Data Types

First, let's talk about assignment!

Variable assignment

You can assign a value to a variable using the = operator. Thus, the content of the expression on the right of the = operator will be assigned to the variable located on the left.

variable = "castle"
print('I live in a', variable)

I live in a castle

A variable, in programming, is comparable to a box in which we can store a value. We can then look at the value inside (function print), modify the value or perform a test on it.

Below, three code examples that you can copy to observe the obtained result.

variable1 = 42
print(variable1)
variable1 = variable1 * 2
print(variable1)

variable1 = 42
variable1 = "cat"
print(variable1)

variable1 = "cat"
variable2 = variable1
print(variable2)

Four native types

There are four so-called "native" value types.

You can access the type of a value using the type(value) function.

Type	Description	Example
`INT`	An integer is a numeric value without decimal part.	`-1`, `2`, `10`, `20`
`STR`	A string is a sequence of characters. This can include letters, numbers, special characters, etc. It is always between single or double quotes.	`"the cat"`, `"812"`, `"@1234!xyz"`
`FLOAT`	A floating-point number is a numeric value with an integer part and a decimal part.	`123.4`, `-0.12`, `42.42`
`BOOL`	A boolean can take two states: `True` or `False`, meaning respectively true or false.	`True`, `False`

When assigning a value to a variable, you must always think about the type you are going to create.
For example, the expression var = 42 will create an integer equal to 42. However, the expression var = "42" will create a string composed of the characters 4 and 2.

Type casting

While it's important to be aware of the type of values we manipulate, it's sometimes necessary to transform the type of a value according to the operations we may need to perform.

Function	Description	Example
`int()`	Converts a value to integer. If the value is a string representing a number or a floating-point number, it is converted to integer.	`int('3')` returns `3`
`float()`	Converts a value to floating-point number. This can be useful for converting integers or strings to decimal values.	`float('3.14')` returns `3.14`
`str()`	Converts a value to string. Useful for transforming numbers, lists or other types to strings.	`str(123)` returns `'123'`