Data and Expressions in Python programming

Chapter 2: Data and Expressions
With this chapter, we begin a detailed discussion of the concepts and techniques of
computer programming. We start by looking at issues related to the representation,
manipulation, and input/output of data—fundamental to all computing.
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Introduction to Computer Science Using Python – Dierbach Copyright 2013 John Wiley and Sons

The generation, collection, and analysis of data is a driving force in today’s
world. The sheer amount of data being created is staggering.
Chain stores generate terabytes of customer information, looking for shopping
patterns of individuals. Facebook users have created 40 billion photos requiring
more than a petabyte of storage. A certain radio telescope is expected to
generate an exabyte of information every four hours. All told, the current
amount of data created each year is estimated to be almost two zettabytes,
more than doubling every two years.
In this chapter, we look at how data is represented and operated on in Python.
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Motivation

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To take something literally is to take it at “face value.” The same is true
of literals in programming. A literal is a sequence of one of more
characters that stands for itself, such as the literal 12. We look at
numeric literals in Python.
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Introduction to Computer Science Using Python – Dierbach Copyright 2013 John Wiley and Sons Section 2.1 Literals
Literals

Numeric Literals
A numeric literal is a literal containing only the digits 0–9, an optional
sign character ( + or - ), and a possible decimal point. (The letter e is
also used in exponential notation, shown next).
If a numeric literal contains a decimal point, then it denotes a
floating-point value, or “ float ” (e.g., 10.24); otherwise, it denotes an
integer value (e.g., 10).
Commas are never used in numeric literals .
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Example Numerical Values
Since numeric literals without a provided sign character denote positive values,
an explicit positive sign is rarely used.

Let’s Try It
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Which of the following are valid numeric literals in Python?

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Limits of Range in Floating-Point Representation
There is no limit to the size of an integer that can be represented in Python.
Floating point values, however, have both a limited range and a limited
precision.
Python uses a double-precision standard format (IEEE 754) providing a
range of 10-308 to 10308 with 16 to 17 digits of precision. To denote such a
range of values, floating-points can be represented in scientific notation.

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It is important to understand the limitations of floating-point
representation. For example, the multiplication of two values may result in
arithmetic overflow, a condition that occurs when a calculated result is too
large in magnitude (size) to be represented,
>>> 1.5e200 * 2.0e210
inf
This results in the special value inf (“infinity”) rather than the
arithmetically correct result 3.0e410, indicating that arithmetic overflow has
occurred.
Similarly, the division of two numbers may result in arithmetic underflow, a
condition that occurs when a calculated result is too small in magnitude to
be represented,
>>> 1.0e-300 / 1.0e100
0.0
This results in 0.0 rather than the arithmetically correct result 1.0e-400,
indicating that arithmetic underflow has occurred.

Let’s Try It
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What do each of the following arithmetic expressions
evaluate to?

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Limits of Precision in Floating-Point Representation
Arithmetic overflow and arithmetic underflow are easily detected. The loss of
precision that can result in a calculated result, however, is a much more subtle issue.
For example, 1/3 is equal to the infinitely repeating decimal .33333333 . . ., which also
has repeating digits in base two, .010101010. . . . Since any floating-point
representation necessarily contains only a finite number of digits, what is stored for
many floating-point values is only an approximation of the true value, as can be
demonstrated in Python,
>>> 1/3
.3333333333333333
Here, the repeating decimal ends after the 16th digit. Consider also the following,
>>> 3 * (1/3)
1.0
Given the value of 1/3 above as .3333333333333333, we would expect the result to
be .9999999999999999, so what is happening here?

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The answer is that Python displays a rounded result to keep the number of digits
displayed manageable. However, the representation of 1/3 as .3333333333333333
remains the same, as demonstrated by the following,
>>> 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 1 + 1/3
1.9999999999999998
In this case we get a result that reflects the representation of 1/3 as an approximation,
since the last digit is 8, and not 9. However, if we use multiplication instead, we again
get the rounded value displayed,
>>>6 * (1/3)
2.0
The bottom line, therefore, is that no matter how Python chooses to display
calculated results, the value stored is limited in both the range of numbers that can
be represented and the degree of precision. For most everyday applications, this
slight loss in accuracy is of no practical concern. However, in scientific computing and
other applications in which precise calculations are required, this is something that
the programmer must be keenly aware of.

Let’s Try It
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evaluate to?

