How Many Words Are in Pythontongue?

On using keywords in Python

If we’re just counting so-called keywords, then there really aren’t a lot to learn in Python. Things change over time as new versions of Python appear, but by my count and at the time of this writing, there are only 35 key words. So take heart, newbies, this definitely ain’t Mandarin.

Clywd-Powys Archaeological Trust, Rod Trevaskus
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medieval_-Key(locking)_(FindID_249113).jpg

In fact, as a beginner who is taking tutorials, you’ll regularly use only about half those words. Still, I suspect that if you learn them all now, you’ll become a better coder faster (advice I wish someone had given me before I began my inefficient perambulations through Python coding). They don’t call them keywords for nothing.

So let’s start with an alphabetical list:

  1. and
  2. as
  3. assert
  4. async
  5. await
  6. break
  7. class
  8. continue
  9. def
  10. del
  11. elif
  12. else
  13. except
  14. False
  15. finally
  16. for
  17. from
  18. global
  19. if
  20. import
  21. in
  22. is
  23. lambda
  24. None
  25. nonlocal
  26. not
  27. or
  28. pass
  29. raise
  30. return
  31. True
  32. try
  33. while
  34. with
  35. yield

Not too intimidating, right? Easier than memorizing the school play you were in elementary school (unless, of course, you played the tree, my personal fav).  Now that you know what the keywords are, you need to know what they all mean and can do. That’s where the next series of blog posts come in.

PS – If you want to know more about keywords right now, I highly recommend Programiz’s Description of Keywords in Python with examples.

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Mark R. Vickers

I am a writer, analyst, futurist and researcher. I've spent most of my working life as an editor and manager for research organizations focusing on social, business, technology, HR and management trends. But, perhaps more to the point for this blog, I'm curious about the universe and the myriad, often mysterious relationships therein.

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