Python Scripting For Linux System Administrators — Numbers

Please go through this article for installation of Python 3 on RHEL/CentOS systems.

Lets start understanding our next Data type “Numbers”.

Numbers

Python supports integers, floating-point numbers and complex numbers. They are defined as int , float , and complex classes in Python.

Two main types of numbers that we’ll use in Python, int and float. For the most part, we won’t be calling methods on number types, and we will instead be using a variety of operators.

Open a REPL (read–eval–print loop) or interactive shell to start exploring Python numbers:

$ python3.6
>>> 2 + 2 # Addition
4
>>> 10 - 4 # Subtraction
6
>>> 3 * 9 # Multiplication
27
>>> 5 / 3 # Division
1.66666666666667
>>> 5 // 3 # Floor division, always returns a number without a remainder
1
>>> 8 % 3 # Modulo division, returns the remainder
2
>>> 2 ** 3 # Exponent
8

If either of the numbers in a mathematical operation in Python is a float, then the other will be converted before carrying out the operation, and the result will always be a float.

Converting Strings and Numbers

Conversion is not uncommon since we need to convert from one type to another when writing a script and Python provides built-in functions for doing that with the built-in types. For strings and numbers, we can use the str, int, and float functions to convert from one type to another (within reason).

>>> str(1.1)
'1.1'
>>> int("10")
10
>>> int(5.99999)
5
>>> float("5.6")
5.6
>>> float(5)
5.0

You’ll run into issues trying to convert strings to other types if they aren’t present in the string

>>> float("1.1 things")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
ValueError: could not convert string to float: '1.1 things'

That’s all!

Hope you like the article. Please let me know your feedback in the response section.

To access our earlier article on Python Strings go here.

Thanks. Happy learning!