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Built-in Format Function
Because floating-point values may contain an arbitrary number of decimal places, the
built-in format function can be used to produce a numeric string version of the value
containing a specific number of decimal places,
>>> 12/5 >>> 5/7
2.4 0.7142857142857143
>>> format(12/5, '.2f') >>> format(5/7, '.2f')
'2.40' '0.71'
In these examples, format specifier '.2f' rounds the result to two decimal places of
accuracy in the string produced.
For very large (or very small) values 'e' can be used as a format specifier.
>>> format(2 ** 100, '.6e')
'1.267651e+30'
Here, the value is formatted in scientific notation, with six decimal places of precision.

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Formatted numeric string values are useful when displaying results in which
only a certain number of decimal places need to be displayed:
Without use of format specifier:
>>> tax = 0.08
>>> print('Your cost: $', (1 + tax) * 12.99)
Your cost: $ 14.029200000000001
With use of format specifier:
>>> print('Your cost: $', format((1 + tax) * 12.99, '.2f'))
Your cost: $ 14.03
Finally, a comma in the format specifier adds comma separators to the result.
>>> format(13402.25, ',.2f')
13,402.24

Let’s Try It
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What do each of the following uses of the format function
produce?

String Literals
String literals , or “ strings ,” represent a sequence of characters.
'Hello' 'Smith, John' "Baltimore, Maryland 21210"
In Python, string literals may be delimited (surrounded) by a matching
pair of either single (') or double (") quotes. Strings must be contained
all on one line (except when delimited by triple quotes, discussed later).
We have already seen the use of strings in Chapter 1 for displaying
screen output,
>>> print('Welcome to Python!')
Welcome to Python!
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A string may contain zero or more characters, including letters, digits,
special characters, and blanks. A string consisting of only a pair of
matching quotes (with nothing in between) is called the empty string,
which is different from a string containing only blank characters. Both
blank strings and the empty string have their uses, as we will see.
Strings may also contain quote characters as long as different quotes
(single vs. double) are used to delimit the string.
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Let’s Try It
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What will be displayed by each of the following?

The Representation of Character Values
There needs to be a way to encode (represent) characters within a
computer. Although various encoding schemes have been developed,
the Unicode encoding scheme is intended to be a universal encoding
scheme.
Unicode is actually a collection of different encoding schemes utilizing
between 8 and 32 bits for each character. The default encoding in
Python uses UTF-8, an 8-bit encoding compatible with ASCII, an older,
still widely used encoding scheme.
Currently, there are over 100,000 Unicode-defined characters for many
of the languages around the world. Unicode is capable of defining more
than four billion characters. Thus, all the world’s languages, both past
and present, can potentially be encoded within Unicode.
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Partial listing of the ASCII-compatible UTF-8 encoding scheme
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UTF-8 encodes characters that have an ordering with sequential
numerical values. For example, 'A' is encoded as 01000001 (65), 'B' is
encoded as 01000010 (66), and so on. This is also true for digit
characters, ‘0’ is encoded as 48, ‘1’ as 49, etc.

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Note the difference between a numeric representation (that can be used
in arithmetic calculations) vs. a number represented as a string of digit
characters (not used in calculations).
Here, the binary representation of 124 is the binary number for that
value. The string representation ‘124’ consists of a longer sequence of
bits, eight bits (one byte) for each digit character.

Python has a means of converting between a character and its encoding.
The ord function gives the UTF-8 (ASCII) encoding of a given character.
For example,
ord('A')is 65
The chr function gives the character for a given encoding value, thus
chr(65) is 'A'
While in general there is no need to know the specific encoding of a
given character, there are times when such knowledge can be useful.
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Converting Between a Character and Its Encoding

Let’s Try It
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What is the result of each of the following conversions?

Control characters are special characters that are not displayed, but
rather control the display of output, among other things. Control
characters do not have a corresponding keyboard character, and thus are
represented by a combination of characters called an escape sequence .
Escape sequences begin with an escape character that causes the
characters following it to “escape” their normal meaning. The backslash
() serves as the escape character in Python. For example, 'n',
represents the newline control character, that begins a new screen line,
print('HellonJennifer Smith')
which is displayed as follows:
Hello
Jennifer Smith
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Control Characters

Let’s Try It
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What is displayed by each of the following?

