2.1.4.3 Variables - data-shaped boxes

Creating variables

What can you put inside a variable?

Anything.

You can use a variable to store any value of any of the already presented kinds, and many more of the ones we haven't shown you yet.

The value of a variable is what you have put into it. It can vary as often as you need or want. It can be an integer one moment, and a float a moment later, eventually becoming a string.

Let's talk now about two important things - how variables are created, and how to put values inside them (or rather - how to give or pass values to them).

REMEMBER

A variable comes into existence as a result of assigning a value to it. Unlike in other languages, you don't need to declare it in any special way.

If you assign any value to a nonexistent variable, the variable will be automatically created. You don't need to do anything else.

The creation (or otherwise - its syntax) is extremely simple: just use the name of the desired variable, then the equal sign (=) and the value you want to put into the variable.

Take a look at the snippet:

var = 1 print(var)

It consists of two simple instructions:

• The first of them creates a variable named var, and assigns a literal with an integer value equal to 1.
• The second prints the value of the newly created variable to the console.

Note: print() has yet another side to it - it can handle variables too. Do you know what the output of the snippet will be?