What is Type Conversion in Python?

Guido van Rossum, a computer scientist and academic, created Python. Back in the late 1980s, he recognized a chance to create a better language and believed that the open-source approach would be great for boosting innovation and adoption (the language’s name was inspired by his favorite comedy, Monty Python’s Flying Circus). Python is a high-level programming language that is simple to learn for both beginners and advanced users. Its use is forgiving, allowing coders to avoid learning the nuances required in more structured languages such as Java. Python was created to express strong views on how software should be created. As a result, there is frequently just one correct method to write a piece of code, leaving developers with fewer design considerations to consider.

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“Python has become the most popular language of choice for learning programming in school and university, and this is true not only in computer science departments but also in other areas as programming has grown in popularity.”Statistics, economics, physics, and even traditionally non-technical disciplines like sociology have begun to incorporate programming and data analysis into their curricula. Python was quickly adopted by academics conducting ML/AI research due to its ease of use and speed of iteration. However, Python has proven to be useful in a variety of other areas, such as website development and DevOps scripting. However, it is with AI/ML that the language has truly shone. Python does not have the most efficient runtime due to its interpreted nature.

Type Conversion in Python

In Python, we have data types such as int, float, and string. Assume we need to convert a decimal value to an integer to display its rounded-off data. Or from string to integer when we take a user’s age from the console and need to compare it to another number. Type conversion is the process of converting the value of one data type (integer, string, float, etc.) to another data type. Type Casting is a method for converting a variable data type into a specific data type for users to perform the required operation. Let’s look at a real-world example to see why typecasting is important in Python. Assume a person is traveling to America from India and wishes to purchase something from an American store. However, that person only has INR in cash (Indian Rupees). So the individual goes to a local bank in America to have their money converted from INR to USD (American Dollar). This analogy is similar to how typecasting works in Python.

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Conversion of type is a Python data type conversion method. Type conversion is the process of converting values from one data type to another, which can be done automatically by the Python interpreter or manually by the programmer using built-in functions. It should be noted that not all data types can be converted to each other. A string made up of English letter alphabets, for example, cannot be converted into an integer. We can convert string objects to numeric values, as well as various container types. Python offers two types of conversion methods: implicit conversion and explicit conversion.

1. Implicit Type Conversion

When a data type conversion occurs during compilation or run time, it is referred to as an implicit data type conversion in Python. Python handles the implicit data type conversion, so we do not directly convert the data type to another data type. Conversion without losing the original meaning of data forms is referred to as implicit type casting. This type of typecasting is useful when you want to change the data without changing the significance of the values stored in the variable. When a value is copied to a compatible type, the implicit type is converted automatically. Strict guidelines for form conversion will be enforced during conversion.

If the operands are of different data types, the operand with the lower data type will be converted to a higher data type automatically. For instance, we took and combined two variables of integer and float data. In addition, we declared and saved the result of the added variable ‘sum.’ The Python compiler automatically converts the sum variable data type to the float data type by checking the sum variable data type. This is known as implicit type conversion. The reason for converting the sum variable to the floating data type is that if the compiler had converted it to the integer data type, the fractional part would have had to be omitted, resulting in data loss. To avoid data loss, Python converts smaller data types to larger data types. In some cases, Python cannot use implicit conversion and must resort to explicit form conversion.

2. Explicit Type Conversion

Users convert an object’s data type to the data type required by Explicit Type Conversion. We use predefined functions such as int(), float(), and str() to perform explicit type conversion (). Because the user casts (changes) the object data type, this conversion form is also known as typecasting. When the programmer specifies the program clearly and explicitly, the explicit type is converted. Python includes several built-in functions for explicit form conversion. Variable value1 is the data type number, and variable value2 is the data type string, for example. When these two entries are inserted and the value is stored in the variable result1, a TypeError occurs, as shown in the output. As a result, we must use explicit casting to carry out this operation. The key functions in explicit conversion are:

• int(a,base)

The int (a, base) function converts any data type to an integer. It is a method for converting a number string a to a decimal value in the given base value. If the data type is a string, ‘Base’ defines the base in which the string is transformed. By default, ‘Base’ is set to 10.

• float()

The float() method converts a number or string into a floating point number. float(a), float(b) The method accepts the following types of arguments: A number: This can be either an integer or a floating-point number. A string must contain some kind of number. The method disregards any left or right spaces as well as new lines. The use of mathematical operators is possible. NaN, Infinity, or Inf can all be used (in any case). According to the passed statement, the following values can be returned by float(): If an argument is passed, the equivalent floating point number is returned. When no arguments are passed, the method returns 0.0. An error is raised if a string is passed that does not match several decimal points, OverflowError is thrown when a number exceeds the Python float range.

• ord()

In Python, the ord() function accepts a string argument of unit length and returns the Unicode equivalence of the passed argument. In other words, the ord() function returns the integer corresponding to the character’s Unicode point in the case of a Unicode argument or the byte value in the case of an 8-bit argument.

• hex()

The hex() function is a built-in Python3 function that converts an integer into a suitable hexadecimal form for the integer’s number.

• oct()

oct() is a Python3 built-in method. The oct() method returns an integer’s octal representation in string format.

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Wrapping up

In any programming language, there is frequently a need to convert a value of one data type to another. Python provides implicit and explicit type conversions. Without the intervention of a programmer, a Python interpreter performs implicit type conversion. The programmer performs an explicit type conversion.

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