Built-in function format can be used for controlling how strings are
displayed, in addition to controlling the display of numerical values,
format(value, format_specifier)
where value is the value to be displayed, and format_specifier can
contain a combination of formatting options.
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String Formatting

For example, the following produces the string 'Hello' left-justified in a
field width of 20 characters,
format('Hello', '< 20') ➝ 'Hello '
To right-justify the string, the following would be used,
format('Hello', '> 20') ➝ ' Hello'
Formatted strings are left-justified by default. Therefore, the following
produce the same result,
format('Hello', '< 20') ➝ 'Hello '
format('Hello', '20') ➝ 'Hello '
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To center a string the '^' character is used:
format('Hello', '^20')
Another use of the format function is to create a string of blank
characters, which is sometimes useful,
format(' ', '15') ➝ ' '
Finally blanks, by default, are the fill character for formatted strings.
However, a specific fill character can be specified as shown below,
>>> print('Hello', format('.', '.< 30'), 'Have a Nice Day!')
Hello .............................. Have a Nice Day!
Here, a single period is the character printed within a field width of 30,
therefore ultimately printing out 30 periods.
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Let’s Try It
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Sometimes a program line may be too long to fit in the Python-
recommended maximum length of 79 characters. There are two ways in
Python to deal with such situations:
• implicit line joining
• explicit line joining
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Implicit and Explicit Line Joining

There are certain delimiting characters that allow a logical program line to span
more than one physical line. This includes matching parentheses, square brackets,
curly braces, and triple quotes.
For example, the following two program lines are treated as one logical line:
print('Name:',student_name, 'Address:', student_address,
'Number of Credits:', total_credits, 'GPA:', current_gpa)
Matching quotes (except for triple quotes) must be on the same physical line. For
example, the following will generate an error:
print('This program will calculate a restaurant tab for a couple
with a gift certificate, and a restaurant tax of 3%')
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Implicit Line Joining
open quote
close quote

In addition to implicit line joining, program lines may be explicitly joined
by use of the backslash () character. Program lines that end with a
backslash that are not part of a literal string (that is, within quotes) continue
on the following line.
numsecs_1900_dob = ((year_birth 2 1900) * avg_numsecs_year) +
((month_birth 2 1) * avg_numsecs_month) +
(day_birth * numsecs_day)
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Explicit Line Joining

It is a long tradition in computer science to demonstrate a program that
simply displays “Hello World!” as an example of the simplest program
possible in a particular programming language. In Python, the complete
Hello World program is comprised of one program line:
print('Hello World!')
We take a twist on this tradition and give a Python program that displays the
Unicode encoding for each of the characters in the string “Hello World!”
instead. This program utilizes the following programming features:
➤ string literals ➤ print ➤ ord function
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Hello World Unicode Encoding
Let’s Apply It

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The statements on lines 1, 3, and 6 are comment statements. The print
function on line 4 displays the message ‘Hello World!’. Double quotes are used
to delimit the corresponding string, since the single quotes within it are to be
taken literally. The use of print on line 7 prints out the Unicode encoding, one-
by-one, for each of the characters in the “Hello World!” string. Note from the
program execution that there is a Unicode encoding for the blank character
(32), as well as the exclamation mark (33).

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So far, we have only looked at literal values in programs. However, the
true usefulness of a computer program is the ability to operate on
different values each time the program is executed. This is provided by
the notion of a variable. We look at variables and identifiers next.
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Introduction to Computer Science Using Python – Dierbach Copyright 2013 John Wiley and Sons Section 2.2 Variables and Identifiers
Variables and Identifiers

What Is a Variable?
A variable is a name (identifier) that is associated with a value,
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A variable can be assigned different values during a program’s
execution—hence, the name “variable.”

Wherever a variable appears in a program (except on the left-hand side
of an assignment statement), it is the value associated with the variable
that is used, and not the variable’s name,
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Variables are assigned values by use of the assignment operator , = ,

Assignment statements often look wrong to novice programmers.
Mathematically, num = num + 1 does not make sense. In computing,
however, it is used to increment the value of a given variable by one. It is
more appropriate, therefore, to think of the = symbol as an arrow
symbol
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When thought of this way, it makes clear that the right side of an
assignment is evaluated first, then the result is assigned to the
variable on the left. An arrow symbol is not used simply because there
is no such character on a standard computer keyboard.

