CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonstring
Yagami
Yagami

Reputation: 339

I am confused about the difference between 'n' and print('n')

I am still confused when entering this command in the Python shell:

>>> 'n'
'n'
>>> print('n')
n

What does 'n' (first output) mean? And what does the other one n mean? Why doesn't Python just print n as output of 'n' same as print('n') produced?

I think print('n') means: I (Python) print n as a character

Then how about the first one? if >>> 'n' means the same, why doesn't it just print n as well?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 281

Answers (4)

Luyi Tian
Luyi Tian

Reputation: 371

you should first understand everything in python are OBJECT. which means 'n' is a object, and when print it you calls a function of object 'n'.(OBJECT.__str__()).

class Human:
    def __init__(self,name,ge,age):
         self.ge = ge
         self.age = age
         self.name = name
    def __str__(self):
         print "This is",self.name
         print "age = ",self.age
         print "gender = ".self.ge

boy = Human("Tom", "M", 12)
print boy

Upvotes: 0

Martijn Pieters
Martijn Pieters

Reputation: 1124070

You are running the python interpreter in interactive mode, which echos values back at you. Expressions are evaluated and if they return something other than None, the interpreter does the equivalent of:

print(repr(result))

That is the 'n' you see printed.

print() on the other hand, writes directly to your terminal output, after converting the value to a string (the result of the str() function, but for a string value, there is no difference as it already is a string object).

This is different from running the Python code in a script; there there is no prompt, and if you put just 'n' on one line, the Python interpreter would just ignore that line as it doesn't alter any state. print('n') on the other hand still would write the string to your console or terminal.

The interactive mode is there to help you figure out what python expressions do, and by using repr() you can distinguish between different types of objects. Try print 1 and "1", so an integer number, and a string with the digit 1 in it:

>>> print(1)
1
>>> print("1")
1

You cannot tell the difference between these two. But their representation does differ:

>>> 1
1
>>> "1"
'1'

Representations for most Python standard types will use a notation that can be reused in your Python code, as-is.

Upvotes: 5

RemcoGerlich
RemcoGerlich

Reputation: 31270

If you were to put this is in a .py file and execute it from the command line, then print('n') would print something, but just 'n' inside a file does nothing.

The interactive prompt is slightly confusing because if the expression you wrote has a value other than None, its representation is printed. So that's why 'n' prints 'n' in that case. But that is something the interactive prompt does, not what the codes does.

Upvotes: 0

Steve P.
Steve P.

Reputation: 14709

It's simply echoing your input (a string). When you print n, it's outputting the value of your string.

Upvotes: 0

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