2.1.1.9 Your very first program

The print() function - instructions

You already know that this program contains one function invocation. In turn, the function invocation is one of the possible kinds of Python instruction. Ergo, this program consists of just one instruction.

Of course, any complex program usually contains many more instructions than one. The question is: how do you couple more than one instruction into the Python code?

Python's syntax is quite specific in this area. Unlike most programming languages, Python requires that there cannot be more than one instruction in a line.

A line can be empty (i.e., it may contain no instruction at all) but it must not contain two, three or more instructions. This is strictly prohibited.

Note: Python makes one exception to this rule - it allows one instruction to spread across more than one line (which may be helpful when your code contains complex constructions).

Let's expand the code a bit, you can see it in the editor. Run it and note what you see in the console.

Your Python console should now look like this:

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

output

This is a good opportunity to make some observations:

• the program invokes the print() function twice, and you can see two separate lines in the console - this means that print() begins its output from a new line each time it starts its execution; you can change this behavior, but you can also use it to your advantage;
• each print() invocation contains a different string, as its argument and the console content reflects it - this means that the instructions in the code are executed in the same order in which they have been placed in the source file; no next instruction is executed until the previous one is completed (there are some exceptions to this rule, but you can ignore them for now)

•  Sandbox

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print("The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.")

print("Down came the rain and washed the spider out.")