Variables may also be assigned to the value of another variable,
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Variables num and k are both associated with the same literal value 10 in
memory. One way to see this is by use of built-in function id,
The id function produces a unique number identifying a specific value
(object) in memory. Since variables are meant to be distinct, it would
appear that this sharing of values would cause problems.

If the value of num changed, would variable k change along with it?
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This cannot happen in this case because the variables refer to integer
values, and integer values are immutable. An immutable value is a value
that cannot be changed. Thus, both will continue to refer to the same
value until one (or both) of them is reassigned,
If no other variable references the memory location of the original value,
the memory location is deallocated (that is, it is made available for reuse).

Finally, in Python the same variable can be associated with values of
different type during program execution,
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(The ability of a variable to be assigned values of different type is referred
to as dynamic typing, introduced later in the discussions of data types.)

Let’s Try It
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What do each of the following evaluate to?

Variable Assignment and Keyboard Input
The value that is assigned to a given variable does not have to be
specified in the program. The value can come from the user by use of the
input function introduced in Chapter 1,
>>> name = input('What is your first name?')
What is your first name? John
In this case, the variable name is assigned the string 'John'. If the user
hit return without entering any value, name would be assigned to the
empty string ('').
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The input function returns a string type. For input of numeric values, the
response must be converted to the appropriate type. Python provides
built-in type conversion functions int() and float () for this purpose,
line = input('How many credits do you have?')
num_credits = int(line)
line = input('What is your grade point average?')
gpa = float(line)
The entered number of credits, say '24', is converted to the equivalent
integer value, 24, before being assigned to variable num_credits. The
input value of the gpa, say '3.2', is converted to the equivalent floating-
point value, 3.2.
Note that the program lines above could be combined as follows,
num_credits = int(input('How many credits do you have? '))
gpa = float(input('What is your grade point average? '))
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Let’s Try It
54

What Is an Identifier?
An identifier is a sequence of one or more characters used to provide a
name for a given program element. Variable names line,
num_credits, and gpa are each identifiers.
Python is case sensitive , thus, Line is different from line. Identifiers
may contain letters and digits, but cannot begin with a digit.
The underscore character, _, is also allowed to aid in the readability of
long identifier names. It should not be used as the first character,
however, as identifiers beginning with an underscore have special
meaning in Python.
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Spaces are not allowed as part of an identifier. This is a common error
since some operating systems allow spaces within file names. In
programming languages, however, spaces are used to delimit (separate)
distinct syntactic entities. Thus, any identifier containing a space
character would be considered two separate identifiers.
Examples of valid and invalid identifiers in Python
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Let’s Try It
57

Keywords and Other
Predefined Identifiers in Python
A keyword is an identifier that has predefined meaning in a programming
language. Therefore, keywords cannot be used as “regular” identifiers.
Doing so will result in a syntax error, as demonstrated in the attempted
assignment to keyword and below,
>>> and = 10
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
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The keywords in Python are listed below.
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To display the keywords in Python, type help()in the Python shell, then
type keywords (type 'q' to quit).

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There are other predefined identifiers that can be used as regular
identifiers, but should not be. This includes float, int, print, exit, and
quit, for example.
A simple way to check whether a specific identifier is a keyword in
Python is as follows
>>> 'exit' in dir(__builtins__)
True
>>> 'exit_program' in dir(__builtins__)
False

Let’s Try It
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The program below calculates a restaurant tab for a couple based on the use
of a gift certificate and the items ordered.
This program utilizes the following programming features:
➤ variables
➤ keyboard input
➤ built-in format function
➤ type conversion functions
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Restaurant Tab Calculation
Let’s Apply It

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Example Execution

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Example Program Execution
Line 5 provides the required
initialization of variables, with
variable tax assigned to 8%
(.08) used in lines 9, 35, and
39. To change the restaurant
tax, only this line of the
program needs to be changed.
Lines 8–9 display what the
program does. Lines 30 and 31
total the cost of the orders for
each person, assigned to
variables amt_person1 and
amt_person2. Lines 34 and
35 compute the tab, including
the tax (stored in variable
tab).
Finally, lines 38–41 display the
cost of the ordered items,
followed by the added
restaurant tax and the amount
due after deducting the
amount of the gift certificate.

