleading. Using nouns while eliminating any attempt to abbreviate unnecessarily words is also considered optimal practice.

In summary, variables allow data professionals to store values in relevant locations in computer memory. They are able to manipulate values by performing operations on variable names. It is absolutely essential to follow best practices to avoid errors and confusion while promoting readability and code efficiency.