Understanding Python Data Types

In this article, we will learn about Python data types. In Python, data types are used to define the type of a variable. There are different types of built-in data types available in Python programming language.

Python data types are used to store different types of data e.g. an employee’s name is stored as a string, salary is stored as a number and date of joining as a date type variable.

Data types are important in programming as based on the data type of variable it can hold values of different types.

Understanding built-in Python Data Types

The built-in data types of Python data types provide a wide variety of data types that can be used to create variables of different types.

Below is the list of Python built-in data types available by default in the Python programming language.

Text Data Type – str
Numeric Data Types – int, float, complex
Sequence Data Types – list, tuple, range
Mapping Data Type – dict
Set Data Types – set, frozenset
Boolean Data Type – bool
Binary Data Types – bytes, bytearray, memoryview
None Data Type – None

How to Set the Data Type in Python

In Python programming language the data type of the variable is set when you assign a value to the variable. Based on the type of value being assigned to the variable the data type is set for the variable.

Here is the source code to demonstrate how to set the type for Python data types

message = "Hello World!"
var1 = 100
var2 = 100.0
var3 = True
var4 = 2j
var5 = range(6)
var6 = ["Red", "Yellow", "Blue", "Purple"]
print(type(message))
print(type(var1))
print(type(var2))
print(type(var3))
print(type(var4))
print(type(var5))
print(type(var6))

Below is the output of the above code

<class 'str'>
<class 'int'>
<class 'float'>
<class 'bool'>
<class 'complex'>
<class 'range'>
<class 'list'>

As you can see from the above output that the data type of the variable is set as per the type of value assigned to the variable.

How to Set the Specific Data Type in Python

By default in Python programming language, the data type of the variable is set to the type of the value being assigned. But if you want to set the specific data type for the variable then you can do that by using the constructor functions.

Here is the source code to demonstrate the list of functions available in Python programming language to set the specific data type in Python for the variables.

var1 = str("Hello World") #For string  
var2 = int(20) #For integer   
var3 = float(21) #For float   
var4 = complex(1j) #For complex   
var5 = list(("apple", "banana", "cherry")) #For list   
var6 = tuple(("apple", "banana", "cherry")) #For tuple   
var7 = range(6) #For range   
var8 = dict(name="John", age=36) #For dict   
var9 = set(("apple", "banana", "cherry")) #For set   
var10 = frozenset(("apple", "banana", "cherry")) #For frozenset   
var11 = bool(5) #For boolean  
var12 = bytes(5) #For bytes   
var13 = bytearray(5) #For byte array   
var14 = memoryview(bytes(5)) #For memory view
print(type(var1))
print(type(var2))
print(type(var3))
print(type(var4))
print(type(var5))
print(type(var6))
print(type(var7))
print(type(var8))
print(type(var9))
print(type(var10))
print(type(var11))
print(type(var12))
print(type(var13))
print(type(var14))

Below is the output of the above code

<class 'str'>
<class 'int'>
<class 'float'>
<class 'complex'>
<class 'list'>
<class 'tuple'>
<class 'range'>
<class 'dict'>
<class 'set'>
<class 'frozenset'>
<class 'bool'>
<class 'bytes'>
<class 'bytearray'>
<class 'memoryview'>

As you can see from the above output that the data type of the variable is set as per the specific type by the constructor function.

Summary

In this article, we learned about Python Data Types and Python built-in Data Types. We also explored how to perform various operations on Data Types in Python programming language.

Other articles to read about Python Data Types

Understanding Python Numeric Data Types

You can also check my series on Python for Beginners – Series: Python Tutorial – Learn Python Programming for Beginners

References – Python Documentation

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