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Blake Spendlove
118 PointsQuotation marks
Why doesn't the variable need quotation marks? When I added them, it showed first_name instead of Ada. I'm curious - thanks!
1 Answer
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 PointsHey Blake Spendlove, good question!
As the Python interpreter parses the code it, any letters grouped together are assumed to be a reference (aka label, variable name). Python looks up the reference in many namespaces (like dictionaries), starting with the local namespace, then in the namespaces for the enclosing layers (functions, classes, and modules), then finally global and built-in namespaces. If a reference can not be resolved, a NameError is raised.
The exception is when an opening quotation mark is found. Any characters encountered after the quotation mark will be become part of a str object until the matching closing quotation mark is found.
So first_name would be looked up as a variable and ”first_name” would become a 10-character string.
Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!!