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69

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An operator is a symbol that represents an operation that may be
performed on one or more operands. For example, the + symbol
represents the operation of addition. An operand is a value that a given
operator is applied to, such as operands 2 and 3 in the expression 2 + 3.
A unary operator operates on only one operand, such as the negation
operator in the expression - 12.
A binary operator operates on two operands, as with the addition
operator. Most operators in programming languages are binary
operators. We look at the arithmetic operators in Python next.
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Operators

Arithmetic Operators
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The + , -, * (multiplication) and / (division) arithmetic operators perform the usual
operations. Note that the - symbol is used both as a unary operator (for negation) and a
binary operator (for subtraction),
20 - 5 ➝ 15 (- as binary operator)
- 10 * 2 ➝ - 20 (- as unary operator)
Python also includes an exponentiation (**) operator.

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Python provides two forms of division. “True” division is denoted by a single
slash, /. Thus, 25 / 10 evaluates to 2.5. Truncating division is denoted by a double
slash, //, providing a truncated result based on the type of operands applied to.
When both operands are integer values, the result is a truncated integer referred
to as integer division. When as least one of the operands is a float type, the result
is a truncated floating point. Thus, 25 // 10 evaluates to 2, while 25.0 // 10
evaluates to 2.0.

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As example use of integer division, the number of dozen doughnuts for variable
numDoughnuts = 29 is: numDoughnuts // 12 ➝ 29 // 12 ➝ 2
Lastly, the modulus operator (%) gives the remainder of the division of its
operands, resulting in a cycle of values.
The modulus and truncating (integer) division operators are complements of
each other. For example, 29 // 12 gives the number of dozen doughnuts,
while 29 % 12 gives the number of leftover doughnuts (5).

Let’s Try It
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evaluate to?

The following program calculates the approximate number of atoms that the
average person contains, and the percentage of the universe that they
comprise.
➤ floating-point scientific notation
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Your Place in the Universe
Let’s Apply It

Needed variables num_
atoms_universe, weight_
avg_person, and num_
atoms_avg_person are
initialized in lines 7–9 . The
program greeting is on line
12 .
Line 15 inputs the person’s
weight. Line 18 converts
the weight to kilograms for
the calculations on lines
21–22, which compute the
desired results.
Finally, lines 25–27 display
the results.
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85

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Now that we have looked at arithmetic operators, we will see how
operators and operands can be combined to form expressions. In
particular, we will look at how arithmetic expressions are evaluated in
Python. We also introduce the notion of a data type.
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Introduction to Computer Science Using Python – Dierbach Copyright 2013 John Wiley and Sons Section 2.3 Expressions and Data Types
Expressions and Data Types

What Is an Expression?
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An expression is a combination of symbols that evaluates to a value. Expressions,
most commonly, consist of a combination of operators and operands,
4 + (3 * k)
An expression can also consist of a single literal or variable. Thus, 4, 3, and k are
each expressions. This expression has two subexpressions, 4 and (3 * k).
Subexpression (3 * k) itself has two subexpressions, 3 and k.
Expressions that evaluate to a numeric type are called arithmetic expressions. A
subexpression is any expression that is part of a larger expression. Subexpressions
may be denoted by the use of parentheses, as shown above. Thus, for the
expression 4 + (3 * 2), the two operands of the addition operator are 4 and (3 * 2),
and thus the result is equal to 10. If the expression were instead written as
(4 + 3) * 2, then it would evaluate to 14.

Let’s Try It
89
evaluate to?

Operator Precedence
90
The way we commonly represent expressions, in which operators appear between
their operands, is referred to as infix notation. For example, the expression 4 + 3 is
in infix notation since the + operator appears between its two operands, 4 and 3.
There are other ways of representing expressions called prefix and postfix notation,
in which operators are placed before and after their operands, respectively.
The expression 4 + (3 * 5) is also in infix notation. It contains two operators,
+ and *. The parentheses denote that (3 * 5) is a subexpression. Therefore, 4 and
(3 * 5) are the operands of the addition operator, and thus the overall expression
evaluates to 19. What if the parentheses were omitted, as given below?
4 + 3 * 5
How would this be evaluated? These are two possibilities.

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4 + 3 * 5 ➝ 4 + 15 ➝ 19 4 + 3 * 5 ➝ 7 * 5 ➝ 35
Some might say that the first version is the correct one by the conventions of
mathematics. However, each programming language has its own rules for the
order that operators are applied, called operator precedence, defined in an
operator precedence table. This may or may not be the same as in mathematics,
although it typically is.
Below is the operator precedence table for the Python operators discussed so far.

