Operators and Expressions

Prof. Rajiv Kumar

IIM Kashipur

Source:
Kamthane, A. N. & Kamthane, A.A., Programming and Problem Solving with Python, Tata McGraw-Hill
Education India. & from various sources
 Introduction to Expression and Operators
 An expression in Python is a block of code that produces a result or value upon evaluation.

 An expression can be broken down into operators and operands.

 Operators are symbols help the user or command computer to perform mathematical operations.

Example:

In the expression 6 + 3 the ‘+’ act as operator. Where operator requires operands to perform
operations. Therefore 6 and 3 act as operands.
Arithmetic Operators
There are two types of Arithmetic Operators
a) Unary Operator
b) Binary Operator
Unary Operators:
Unary arithmetic operators perform mathematical operations on one operand only. The ‘+’ and ‘-’ are two unary operators.
Example:
>>> x = -5 #Negates the value of X
>>> x
-5
Binary Operators
Binary operators are operators which require two operands .
Operator is written in between two operands.
Example:
>>> 3 + 10
>>>13
>>> 10 – 7
>>> 3
Division(/) Operators and Floor Division Operators

 Division Operator

If the division operator is applied in between two operands, it returns the result as the arithmetic quotient of the
operands.

 Example:
>>> 4/2
>>> 2.0
>>> 2/3
0.6666666666666666
Floor Division (//) Operator

 If the floor division operator is applied in between two operands, it returns the result as the arithmetic
quotient of the operands .

 Python floor division (//) operator when applied on two int operands, Python returns an int result.

Example:
>>> 9//4
2
Modulo (%) Operator

When the second number divides the first number, the modulo operator returns the remainder.

Example:
>>> 21 % 9
3

Note:
X%Y is equivalent to X – Y * (x//Y)
The Exponent ** Operator

The ‘**’ exponent operator is used to calculate the power or exponent of a number

To compute xY (X raised to Y), the expression is written as X**Y.

Example

>>> 5**4
625
Operator Precedence and Associativity
 The operator precedence determines the order in which the python interpreter evaluates the operators in
an expression.

 Where as associativity property decides which operation to be performed first.

Associativity is of two types.

a) Left to Right
Example:
4+6–3+2 = 9

Note: When the operators of same priority are found in the expression, precedence is given to the left most
operator.

b) Right to Left
X = Y = Z = Value
Note: When the operators of same priority are found in the expression, precedence is given to the right
most operator.
Associativity Continued….

Example:
Z = 4 * 6 + 8 // 2
= 28
In the above expression * is evaluated first, even though * and // have the same priorities. The operator *
occurs before // and hence the evaluation starts from left to right.

Asociativity table for Arithmetic Operators

Bitwise Operators

 Python has six bitwise operators.

 Python support bitwise operator for bit wise manipulation.
 It allows the programmer to access and manipulate individual bits within a piece of data.
 Following are the six bitwise operators supported by
Compound Assignment Operator
The operators +, *, //, /, % and ** are used with assignment operator (=) to form compound or augmented
assignment operator.

Example:
X=X+1

But python allows programmer to combine assignment and addition operator.

Thus the above statement X = X + 1 can also be written as

X+=1

Various other Compound Assignment operators are as follows

*= , /= //=, %=, **=, -= , and !=

Conclusion

 Various binary operators such as addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), integer division, floor
division, modulus operators (%), and exponent (**) are covered.

 Operator precedence and Associativity is explained in brief.

 Programmer has also came to know various augmented operators.