Set data type in python

Built-in Data Types

In programming, data type is an important concept.

Variables can store data of different types, and different types can do different things.

Python has the following data types built-in by default, in these categories:

Getting the Data Type

You can get the data type of any object by using the type() function:

Example

Print the data type of the variable x:

x = 5
print(type(x))

Try it Yourself »

Setting the Data Type

In Python, the data type is set when you assign a value to a variable:

Setting the Specific Data Type

If you want to specify the data type, you can use the following constructor functions:

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

The following code example would print the data type of x, what data type would that be?

Start the Exercise

Data types are the classification or categorization of data items. It represents the kind of value that tells what operations can be performed on a particular data. Since everything is an object in Python programming, data types are actually classes and variables are instance (object) of these classes.

Following are the standard or built-in data type of Python:

• Numeric
• Sequence Type
• Boolean
• Set
• Dictionary

Numeric

In Python, numeric data type represent the data which has numeric value. Numeric value can be integer, floating number or even complex numbers. These values are defined as int, float and complex class in Python.

• Integers – This value is represented by int class. It contains positive or negative whole numbers (without fraction or decimal). In Python there is no limit to how long an integer value can be.
• Float – This value is represented by float class. It is a real number with floating point representation. It is specified by a decimal point. Optionally, the character e or E followed by a positive or negative integer may be appended to specify scientific notation.
• Complex Numbers – Complex number is represented by complex class. It is specified as (real part) + (imaginary part)j. For example – 2+3j

Note – type() function is used to determine the type of data type.

Python3

a = 5

print("Type of a: ", type(a))

b = 5.0

print("\nType of b: ", type(b))

c = 2 + 4j

print("\nType of c: ", type(c))

Output:

Type of a:  

Type of b:  

Type of c:  

Sequence Type

In Python, sequence is the ordered collection of similar or different data types. Sequences allows to store multiple values in an organized and efficient fashion. There are several sequence types in Python –

• String
• List
• Tuple

1) String

In Python, Strings are arrays of bytes representing Unicode characters. A string is a collection of one or more characters put in a single quote, double-quote or triple quote. In python there is no character data type, a character is a string of length one. It is represented by str class.
 

Creating String

Strings in Python can be created using single quotes or double quotes or even triple quotes.

Python3

String1 = 'Welcome to the Geeks World'

print("String with the use of Single Quotes: ") 

print(String1) 

String1 = "I'm a Geek"

print("\nString with the use of Double Quotes: ") 

print(String1) 

print(type(String1))

String1 =

print("\nString with the use of Triple Quotes: ") 

print(String1) 

print(type(String1))

String1 =

print("\nCreating a multiline String: ") 

print(String1) 

Output:

String with the use of Single Quotes: 
Welcome to the Geeks World

String with the use of Double Quotes: 
I'm a Geek


String with the use of Triple Quotes: 
I'm a Geek and I live in a world of "Geeks"


Creating a multiline String: 
Geeks 
            For 
            Life

Accessing elements of String

In Python, individual characters of a String can be accessed by using the method of Indexing. Indexing allows negative address references to access characters from the back of the String, e.g. -1 refers to the last character, -2 refers to the second last character and so on.

Python3

String1 = "GeeksForGeeks"

print("Initial String: ") 

print(String1) 

print("\nFirst character of String is: ") 

print(String1[0]) 

print("\nLast character of String is: ") 

print(String1[-1]) 

Output:

Initial String: 
GeeksForGeeks

First character of String is: 
G

Last character of String is: 
s

Note – To know more about strings, refer Python String.

2) List

Lists are just like the arrays, declared in other languages which is a ordered collection of data. It is very flexible as the items in a list do not need to be of the same type.
 

Creating List

Lists in Python can be created by just placing the sequence inside the square brackets[].

