Boolean Data Types
A boolean type can have one of two values:
True
or False
.
Assigning Boolean Type Variables
course_is_awesome = True course_is_not_awesome = False
That's it. We assigned two variables; one that holds the boolean True
and another that holds the boolean False
.
However, the way we declared these variable isn't very useful; we should make use of comparison operators to take advantage of boolean types.
Comparison Operators
- less than
<
- greater than
>
- less than or equal
<=
- greater than or equal
>=
- equal to
==
- not equal to
!=
These comparison operators are often used to return a boolean value. For example:
comparison_operation = 1 > 2 print(comparison_operation)
>> False
We tried using the comparison operator to determine if 1
is bigger than 2
using the greater than operator >
. Since this comparison operation is false, the operator returns False
as a result.
This changes if we replace it with the smaller than operator <
comparison_operation = 1 < 2 print(comparison_operation)
>> True
Logical Operators
or
operatorand
operatornot
operator
The **or**
Operator
If any of the or
operator's comparisons are true , it returns True
, otherwise it returns False
.
When both comparisons are true:
comparison_operation = 1 < 2 or 2 < 3 print(comparison_operation)
>> True
When a single comparison is true
comparison_operation = 1 < 2 or 2 > 3 print(comparison_operation)
>> True
When both comparisons are false
comparison_operation = 1 > 2 or 2 > 3 print(comparison_operation)
False
- In the first example, since both comparisons were true, the result returned is
True
- In the second example, one of the comparisons was true. However, since the
or
operator only requires a single comparison to be true, the result we got wasTrue
- In the third example, both comparisons were false; so the result we got was
False
The and
Operator
The and
Operator requires all it's comparisons to be true to produce a boolean result of True
. Otherwise, the boolean result will always be False
.
When both comparisons are true
comparison_operation = 1 < 2 and 2 < 3 print(comparison_operation)
>> True
When a single comparison is true
comparison_operation = 1 < 2 and 2 > 3 print(comparison_operation)
>> False
When both comparisons are false
comparison_operation = 1 > 2 and 2 > 3 print(comparison_operation)
>> False
The not
Operator
The not
flips your current boolean value
for example:
comparison_operation = 1 < 2
print(comparison_operation)
>> True
The execution above defaults to True
. Now, what happens if we use the not
operator on it.
comparison_operation = not 1 < 2 print(comparison_operation)
>> False
as you can see, the not
Operator flipped the boolean value from True
to False