2.1.3.2 Operators - data manipulation tools

Arithmetic operators: exponentiation

A ** (double asterisk) sign is an exponentiation (power) operator. Its left argument is the base, its right, the exponent.

Classical mathematics prefers notation with superscripts, just like this: 2³. Pure text editors don't accept that, so Python uses ** instead, e.g., 2 ** 3.

Take a look at our examples in the editor window.

Note: we've surrounded the double asterisks with spaces in our examples. It's not compulsory, but it improves the readability of the code.

The examples show a very important feature of virtually all Python numerical operators.

Run the code and look carefully at the results it produces. Can you see any regularity here?

Remember: It's possible to formulate the following rules based on this result:

• when both ** arguments are integers, the result is an integer, too;
• when at least one ** argument is a float, the result is a float, too.

This is an important distinction to remember.

•  Sandbox

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print(2 ** 3)

print(2 ** 3.)

print(2. ** 3)

print(2. ** 3.)

• Console