Python Numbers

Data types that store numeric values are called Number. If you change the value of a number data type, this results in a newly allocated object. So you can call numbers immutable.

We can simply create a number object by assigning some value to a variable. Also we can manipulate them as shown in below example.

#create two number objects
var1=2
var2=3

# to print them
print(var1)
print(var2)

#to delete one of them
del var1

Different Numerical Type

Python supports four different data types.

1. int – signed integers. Can hold both positive and negative value
2. long – long integers. Similar like int. But range of this data type is unlimited
3. float– floating point real values. Holds real numbers.
4. complex– values of the form r+ij. Holds complex numerical values.

Python Numbers – Type Conversion

We can convert data types from one to another. This often is called type casting also. Here are some example.

1. int(x) – converts x to a plain integer.
2. long(x) – converts x to a long integer.
3. float(x) – converts x to a floating point number.
4. complex(x) – converts x to a complex number with real part x and imaginary part zero.
5. complex(x,y) – converts x to a complex number with real part x and imaginary part y.

Here are some example of type casting.

python tutorial, python numbers type casting example

Determining type

We can also determine what type of numeric value one variable holds.

a = 25

# Output: 
print(type(a))

# Output: 
b=25.0
print(type(b))

# Output: True
print(isinstance(b, float))

The above code, if we run it will produce following output.

python numbers, determining type of a variable example

Python Numbers with Prefix

In our day to day life we deal with decimal numbers(base 10). But in computer programs we may need to deal with numbers of other bases too like binary numbers(base 2), hexadecimal numbers(base 16), octal numbers(base 8) etc. We can represent these numbers with placing a prefix before the number like below-

# Output: 10
print(0b1010)

# Output: 15
print(0xF)

# Output: 13
print(0o15)

This code will produce output like below. python numbers with different base example

More on Complex numbers

There are some built-in accessors and functions to support complex number in python. Take a look at the following code for better understanding.

# different complex numbers and their real and imaginary part
complex1 = (1,2)
print(complex1)

complex2=(2,-3)
print(complex2)

complex3= 3+4j
print(complex3)

complex4=2+3j
print(complex4)

#some built-in accessors

print(complex4.real) # gives the real part of a complex number

print(complex4.imag) #gives the imaginary part of a imaginary number

print(complex4.conjugate()) # gives the complex conjugate of a complex number

#some built-in functions for complex numbers
print(abs(complex3)) #gives the magnitude of a complex number

print(pow(complex3,2)) #raise a complex number to a power

The above code will produce the following output-

python complex numbers functions example output