Operators

Some different forms of operators in Python, to go with the usual C operators everyone is likely familiar with.

The and and or operators do not return a boolean value, instead they return a value that will result in a truthy pass or a falsey fail, and are safe to use anywhere a normal logic check would be used:

>>> 1 and 2
2
>>> 1 or 2
1
>>> "" or 0
0

Normal logic checks:

>>> bool("" or 0)
False
>>> 1 == 2
False
>>> 1 != 2
True
>>> 1 is 2
False
>>> 1 is not 2
True

In Python 3.x, integer division that should return a fraction will return a float.

In Python 2.x, it doesn’t:

>>> 1 / 2
0
# Results rounded toward minus infinity.
>>> -1 / 2
-1
# Floored operation on quotient, more useful in Python 3.x
# when you don't want a float returned.
>>> -1 // 2
-1
# Easy way to get (quotient, remainder)
>>> divmod(1, 2)
(0, 1)

Powers, both valid ways of doing things:

>>> 2 ** 8
256
>>> pow(2, 8)
256

Python does not have a post- or prefix incrementor or decrementor:

>>> a = 1
>>> a++
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    a++
      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
# The proper way to increment or decrement in python is
>>> a += 1
>>> a
2