Python Operators

Difficulty Level : Easy
Last Updated : 17 Nov, 2020

Operators in general are used to perform operations on values and variables in Python. These are standard symbols used for the purpose of logical and arithmetic operations. In this article, we will look into different types of Python operators.

Arithmetic operators: Arithmetic operators are used to perform mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Operator	Description	Syntax
+	Addition: adds two operands	x + y
-	Subtraction: subtracts two operands	x - y
*	Multiplication: multiplies two operands	x * y
/	Division (float): divides the first operand by the second	x / y
//	Division (floor): divides the first operand by the second	x // y
%	Modulus: returns the remainder when first operand is divided by the second	x % y
**	Power : Returns first raised to power second	x ** y

# Examples of Arithmetic Operator  
a = 9
b = 4
  
# Addition of numbers  
add = a + b  
  
# Subtraction of numbers  
sub = a - b  
  
# Multiplication of number  
mul = a * b  
  
# Division(float) of number  
div1 = a / b  
  
# Division(floor) of number  
div2 = a // b  
  
# Modulo of both number  
mod = a % b  
  
# Power 
p = a ** b 
  
# print results  
print(add)  
print(sub)  
print(mul)  
print(div1)  
print(div2)  
print(mod) 
print(p) 

Output:

Please refer Differences between / and // for some interesting facts about these two operators.

Relational Operators: Relational operators compares the values. It either returns True or False according to the condition.

Operator	Description	Syntax
>	Greater than: True if left operand is greater than the right	x > y
<	Less than: True if left operand is less than the right	x < y
==	Equal to: True if both operands are equal	x == y
!=	Not equal to - True if operands are not equal	x != y
>=	Greater than or equal to: True if left operand is greater than or equal to the right	x >= y
<=	Less than or equal to: True if left operand is less than or equal to the right	x <= y

# Examples of Relational Operators 
a = 13
b = 33
  
# a > b is False 
print(a > b) 
  
# a < b is True 
print(a < b) 
  
# a == b is False 
print(a == b) 
  
# a != b is True 
print(a != b) 
  
# a >= b is False 
print(a >= b) 
  
# a <= b is True 
print(a <= b) 

Output:

False
True
False
True
False
True

Logical operators: Logical operators perform Logical AND, Logical OR and Logical NOT operations.

Operator	Description	Syntax
and	Logical AND: True if both the operands are true	x and y
or	Logical OR: True if either of the operands is true	x or y
not	Logical NOT: True if operand is false	not x

# Examples of Logical Operator 
a = True
b = False
  
# Print a and b is False 
print(a and b) 
  
# Print a or b is True 
print(a or b) 
  
# Print not a is False 
print(not a) 

Output:

False
True
False

Bitwise operators: Bitwise operators acts on bits and performs bit by bit operation.

Operator	Description	Syntax
&	Bitwise AND	x & y
\|	Bitwise OR	x \| y
~	Bitwise NOT	~x
^	Bitwise XOR	x ^ y
>>	Bitwise right shift	x>>
<<	Bitwise left shift	x<<

# Examples of Bitwise operators 
a = 10
b = 4
  
# Print bitwise AND operation   
print(a & b) 
  
# Print bitwise OR operation 
print(a | b) 
  
# Print bitwise NOT operation  
print(~a) 
  
# print bitwise XOR operation  
print(a ^ b) 
  
# print bitwise right shift operation  
print(a >> 2) 
  
# print bitwise left shift operation  
print(a << 2) 

Output:

Assignment operators: Assignment operators are used to assign values to the variables.

