Numbers & strings

Every value in Python has a type. The three you'll use constantly:

• int — a whole number: 13, 0, -5
• float — a number with a decimal point: 3.14, 88.5
• str — text, always in quotes: "Ananya", "13"

Look at that last one carefully. 13 and "13" are different things. One is a number you can do maths with; the other is text that happens to look like a number.

That distinction causes more beginner confusion than anything else in Python, so it's worth getting straight now.