Chapter 4

Mathematical Functions, Strings,

and Objects

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1
 Python Built-in Functions
Function Description Example

abs(x) Returns the absolute value for x. abs(-2) is 2

max(x1, x2, ...) Returns the largest among x1, x2, ... max(1, 5, 2) is 5
min(x1, x2, ...) Returns the smallest among x1, x2, ... min(1, 5, 2) is 1
pow(a, b) Returns ab. Same as a ** b. pow(2, 3) is 8
round(x) Returns an integer nearest to x. If x round(5.4) is 5
is equally close to two integers, round(5.5) is 6
the even one is returned. round(4.5) is 4
round(x, n) Returns the float value rounded to n round(5.466, 2) is 5.47
digits after the decimal point. round(5.463, 2) is 5.46

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2
 Built-in Functions
>>> max(2, 3, 4) # Returns a maximum number
4
>>> min(2, 3, 4) # Returns a minimu number
2
>>> round(4.51) # Rounds to its nearest integer
4
>>> round(4.4) # Rounds to its nearest integer
3
>>> abs(-3) # Returns the absolute value
3
>>> pow(2, 3) # Same as 2 ** 3
8
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3
 The math Functions
Function Description Example

fabs(x) Returns the absolute value of the argument. fabs(-2) is 2

ceil(x) Rounds x up to its nearest integer and ceil(2.1) is 3
returns this integer. ceil(-2.1) is -2
floor(x) Rounds x down to its nearest integer and floor(2.1) is 2
returns this integer. floor(-2.1) is -3
exp(x) Returns the exponential function of x (e ** x). exp(1) is 2.71828
log(x) Returns the natural logarithm of x. log(2.71828) is 1.0
log(x, base) Returns the logarithm of x for the specified log10(10, 10) is 1
base.
sqrt(x) Returns the square root of x. sqrt(4.0) is 2
sin(x) Returns the sine of x. x represents an angle sin(3.14159 / 2) is 1
in radians. sin(3.14159) is 0
asin(x) Returns the angle in radians for the inverse asin(1.0) is 1.57
of sine. asin(0.5) is 0.523599
cos(x) Returns the cosine of x. x represents an cos(3.14159 / 2) is 0
angle in radians. cos(3.14159) is -1
acos(x) Returns the angle in radians for the inverse acos(1.0) is 0
of cosine. acos(0.5) is 1.0472
tan(x) Returns the tangent of x. x represents an tan(3.14159 / 4) is 1
angle in radians. tan(0.0) is 0
fmod(x, y) Returns the remainder of x/y as double. fmod(2.4, 1.3) is 1.1
degrees(x) Converts angle x from radians to degrees degrees(1.57) is 90
radians(x) Converts angle x from degrees to radians radians(90) is 1.57

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4
 Strings and Characters
A string is a sequence of characters. String literals
can be enclosed in matching single quotes (') or
double quotes ("). Python does not have a data type
for characters. A single-character string represents a
character.

letter = 'A' # Same as letter = "A"

numChar = '4' # Same as numChar = "4"
message = "Good morning"
# Same as message = 'Good morning'

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 Unicode and ASCII Code
Python characters use Unicode, a 16-bit encoding scheme.
Unicode is an encoding scheme for representing
international characters.
ASCII is a small subset of Unicode.

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8
 Functions ord and chr
>>> ch = 'a'
>>> ord(ch)
>>> 97
>>> chr(98)
>>> 'b'

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9
Escape Sequences for Special Characters
Description Escape Sequence Unicode
Backspace \b \u0008
Tab \t \u0009
Linefeed \n \u000A
Carriage return \r \u000D
Backslash \\ \u005C
Single Quote \' \u0027
Double Quote \" \u0022
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10
 Printing without the Newline
print(item, end = 'anyendingstring')
print("AAA", end = ' ')
print("BBB", end = '')
print("CCC", end = '***')
print("DDD", end = '***')

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11
 The str Function
The str function can be used to convert a number into a
string. For example,
>>> s = str(4.4) # Convert a float to string
>>> s
'4.4'
>>> s = str(3) # Convert an integer to string
>>> s
'3'
>>>

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12
 The String Concatenation Operator
You can use the + operator add two numbers. The +
operator can also be used to concatenate (combine) two
strings. Here are some examples:

>>> message = "Welcome " + "to " + "Python"

>>> message
'Weclome to Python'
>>> chapterNo = 2
>>> s = "Chapter " + str(chapterNo)
>>> s
'Chapter 2'
>>>

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13
 Reading Strings from the Console
To read a string from the console, use the input function.
For example, the following code reads three strings from
the keyboard:

s1 = input("Enter a string: ")

s2 = input("Enter a string: ")
s3 = input("Enter a string: ")
print("s1 is " + s1)
print("s2 is " + s2)
print("s3 is " + s3)

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14
Introduction to Objects and Methods
In Python, all data—including numbers and strings—are
actually objects.

