Python language basics 7: boolean values

Introduction

In the previous post we looked at the difference between integer and float-point number division in Python. In this post we’ll look at the third built-in primitive type besides integers and floats: the boolean type.

If you have any computer programming background whatsoever then you’ll know that a boolean variable can have two states: true or false. Booleans play a central role in control flows such as ‘if’ when you’re testing whether some state is true or false.

Booleans in Python

The two states are represented by the True and False keywords, both capitalised:

trueState = True
falseState = False

Booleans can also be constructed from the bool() constructor. Here are some examples with integers where only 0 yields false, all other values result in true:

print(bool(0))
print(bool(123))
print(bool(-12))

Read all Python-related posts on this blog here.