Python variable assignment is different from some of the popular languages like c, c++ and java. There is no declaration of a variable, just an assignment statement.
Let us see why?
When we declare a variable in C or alike languages, this sets aside an area of memory for holding values allowed by the data type of the variable. The memory allocated will be interpreted as the data type suggests. If it’s an integer variable the memory allocated will be read as an integer and so on. When we assign or initialize it with some value, that value will get stored at that memory location. At compile time, initial value or assigned value will be checked. So we cannot mix types. Example: initializing a string value to an int variable is not allowed and the program will not compile.
But Python is a dynamically typed language. It doesn’t know about the type of the variable until the code is run. So declaration is of no use. What it does is, It stores that value at some memory location and then binds that variable name to that memory container. And makes the contents of the container accessible through that variable name. So the data type does not matter. As it will get to know the type of the value at run-time.
# This will store 6 in the memory and binds the # name x to it. After it runs, type of x will # be int. x = 6 print(type(x)) # This will store 'hello' at some location int # the memory and binds name x to it. After it # runs type of x will be str. x = 'hello' print(type(x)) |
<class 'int'> <class 'str'>
