2.1 Assignment, Equality, and Arithmetic

With some minor exceptions, Sage uses the Python programming language, so most introductory books on Python will help you to learn Sage.

Sage uses = for assignment. It uses ==,<=,>=,< and > for comparison:

sage: a = 5
sage: a
5
sage: 2 == 2
True
sage: 2 == 3
False
sage: 2 < 3
True
sage: a == 5
True

Sage provides all of the basic mathematical operations:

sage: 2**3    #  ** means exponent
8
sage: 2^3     #  ^ is a synonym for ** (unlike in Python)
8
sage: 10 % 3  #  for integer arguments, % means mod, i.e., remainder
1
sage: 10/4
5/2
sage: 10//4   #  for integer arguments, // returns the integer quotient
2
sage: 4 * (10 // 4) + 10 % 4 == 10
True
sage: 3^2*4 + 2%5
38

The computation of an expression like 3^2*4 + 2%5 depends on the order in which the operations are applied; this is specified in the ``operator precedence table'' in Section A.1.

Sage also provides many familiar mathematical functions; here are just a few examples:

sage: sin(pi/3)
sqrt(3)/2
sage: exp(2)
e^2
sage: n(exp(2))  # n(-) returns a numerical approximation to its argument
7.38905609893065
sage: erf(1.4)
0.952285119762649

Python is dynamically typed, so the value referred to by each variable has a type associated with it, but a given variable may hold values of any Python type within a given scope:

sage: a = 5   # a is an integer
sage: type(a)
<type 'sage.rings.integer.Integer'>
sage: a = 5/3  # now a is a rational number
sage: type(a)
<type 'sage.rings.rational.Rational'>
sage: a = 'hello'  # now a is a string
sage: type(a)
<type 'str'>
The C programming language, which is statically typed, is much different; a variable declared to hold an int can only hold an int in its scope.

A potential source of confusion in Python is that an integer literal that begins with a zero is treated as an octal number, i.e., a number in base 8.

sage: 011
9
sage: 8 + 1
9
sage: n = 011
sage: n.str(8)   # string representation of n in base 8
'11'
This is consistent with the C programming language.

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