Python3

List = [] 

print("Initial blank List: ") 

print(List) 

List = ['GeeksForGeeks'] 

print("\nList with the use of String: ") 

print(List) 

List = ["Geeks", "For", "Geeks"] 

print("\nList containing multiple values: ") 

print(List[0])  

print(List[2]) 

List = [['Geeks', 'For'], ['Geeks']] 

print("\nMulti-Dimensional List: ") 

print(List) 

Output:

Initial blank List: 
[]

List with the use of String: 
['GeeksForGeeks']

List containing multiple values: 
Geeks
Geeks

Multi-Dimensional List: 
[['Geeks', 'For'], ['Geeks']]

Accessing elements of List

In order to access the list items refer to the index number. Use the index operator [ ] to access an item in a list. In Python, negative sequence indexes represent positions from the end of the array. Instead of having to compute the offset as in List[len(List)-3], it is enough to just write List[-3]. Negative indexing means beginning from the end, -1 refers to the last item, -2 refers to the second-last item, etc.

Python3

List = ["Geeks", "For", "Geeks"] 

print("Accessing element from the list") 

print(List[0])  

print(List[2]) 

print("Accessing element using negative indexing") 

print(List[-1]) 

print(List[-3]) 

Output:

Accessing element from the list
Geeks
Geeks
Accessing element using negative indexing
Geeks
Geeks

Note – To know more about Lists, refer Python List.

3) Tuple

Just like list, tuple is also an ordered collection of Python objects. The only difference between tuple and list is that tuples are immutable i.e. tuples cannot be modified after it is created. It is represented by tuple class.
 

Creating Tuple

In Python, tuples are created by placing a sequence of values separated by ‘comma’ with or without the use of parentheses for grouping of the data sequence. Tuples can contain any number of elements and of any datatype (like strings, integers, list, etc.).

Note: Tuples can also be created with a single element, but it is a bit tricky. Having one element in the parentheses is not sufficient, there must be a trailing ‘comma’ to make it a tuple.

Python3

Tuple1 = () 

print("Initial empty Tuple: ") 

print (Tuple1) 

Tuple1 = ('Geeks', 'For') 

print("\nTuple with the use of String: ") 

print(Tuple1) 

list1 = [1, 2, 4, 5, 6] 

print("\nTuple using List: ") 

print(tuple(list1)) 

Tuple1 = tuple('Geeks') 

print("\nTuple with the use of function: ") 

print(Tuple1) 

Tuple1 = (0, 1, 2, 3) 

Tuple2 = ('python', 'geek') 

Tuple3 = (Tuple1, Tuple2) 

print("\nTuple with nested tuples: ") 

print(Tuple3) 

Output:

Initial empty Tuple: 
()

Tuple with the use of String: 
('Geeks', 'For')

Tuple using List: 
(1, 2, 4, 5, 6)

Tuple with the use of function: 
('G', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's')

Tuple with nested tuples: 
((0, 1, 2, 3), ('python', 'geek'))

Note – Creation of Python tuple without the use of parentheses is known as Tuple Packing.

Accessing elements of Tuple

In order to access the tuple items refer to the index number. Use the index operator [ ] to access an item in a tuple. The index must be an integer. Nested tuples are accessed using nested indexing.

Python3

tuple1 = tuple([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

print("First element of tuple")

print(tuple1[0])

print("\nLast element of tuple")

print(tuple1[-1])

print("\nThird last element of tuple")

print(tuple1[-3])

Output:

First element of tuple
1

Last element of tuple
5

Third last element of tuple
3

Note – To know more about tuples, refer Python Tuples.

Boolean

Data type with one of the two built-in values, True or False. Boolean objects that are equal to True are truthy (true), and those equal to False are falsy (false). But non-Boolean objects can be evaluated in Boolean context as well and determined to be true or false. It is denoted by the class bool.

Note – True and False with capital ‘T’ and ‘F’ are valid booleans otherwise python will throw an error.

Python3

print(type(True))

print(type(False))

print(type(true))

Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/7e8862763fb66153d70824099d4f5fb7.py", line 8, in 
    print(type(true))
NameError: name 'true' is not defined

Set

In Python, Set is an unordered collection of data type that is iterable, mutable and has no duplicate elements. The order of elements in a set is undefined though it may consist of various elements.

