Concepts: What is Python?

Introduction

Python is an easy-to-learn and powerful programming language. Python is used for many things, including creating websites, performing data analysis, scientific computing, and building desktop software.

Using Python, like many other programming languages, involves writing a sequential set of instructions for the computer to follow. Python has it's own special syntax (the "language" part of "programming language"), that looks something like this:

  first_number = input("Please enter a number:")
  second_number = input("Please enter a second number:")

  sum = float(first_number) + float(second_number)

  print("The sum of " + first_number + " and " + second_number + " is: " + str(sum))

In the example above, each line of text is a single instruction, also known as a "statement". The instructions are usually run in-order from top to bottom. All-together, these statements make up the "source code" of a Python program.