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In the table, higher-priority operators are placed above lower-priority ones. Thus,
we see that multiplication is performed before addition when no parentheses are
included,
4 + 3 * 5 ➝ 4 + 15 ➝ 19
In our example, therefore, if the addition is to be performed first, parentheses
would be needed,
(4 + 3) * 5 ➝ 7 * 5 ➝ 35

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As another example, consider the expression below.
4 + 2 ** 5 // 10 ➝ 4 + 32 // 10 ➝ 4 + 3 ➝ 7
Following Python’s rules of operator precedence, the exponentiation operator is
applied first, then the truncating division operator, and finally the addition
operator.
Operator precedence guarantees a consistent interpretation of expressions.
However, it is good programming practice to use parentheses even when not
needed if it adds clarity and enhances readability, without overdoing it. Thus, the
previous expression would be better written as,
4 + (2 ** 5) // 10

Let’s Try It
94
evaluate to using operator precedence of Python?

Operator Associativity
95
A question that you may have already had is, “What if two operators have the
same level of precedence, which one is applied first?” For operators following the
associative law (such as addition) the order of evaluation doesn’t matter,
(2 + 3) + 4 ➝ 9 2 + (3 + 4) ➝ 9
In this case, we get the same results regardless of the order that the operators are
applied. Division and subtraction, however, do not follow the associative law,
(a) (8 - 4) - 2 ➝ 4 - 2 ➝ 2 8 - (4 - 2) ➝ 8 - 2 ➝ 6
(b) (8 / 4) / 2 ➝ 2 / 2 ➝ 1 8 / (4 / 2) ➝ 8 / 2 ➝ 4
(c) 2 ** (3 ** 2) ➝ 512 (2 ** 3) ** 2 ➝ 64
Here, the order of evaluation does matter.

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To resolve the ambiguity, each operator has a specified operator associativity that
defines the order that it and other operators with the same level of precedence
are applied. All operators given below, except for exponentiation, have left-to-
right associativity—exponentiation has right-to-left associativity.

Let’s Try It
97
evaluate to?

Data Types
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A data type is a set of values, and a set of operators that may be applied
to those values. For example, the integer data type consists of the set of
integers, and operators for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division, among others. Integers, floats, and strings are part of a set of
predefined data types in Python called the built-in types .
For example, it does not make sense to try to divide a string by two,
'Hello' / 2. The programmer knows this by common sense. Python knows
it because 'Hello' belongs to the string data type, which does not include
the division operation.

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The need for data types results from the fact that the same internal
representation of data can be interpreted in various ways,
The sequence of bits in the figure can be interpreted as a character ('A') or an
integer (65). If a programming language did not keep track of the intended type of
each value, then the programmer would have to. This would likely lead to
undetected programming errors, and would provide even more work for the
programmer. We discuss this further in the following section.

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Finally, there are two approaches to data typing in programming languages. In
static typing, a variable is declared as a certain type before it is used, and can
only be assigned values of that type.
In dynamic typing, the data type of a variable depends only on the type of value
that the variable is currently holding. Thus, the same variable may be assigned
values of different type during the execution of a program.
Python uses dynamic typing.

Mixed-Type Expressions
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A mixed-type expression is an expression containing operands of
different type. The CPU can only perform operations on values with the
same internal representation scheme, and thus only on operands of the
same type. Operands of mixed-type expressions therefore must be
converted to a common type. Values can be converted in one of two
ways—by implicit (automatic) conversion, called coercion, or by explicit
type conversion.

102
Coercion is the implicit (automatic) conversion of operands to a common type.
Coercion is automatically performed on mixed-type expressions only if the
operands can be safely converted, that is, if no loss of information will result.
The conversion of integer 2 to floating-point 2.0 below is a safe conversion—the
conversion of 4.5 to integer 4 is not, since the decimal digit would be lost,
2 + 4.5 ➝ 2.0 + 4.5 ➝ 6.5 safe (automatic conversion of int to float)
int float float float float

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Type conversion is the explicit conversion of operands to a specific type. Type
conversion can be applied even if loss of information results. Python provides
built-in type conversion functions int() and float(), with the int()
function truncating results
2 + 4.5 ➝ float(2) + 4.5 ➝ 2.0 + 4.5 ➝ 6.5 No loss of information
2 + 4.5 ➝ 2 + int(4.5) ➝ 2 + 4 ➝ 6 Loss of information
int float float float float float float
int float int int int int int

