Variables

What is a variable?

Variables have a name and a value in programming. Usually, the value varies during program execution. In Python, setting a variable is simple, the syntax is:

variable_name = variable_value

Variable names

The variable name has some restrictions. For example, it cannot start with a number, it cannot contain spaces, and it cannot have many special characters. Underscore is typically used as a replacement for a space, as shown above.

Example

Let's say we have a record of two players' HP that we want to keep track of.

player1_hp = 100
player2_hp = 90

Using Variables

Once the variables have been defined, we can use them in the code. For example, like this, we could print the HP of both players:

print(player1_hp)
print(player2_hp)

Exercise

Just do the task! Remember to be careful with names and values, the automatic checking mechanism is quite a stickler for details.