Types of Numeric Values
In Python, there are three primary numeric types:
- int
- float
- complex
Creating Numeric Variables
Numeric variables are established when you assign a value to them. Here’s how you can do it:
x = 11 # integer
y = 42.8 # float
z = 1j # complex number
To check the type of a variable, use the type() function:
print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
Integer Numbers (int)
An integer is a whole number, which can be positive or negative, and has no decimal points. Python integers have unlimited precision:
x = 1
y = 35656222554887711
z = -3255522
print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
Floating Point Numbers (float)
A float, or floating-point number, includes a decimal point and can represent both positive and negative values:
x = 4.10
y = 3.0
z = -45.59
print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
Floats can also be expressed in scientific notation with an ‘e’ to denote powers of ten:
x = 37e3 # 35000.0
y = 16E4 # 120000.0
z = -97.7e100 # -8.77e+101
print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
Complex Numbers
Complex numbers in Python include an imaginary part denoted by a “j”:
x = 7 + 8j
y = 9j
z = -9j
print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
Type Conversion
You can convert between numeric types using int(), float(), and complex() functions:
x = 61 # integer
y = 26.8 # float
z = 81j # complex number
# Convert from integer to float:
a = float(x)
# Convert from float to integer:
b = int(y)
# Convert from integer to complex:
c = complex(x)
print(a)
print(b)
print(c)
print(type(a))
print(type(b))
print(type(c))
Note: Complex numbers cannot be converted to other numeric types.
Generating Random Numbers
Python does not have a built-in random() function, but you can use the random module to generate random numbers:
import random
print(random.randrange(1, 100)) # Outputs a random number between 1 and 99