104
Type conversion functions int() and float()
Note that numeric strings can also be converted to a numeric type. In fact, we
have already been doing this when using int or float with the input
function,
num_credits = int(input('How many credits do you have? '))

The following Python program requests from the user a temperature in
degrees Fahrenheit, and displays the equivalent temperature in degrees
Celsius.
➤ arithmetic expressions
➤ operator associativity
105
Temperature Conversion Program
Let’s Apply It

Line 10 reads the Fahrenheit temperature entered, assigned to variable fahren. Either an integer or a
floating-point value may be entered, since the input is converted to float type. Line 13 performs the
calculation for converting Fahrenheit to Celsius. Recall that the division and multiplication operators have
the same level of precedence. Since these operators associate left-to-right, the multiplication operator is
applied first. Because of the use of the “true” division operator /, the result of the expression will have
floating-point accuracy. Finally, lines 16–17 output the converted temperature in degrees Celsius.
106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114
We look at the problem of calculating an
individual’s age in seconds. It is not feasible to
determine a given person’s age to the exact
second. This would require knowing, to the
second, when they were born. It would also
involve knowing the time zone they were born
in, issues of daylight savings time,
consideration of leap years, and so forth.
Therefore, the problem is to determine an
approximation of age in seconds. The program
will be tested against calculations of age from
online resources.
Introduction to Computer Science Using Python – Dierbach Copyright 2013 John Wiley and Sons Section 2.5 Age in Seconds Program
Age in Seconds Program

Age in Seconds
The Problem
115
The problem is to determine the approximate age of an individual in seconds
within 99% accuracy of results from online resources. The program must
work for dates of birth from January 1, 1900 to the present.

Age in Seconds
Problem Analysis
116
The fundamental computational issue for this problem is the development of
an algorithm incorporating approximations for information that is impractical
to utilize (time of birth to the second, daylight savings time, etc.), while
producing a result that meets the required degree of accuracy.

Age in Seconds
Program Design
117
Meeting the Program Requirements
There is no requirement for the form in which the date of birth is to be entered. We
will therefore design the program to input the date of birth as integer values. Also,
the program will not perform input error checking, since we have not yet covered the
programming concepts for this.
Data Description
The program needs to represent two dates, the user’s date of birth, and the current
date. Since each part of the date must be able to be operated on arithmetically, dates
will be represented by three integers. For example, May 15, 1992 would be
represented as follows:
year = 1992 month = 5 day = 15

118
Algorithmic Approach
Python Standard Library module datetime will be used to obtain the current date.
We consider how the calculations can be approximated without greatly affecting the
accuracy of the results.
We start with the issue of leap years. Since there is a leap year once every four years
(with some exceptions), we calculate the average number of seconds in a year over a
four-year period that includes a leap year. Since non-leap years have 365 days, and
leap years have 366, we need to compute,
numsecs_day = (hours per day) * (mins per hour) * (secs per minute)
numsecs_year = (days per year) * numsecs_day
avg_numsecs_year = (4 * numsecs_year) + numsecs_day) // 4 (one extra day for leap year)
avg_numsecs_month = avgnumsecs_year // 12

119
To calculate someone’s age in seconds, we use January 1, 1900 as a basis. Thus, we
compute two values—the number of seconds from January 1, 1900 to the given date
of birth, and the number of seconds from January 1, 1900 to the current date.
Subtracting the former from the latter gives the approximate age,
Note that if we directly determined the number of seconds between the date of
birth and current date, the months and days of each would need to be compared
to see how many full months and years there were between the two. Using 1900
as a basis avoids these comparisons. Thus, the rest of our algorithm follows.

120

121
The Overall Steps of the Program

Age in Seconds
Program Implementation
122
First, we decide on the variables needed for the program. For date of birth,
we use variables month_birth, day_birth, and year_birth.
Similarly, for the current date we use variables current_month,
current_day, and current_year. The first stage of the program assigns each
of these values.
Stage 1—Getting the Date of Birth and Current Date

123

124
Stage 1 Testing
We add test statements that display the values of the assigned variables.
This is to ensure that the dates we are starting with are correct; otherwise,
the results will certainly not be correct. The test run below indicates that the
input is being correctly read.
Enter month born (1-12): 4
Enter day born (1-31): 12
Enter year born (4-digit): 1981
The date of birth read is: 4 12 1981
The current date read is: 1 5 2010
>>>