Operator	Description	Syntax
=	Assign value of right side of expression to left side operand	x = y + z
+=	Add AND: Add right side operand with left side operand and then assign to left operand	a+=b a=a+b
-=	Subtract AND: Subtract right operand from left operand and then assign to left operand	a-=b a=a-b
*=	Multiply AND: Multiply right operand with left operand and then assign to left operand	a=b a=ab
/=	Divide AND: Divide left operand with right operand and then assign to left operand	a/=b a=a/b
%=	Modulus AND: Takes modulus using left and right operands and assign result to left operand	a%=b a=a%b
//=	Divide(floor) AND: Divide left operand with right operand and then assign the value(floor) to left operand	a//=b a=a//b
**=	Exponent AND: Calculate exponent(raise power) value using operands and assign value to left operand	a=b a=ab
&=	Performs Bitwise AND on operands and assign value to left operand	a&=b a=a&b
\|=	Performs Bitwise OR on operands and assign value to left operand	a\|=b a=a\|b
^=	Performs Bitwise xOR on operands and assign value to left operand	a^=b a=a^b
>>=	Performs Bitwise right shift on operands and assign value to left operand	a>>=b a=a>>b
<<=	Performs Bitwise left shift on operands and assign value to left operand	a <<= b a= a << b

Special operators: There are some special type of operators like-

Identity operators-
is and is not are the identity operators both are used to check if two values are located on the same part of the memory. Two variables that are equal does not imply that they are identical.
```
is          True if the operands are identical 
is not      True if the operands are not identical 
```

# Examples of Identity operators 
a1 = 3
b1 = 3
a2 = 'GeeksforGeeks'
b2 = 'GeeksforGeeks'
a3 = [1,2,3] 
b3 = [1,2,3] 
  
  
print(a1 is not b1) 
  
  
print(a2 is b2) 
  
# Output is False, since lists are mutable. 
print(a3 is b3) 

Output:

False
True
False

Membership operators-
in and not in are the membership operators; used to test whether a value or variable is in a sequence.

in            True if value is found in the sequence
not in        True if value is not found in the sequence

# Examples of Membership operator 
x = 'Geeks for Geeks'
y = {3:'a',4:'b'} 
  
print('G' in x) 
  
print('geeks' not in x) 
  
print('Geeks' not in x) 
  
print(3 in y) 
  
print('b' in y)

Output:

True
True
False
True
False

Precedence and Associativity of Operators: Operator precedence and associativity as these determine the priorities of the operator.

Operator Precedence: This is used in an expression with more than one operator with different precedence to determine which operation to perform first.

# Examples of Operator Precedence 
  
# Precedence of '+' & '*'  
expr = 10 + 20 * 30
print(expr)  
  
# Precedence of 'or' & 'and'  
name = "Alex"
age = 0
    
if name == "Alex" or name == "John" and age >= 2 :   
    print("Hello! Welcome.")  
else :  
    print("Good Bye!!") 

Output:

610
Hello! Welcome.

Operator Associativity: If an expression contains two or more operators with the same precedence then Operator Associativity is used to determine. It can either be Left to Right or from Right to Left.

# Examples of Operator Associativity 
  
# Left-right associativity  
# 100 / 10 * 10 is calculated as   
# (100 / 10) * 10 and not   
# as 100 / (10 * 10)  
print(100 / 10 * 10)  
    
# Left-right associativity  
# 5 - 2 + 3 is calculated as   
# (5 - 2) + 3 and not   
# as 5 - (2 + 3)  
print(5 - 2 + 3)  
    
# left-right associativity  
print(5 - (2 + 3))  
    
# right-left associativity  
# 2 ** 3 ** 2 is calculated as   
# 2 ** (3 ** 2) and not   
# as (2 ** 3) ** 2  
print(2 ** 3 ** 2) 

Output:

Operator	Description	Associativity
( )	Parentheses	left-to-right
**	Exponent	right-to-left
* / %	Multiplication/division/modulus	left-to-right
+ -	Addition/subtraction	left-to-right
<< >>	Bitwise shift left, Bitwise shift right	left-to-right
< <= > >=	Relational less than/less than or equal to Relational greater than/greater than or equal to	left-to-right
== !=	Relational is equal to/is not equal to	left-to-right

Quiz on Python Operators

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Quiz on Python Operators