Python Data Types

Built-in Data Types

The data stored in memory can be of many types. For example, a person's age is stored as a numeric value and his or her address is stored as alphanumeric characters. Python has various built-in data types that are used to define the operations possible on them and the storage method for each of them.

• In programming, data type is an important concept.
• Variables can store data of different types, and different types can do different things.

Python has the following built-in data types :

Mutable and Immutable Objects

Not all python objects handle changes the same way. Some objects are mutable, meaning they can be altered.  Others are immutable; they cannot be changed but rather return new objects when attempting to update. A mutable object can change its state or contents and immutable objects cannot.

Mutable objects:

• list
• dict
• set
• bytearray
• user-defined classes (unless specifically made immutable)

Immutable objects:

• int
• float
• complex
• bool
• string
• tuple
• range
• frozenset (immutable version of set)
• bytes

int (signed integers)

They are often called just integers or ints. They are positive or negative whole numbers with no decimal point. Integers in Python 3 are of unlimited size. Python 2 has two integer types - int and long. There is no 'long integer' in Python 3 anymore.

float (floating point real values)

Also called floats, they represent real numbers and are written with a decimal point dividing the integer and the fractional parts. Floats may also be in scientific notation, with E or e indicating the power of 10 (2.5e2 = 2.5 x 102 = 250).

complex (complex numbers)

Are of the form a + bJ, where a and b are floats and J (or j) represents the square root of -1 (which is an imaginary number). The real part of the number is a, and the imaginary part is b. Complex numbers are not used much in Python programming.
A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating-point numbers denoted by a + bj, where a is the real part and b is the imaginary part of the complex number.

Data type conversion

There are several built-in functions to perform conversion from one data type to another. These functions return a new object representing the converted value.

• abs(): Returns absolute value of a number
• ascii(): Returns String Containing Printable Representation
• bin(): Converts integer to binary string
• bool(): Coverts a Value to Boolean
• bytes(): Returns immutable bytes object
• chr(): Returns a Character (a string) from an Integer
• complex(real [,imag]): Creates a complex number
• dict(d): Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of (key,value) tuples
• float(x): Converts x to a floating-point number
• hash(): Returns hash value of an object
• hex(): Converts to Integer to Hexadecimal
• int(x [,base]): Converts x to an integer. The base specifies the base if x is a string
• list(s): Converts s to a list
• oct(): Converts integer to octal
• repr(x): Converts object x to an expression string
• round(): Rounds a floating point number to n digits places.
• set(s): Converts s to a set
• str(x): Converts object x to a string representation
• tuple(s): Converts s to a tuple

Python Built-in Functions

• all(): Returns true when all elements in iterable is true
• any(): Checks if any Element of an Iterable is True
• bytearray(): Returns array of given byte size
• callable(): Checks if the Object is Callable
• classmethod(): Returns class method for given function
• compile(): Returns a Python code object
• delattr(): Deletes Attribute From the Object
• dir(): Tries to Return Attributes of Object
• divmod(): Returns a Tuple of Quotient and Remainder
• enumerate(): Returns an Enumerate Object
• eval(): Runs Python Code Within Program
• exec(): Executes Dynamically Created Program
• filter(): Constructs iterator from elements which are true
• format(): Returns formatted representation of a value
• frozenset(): Returns immutable frozenset object
• getattr(): Returns value of named attribute of an object
• globals(): Returns dictionary of current global symbol table
• hasattr(): Returns whether object has named attribute
• help(): Invokes the built-in Help System
• id(): Returns Identify of an Object
• input(): Reads and returns a line of string
• isinstance(): Checks if a Object is an Instance of Class
• issubclass(): Checks if a Object is Subclass of a Class
• iter(): Returns iterator for an object
• len(): Returns Length of an Object
• locals(): Returns dictionary of current local symbol table
• map(): Applies Function and Returns a List
• max(): Returns largest element
• memoryview(): Returns memory view of an argument
• min(): Returns smallest element
• next(): Retrieves Next Element from Iterator
• object(): Creates a Featureless Object
• open(): Returns a File object
• ord(): Returns Unicode code point for Unicode character
• pow(): Returns x to the power of y
• print(): Prints the Given Object
• property(): Returns a property attribute
• range(): Return sequence of integers between start and stop
• reversed(): Returns reversed iterator of a sequence
• setattr(): Sets value of an attribute of object
• slice(): Creates a slice object specified by range()
• sorted(): Returns sorted list from a given iterable
• staticmethod(): Creates static method from a function
• sum(): Add items of an Iterable
• super(): Allow you to Refer Parent Class by super
• type(): Returns Type of an Object
• vars(): Returns dict attribute of a class
• zip(): Returns an Iterator of Tuples

Let's checkout the example:

We will see a program to convert a given number into its equivalent binary number in python.