Creating Sets

Sets can be created by using the built-in set() function with an iterable object or a sequence by placing the sequence inside curly braces, separated by ‘comma’. Type of elements in a set need not be the same, various mixed-up data type values can also be passed to the set.

Python3

set1 = set() 

print("Initial blank Set: ") 

print(set1) 

set1 = set("GeeksForGeeks") 

print("\nSet with the use of String: ") 

print(set1) 

set1 = set(["Geeks", "For", "Geeks"]) 

print("\nSet with the use of List: ") 

print(set1) 

set1 = set([1, 2, 'Geeks', 4, 'For', 6, 'Geeks']) 

print("\nSet with the use of Mixed Values") 

print(set1) 

Output:

Initial blank Set: 
set()

Set with the use of String: 
{'F', 'o', 'G', 's', 'r', 'k', 'e'}

Set with the use of List: 
{'Geeks', 'For'}

Set with the use of Mixed Values
{1, 2, 4, 6, 'Geeks', 'For'}

Accessing elements of Sets

Set items cannot be accessed by referring to an index, since sets are unordered the items has no index. But you can loop through the set items using a for loop, or ask if a specified value is present in a set, by using the in keyword.

Python3

set1 = set(["Geeks", "For", "Geeks"]) 

print("\nInitial set") 

print(set1) 

print("\nElements of set: ") 

for i in set1: 

    print(i, end =" ") 

print("Geeks" in set1) 

Output:

Initial set: 
{'Geeks', 'For'}

Elements of set: 
Geeks For 

True

Note – To know more about sets, refer Python Sets.

Dictionary

Dictionary in Python is an unordered collection of data values, used to store data values like a map, which unlike other Data Types that hold only single value as an element, Dictionary holds key:value pair. Key-value is provided in the dictionary to make it more optimized. Each key-value pair in a Dictionary is separated by a colon :, whereas each key is separated by a ‘comma’.

Creating Dictionary

In Python, a Dictionary can be created by placing a sequence of elements within curly {} braces, separated by ‘comma’. Values in a dictionary can be of any datatype and can be duplicated, whereas keys can’t be repeated and must be immutable. Dictionary can also be created by the built-in function dict(). An empty dictionary can be created by just placing it to curly braces{}.

Note – Dictionary keys are case sensitive, same name but different cases of Key will be treated distinctly.

Python3

Dict = {} 

print("Empty Dictionary: ") 

print(Dict) 

Dict = {1: 'Geeks', 2: 'For', 3: 'Geeks'} 

print("\nDictionary with the use of Integer Keys: ") 

print(Dict) 

Dict = {'Name': 'Geeks', 1: [1, 2, 3, 4]} 

print("\nDictionary with the use of Mixed Keys: ") 

print(Dict) 

Dict = dict({1: 'Geeks', 2: 'For', 3:'Geeks'}) 

print("\nDictionary with the use of dict(): ") 

print(Dict) 

Dict = dict([(1, 'Geeks'), (2, 'For')]) 

print("\nDictionary with each item as a pair: ") 

print(Dict) 

Output:

Empty Dictionary: 
{}

Dictionary with the use of Integer Keys: 
{1: 'Geeks', 2: 'For', 3: 'Geeks'}

Dictionary with the use of Mixed Keys: 
{1: [1, 2, 3, 4], 'Name': 'Geeks'}

Dictionary with the use of dict(): 
{1: 'Geeks', 2: 'For', 3: 'Geeks'}

Dictionary with each item as a pair: 
{1: 'Geeks', 2: 'For'}

Accessing elements of Dictionary

In order to access the items of a dictionary refer to its key name. Key can be used inside square brackets. There is also a method called get() that will also help in accessing the element from a dictionary.

Python3

Dict = {1: 'Geeks', 'name': 'For', 3: 'Geeks'} 

print("Accessing a element using key:") 

print(Dict['name']) 

print("Accessing a element using get:") 

print(Dict.get(3)) 

Output:

Accessing a element using key:
For
Accessing a element using get:
Geeks

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