Booleans the yes-or-no of the programming world. In Python, we write them as True and False (note the capitalization).
Let's start with some basic examples to see Booleans in action.
is_teenager = True likes_pizza = False print(is_teenager) # This will print: True print(likes_pizza) # This will print: False
In these examples, is_teenager is a Boolean variable that is set to True, and likes_pizza is set to False. Pretty straightforward, right?
Booleans become super useful when we use them with comparison operators. These operators allow us to compare values and evaluate them to either True or False.
Here are the common comparison operators:
== (equal to)!= (not equal to)< (less than)> (greater than)<= (less than or equal to)>= (greater than or equal to)age = 15 print(age == 15) # True, because age is indeed 15 print(age > 20) # False, because age is not greater than 20 print(age != 10) # True, because age is not equal to 10
To make even more powerful checks, Python provides logical operators: and, or, and not. These operators allow you to combine multiple conditions.
age = 15 has_permission = True # Check if someone is a teenager and has permission is_allowed = age >= 13 and age <= 19 and has_permission print(is_allowed) # True # Check if someone is either a teenager or has permission might_be_allowed = age >= 13 or has_permission print(might_be_allowed) # True # Using not to invert a Boolean value print(not has_permission) # False, because has_permission is True
One of the most common uses of Booleans is in conditional statements, where you can execute code based on whether a condition is True or False.
age = 15
if age >= 13 and age <= 19:
print("You're a teenager!")
else:
print("You're not a teenager.")