What Is The Difference Between A String And A Variable? - Codecademy

Skip to ContentSubmitted by teraSlayer55305almost 11 yearsWhat is the difference between a string and a variable?

I am a little confused on knowing what a string or variable is. Is a string just a variable with multiple words in it?

Such as

Variable is my_var= 3 or “hello’

String is my_var= “my name is terry’

Also, how do you know when to use quotes in your variable such as my_var =3 and my_var = ‘hello’

Do you use quotes for words only?

Answer 54a0d14f76b8fee741013ca7

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a string is a value representing text

a variable is a name that can refer to any value

quotes, double or single, (they mean the same, but can’t be matched with each other) are used to create string literals, the quotes are there to indicate that the text that they enclose is not code, it is a value

Submitted by ionatanalmost 11 years

4 comments

Submitted by Pokesamalmost 11 years

In python with these examples, there is little difference. They are both variables. Regular variables in Python are actually objects, you are just assigning different data to them. This is much easier to see in a language such as Java since there is a clear difference between primitives and wrappers, you may want to look into Java at some point, teaches A LOT about basic computer science. My opinion of course :P

Submitted by ionatanalmost 11 years

not so sure about this statement: “Regular variables in Python are actually objects” (i doubt that is true, but i also don’t know exactly how variables are implemented in python. i know there are dictionaries where the variable names are the keys an the objects are the values, but if i recall correctly that is not the whole story of it) but all values are indeed objects. Java is very far away from the hardware, sitting on top of the monster that is jvm, so if by basics you mean the low-level workings of a computer then i’ll definitely suggest C instead (C also happens to be very simple, as in, it has very few features)

Submitted by ionatanalmost 11 years

feel free to direct me to some valid source (i.e. not some blog or tutorial, more like python.org) that explains how variables work, i’d love to get that straightened out, but googling it turned out tricky, i’ll have to look into that later

Submitted by Pokesamalmost 11 years

If you think Java is far from the hardware you should see how far Python is haha. I get most my knowledge from studying Software Engineering, I think this link should explain what I mean clearer though: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html section 3.1 and http://www.learnpython.org/en/Variables_and_Types Sorry for laaaate reply, been busy :) Also I agree with the comment on C that it is definitely lower level, however Java (in my opinion once again) is a more useful and easier to use modern language while still feeling of C, at the beginner level anyway.

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