The next step in your programming journey involves understanding 'booleans', a fundamental concept in all of computer programming.
Booleans are a type of data that can only be one of two values: true
or false
. Think of booleans as yes-or-no switches that you use to control the behavior of a program.
For example, if raining is true then we'll need to make sure we wear our coats.
What are Booleans?
Booleans represent the idea of truth and falsity within a program. In Python, the two boolean values are written as True
and False
.
Creating a Boolean
Here's how you express true or false in Python:
print(True) # This is the boolean value for "true"
print(False) # This is the boolean value for "false"
You simply write either true
or false
.
It's important to note that in Python, these are case-sensitive, so they must start with an uppercase letter.
Why Booleans Matter
Booleans are crucial because they let you control the flow of your programs. For instance, you can execute a block of code only if certain conditions are met. This is done using "if statements," which rely heavily on booleans. Booleans are also essential in loops, which run repeatedly until a boolean condition is no longer true.