125
Next we determine the approximate number of seconds in a given year and
month, and the exact number of seconds in a day stored in variables
avg_numsecs_year, avg_numsecs_month, and numsecs_day, respectively.
Stage 2—Approximating the Number of Seconds in a Year/Month/Day

126
The lines of code prompting for input are commented out ( lines 6–9 and 11–14 ).
Since it is easy to comment out (and uncomment) blocks of code in IDLE, we do so;
the input values are irrelevant to this part of the program testing

127
Stage 2 Testing
Following is the output of this test run. Checking online sources, we find that
the number of seconds in a regular year is 31,536,000 and in a leap year is
31,622,400. Thus, our approximation of 31,557,600 as the average number
of seconds over four years (including a leap year) is reasonable. The
avg_num_seconds_month is directly calculated from variable avg_ numsecs_
year, and numsecs_day is found to be correct.
numsecs_day 86400
avg_numsecs_month = 2629800
avg_numsecs_year 5 31557600
>>>

128
Finally, we complete the program by calculating the approximate number of
seconds from 1900 to both the current date and the provided date of birth.
The difference of these two values gives the approximate age in seconds.
Final Stage—Calculating the Number of Seconds from 1900

129

130
We develop a set of test cases for this program. We follow the testing strategy of
including “average” as well as “extreme” or “special case” test cases in the test plan.
The “correct” age in seconds for each was obtained from an online source. January 1,
1900 was included since it is the earliest date that the program is required to work for.
April 12, 1981 was included as an average case in the 1900s, and January 4, 2000 as
an average case in the 2000s. December 31, 2009 was included since it is the last day
of the last month of the year, and a birthday on the day before the current date as
special cases. Since these values are continuously changing by the second, we consider
any result within one day’s worth of seconds (± 84,000) to be an exact result.

131
The program results are obviously incorrect, since the result is approximately equal
to the average number of seconds in a month. The only correct result is for the day
before the current date. The inaccuracy of each result was calculated as follows for
April 12, 1981,
((abs(expected_results – actual_results) – 86,400) / expected_results) * 100 =
((917,110,352 – 518,433) – 86400) / 917,110,352) * 100 = 99.93 %
Example output of results for a birthday of April 12, 1981.

132
Either our algorithmic approach is flawed, or it is not correctly implemented. Since we
didn’t find any errors in the development of the first and second stages of the program,
the problem must be in the calculation of the approximate age in lines 29–37. These
lines define three variables: numsecs_1900_dob, numsecs_1900_today, and
age_in_secs. We can inspect the values of these variables after execution of the
program to see if anything irregular pops out at us.
This program computes the approximate age in seconds of an
individual based on a provided date of birth. Only ages for
dates of birth from 1900 and after can be computed
Enter month born (1-12): 4
Enter day born (1-31): 12
Enter year born: (4-digit)1981
You are approximately 604833 seconds old
>>>
>>> numsecs_1900_dob
-59961031015
>>> numsecs_1900_today
-59960426182
>>>

133
Clearly, this is where the problem is, since we are getting negative values for the times
between 1900 and date of birth, and from 1900 to today. We “work backwards” and
consider how the expressions could give negative results. This would be explained if, for
some reason, the second operand of the subtraction were greater than the first. That
would happen if the expression were evaluated, for example, as
numsecs_1900_dob = (year_birth - (1900 * avg_numsecs_year) ) +
(month_birth - (1 * avg_numsecs_month) ) +
rather than the following intended means of evaluation,
numsecs_1900_dob = ( (year_birth - 1900) * avg_numsecs_year) +
( (month_birth - 1) * avg_numsecs_month) +
Now we realize! Because we did not use parentheses to explicitly indicate the proper
order of operators, by the rules of operator precedence Python evaluated the
expression as the first way above, not the second as it should be. This would also
explain why the program gave the correct result for a date of birth one day before the
current date.

134
Once we make the corrections and re-run the test plan, we get the following results,
These results demonstrate that our approximation of the number of seconds in a
year was sufficient to get well within the 99% degree of accuracy required for this
program. We would expect more recent dates of birth to give less accurate results
given that there is less time that is approximated. Still, for test case December 31,
2009 the inaccuracy is less than .05 percent. Therefore, we were able to develop a
program that gave very accurate results without involving all the program logic that
would be needed to consider all the details required to give an exact result.

Data and Expressions in Python programming

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