An object is an entity.
Each object has an id and a type.
Objects of the same kind have the same type.
You can use the id function and type function to get these
information for an object.

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 Object Types and Ids
The id and type functions are rarely used in programming,
but they are good pedagogical tools for understanding
objects.
>>> n = 3 # n is an integer >>> s = "Welcome" # s is a string
>>> id(n) >>> id(s)
505408904 36201472
>>> type(n) >>> type(s)
<class ’int’> <class ’str’>
>>> f = 4.0 # f is a float
>>> id(f)
26647120
>>> type(f)
<class ’float’>
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 OOP and str Objects
n=3 f = 3.0 s = "Welcome"
id: 505408904 id: 26647120 id: 36201472
n The object f The object s The object
for int 3 for float for str
3.0 “Welcome”

The id and type functions are rarely used in

programming, but they are good pedagogical tools
for understanding objects.

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Object vs. Object reference Variable
For n = 3, we say n is an integer variable
that holds value 3.

Strictly speaking, n is a variable that

references an int object for value 3.

For simplicity, it is fine to say n is an int

variable with value 3.

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 Methods
You can perform operations on an object.
The operations are defined using functions.
The functions for the objects are called methods
in Python.
Methods can only be invoked from a specific
object.
For example, the string type has the methods
such as lower() and upper(), which returns a new
string in lowercase and uppercase. Here are the
examples to invoke these methods:

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20
 Striping beginning and ending
Whitespace Characters
Another useful string method is strip(), which can be used
to strip the whitespace characters from the both ends of a
string.

>>> s = "\t Welcome \n"

>>> s1 = s.strip() # Invoke the strip method
>>> s1
'Welcome'

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 Testing Strings

Method Description

isalnum() Returns True if all characters in this string are alphanumeric and there is at least
one character.
isalpha() Returns True if all characters in this string are alphabetic and there is at least
one character.
isdigit() Returns True if this string contains only number characters.
isidentifier() Returns True if this string is a Python identifier.
islower() Returns True if all characters in this string are lowercase letters and there is at
least one character.
isupper() Returns True if all characters in this string are uppercase letters and there is at
least one character.
isspace() Returns True if this string contains only whitespace characters.

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 Searching for Substrings

Method Description

endswith(s1) Returns True if the string ends with the substring s1.
startswith(s1) Returns True if the string starts with the substring s1.
find(s1) Returns the lowest index where s1 starts in this string, or -1 if s1 is not found in
this string.
rfind(s1) Returns the highest index where s1 starts in this string, or -1 if s1 is not found
in this string.
count(subtring) Returns the number of non-overlapping occurrences of this substring.

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 Converting Strings
Method Description

capitalize() Returns a copy of this string with only the first character capitalized.
lower() Returns a copy of this string with all letters converted to lowercase.
upper() Returns a copy of this string with all letters converted to uppercase.
title() Returns a copy of this string with the first letter capitalized in each word.
swapcase() Returns a copy of this string in which lowercase letters are converted to uppercase
and uppercase to lowercase.
replace(old, new) Returns a new string that replaces all the occurrence of the old string with a new
string.
replace(old, new, n) Returns a new string that replaces up to n number of the occurrence of the old string
with a new string.

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 Striping Whitespace Characters
Method Description

lstrip() Returns a string with the leading whitespace characters removed.

rstrip() Returns a string with the trailing whitespace characters removed.
strip() Returns a string with the starting and trailing whitespace characters removed.

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 Formatting Numbers and Strings
Often it is desirable to display numbers in certain format.
For example, the following code computes the interest,
given the amount and the annual interest rate.

The format function formats a number or a string and

returns a string.

format(item, format-specifier)

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 Formatting Floating-Point Numbers

print(format(57.467657, '10.2f')) format specifier

10 . 2 f
print(format(12345678.923, '10.2f'))
print(format(57.4, '10.2f'))
field width conversion code
print(format(57, '10.2f'))
precision

10
□□□□□57.47
12345678.92
□□□□□57.40
□□□□□57.00

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 Formatting as a Percentage
You can use the conversion code % to format numbers as a
percentage. For example,

print(format(0.53457, '10.2%'))
print(format(0.0033923, '10.2%'))
print(format(7.4, '10.2%'))
10
print(format(57, '10.2%'))
□□□□53.46%
□□□□□0.34%
□□□740.00%
□□5700.00%

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 F-Strings
F-strings are new formatted strings since Python 3.6. An f-string is a
string that begins with f or F. The string may contain expressions that
are enclosed inside curly braces. The expressions are evaluated at
runtime and formatted to strings. For example,
>>> weight = 140
>>> height = 73
>>> f"Weight is {weight} and height is {height}."

'Weight is 140 and height is 73.’

F-strings are more concise and more efficient than the format function.

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