EX | How to Convert |
In Python, data types are automatically assigned to variables. You can check the type of any value using the type()
function. If needed, you can also convert a value to a different data type using functions like int()
, float()
, str()
, and bool()
.
Python has three numeric types. The most common are float
(for numbers with decimals) and int
(for whole numbers). Python will often switch between these automatically, so whether a number like 3
is stored as an int
or a float
often doesn’t matter in practice.
However, sometimes you may want to store a number as an integer—especially if it’s used for counting, indexing, or IDs—because integers use less memory. If you’re going to do math with decimals, it’s better to use floats.
💡 Note: Python automatically treats Boolean values in arithmetic contexts as integers:
True
behaves like1
andFalse
like0
.
For example,print(True + True)
will output2
, andprint(False * 100)
will output0
.
The table below gives an overview of the most common data types in Python.
Data Type | check type | convert |
---|---|---|
integer | type(x) == int |
int(x) |
float | type(x) == float |
float(x) |
string | type(x) == str |
str(x) |
Example
value = 23.5
print(type(value))
# Output: <class 'float'>
print(int(value))
print(str(value))
boolean_var = True
print(int(boolean_var)) # Output: 1
print(True + True) # Output: 2
print(False * 100) # Output: 0