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Python

Joshua Carroll
Joshua Carroll
137 Points
Posted by Joshua Carroll
Joshua Carroll
137 Points

Why does writing print(first_name) not require "", where as everything else in parenthesis does?

Trying to notice consistency, and I found this seems irregular, Wondering the reason. Everything i've put into script so far seems to require quotes, but the first_name variable doesnt. Thank you

1 Answer

Steven Tagawa
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Steven Tagawa
Python Development Techdegree Graduate 14,438 Points
Steven Tagawa
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Steven Tagawa
Python Development Techdegree Graduate 14,438 Points

If you print something inside quotation marks, you are printing a literal string. What it will print will be exactly what is inside the quotation marks, every time. If you print something without quotation marks, your are printing a variable. What prints will not be the name of the variable; it will be whatever value has been assigned to that variable.

So if I wrote:

first_name = "Joshua"
print("first_name")
print(first_name)

I would get:

first_name
Joshua

The first print outputs the exact characters that are inside the quotation marks. The second print looks up what has been assigned to the variable called first_name and outputs that.