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Python Python Basics Meet Python Variables

Lorrian Landicho
Lorrian Landicho
278 Points
Posted by Lorrian Landicho
Lorrian Landicho
278 Points

why is the string 11 assigned to first_name variable without quotation marks?

first_name = 11

2 Answers

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

11 in this case is not a string, because there is no quotation marks. It is indeed a number, as Kyle Vandeven said, which are called integers in math (and sometimes ints in programming). Integers do not have quotation marks, because if they did have them, Python would think they are strings. (The string "11" isn't the same as the number 11!)

Strange things can happen when you put quotation marks around integers:

>>> 11 + 11
22
>>> '11' + '11'
'1111'
>>> 11 + '11'

The last line (11 + '11') causes this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'

Adding strings and numbers doesn't make sense to Python, so it throws up its hands and responds with an error!

kjvswift93
kjvswift93
13,515 Points
kjvswift93
kjvswift93
13,515 Points

It isn't a string. The variable first_name is by definition of type Int.