Python Operators: Arithmetic, Assignment, Comparison, Logical, Identity, Membership, Bitwise

Operators are special symbols that perform some operation on operands and returns the result. For example, 5 + 6 is an expression where + is an operator that performs arithmetic add operation on numeric left operand 5 and the right side operand 6 and returns a sum of two operands as a result.

Python includes the operator module that includes underlying methods for each operator. For example, the + operator calls the operator.add(a,b) method.

Example: Operator Methods
import operator

n=5+5  
print(n)

n=operator.add(5, 10)
print(n)

n=operator.__add__(5, 20)
print(n)

Above, expression 5 + 6 is equivalent to the expression operator.add(5, 6) and operator.__add__(5, 6). Many function names are those used for special methods, without the double underscores (dunder methods). For backward compatibility, many of these have functions with the double underscores kept.

Python includes the following categories of operators:

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators perform the common mathematical operation on the numeric operands.

The arithmetic operators return the type of result depends on the type of operands, as below.

  1. If either operand is a complex number, the result is converted to complex;
  2. If either operand is a floating point number, the result is converted to floating point;
  3. If both operands are integers, then the result is an integer and no conversion is needed.

The following table lists all the arithmetic operators in Python:

Operation Operator Function Example in Python Shell
Addition: Sum of two operands + operator.add(a,b)
x,y= 5,6
print(x + y) #output: 11

import operator
operator.add(5,6) #output: 11
Subtraction: Left operand minus right operand - operator.sub(a,b)
x,y =5,6
print(x - y) #output: -1

import operator
operator.sub(10, 5) #output: 5
Multiplication * operator.mul(a,b)
x,y =5,6
print(x * y) #output: 30

import operator
operator.mul(5,6) #output: 30
Exponentiation: Left operand raised to the power of right ** operator.pow(a,b)
x = 2; y = 3
print(x ** y) #output: 8

import operator
operator.pow(2, 3) #output: 8
Division / operator.truediv(a,b)
x = 6; y = 3
print(x / y) #output: 2

import operator
operator.truediv(6, 3) #output: 2
Floor division: equivilant to math.floor(a/b) // operator.floordiv(a,b)
x = 6; y = 5
print(x // y)  #output: 1

import operator
operator.floordiv(6,5) #output: 1
Modulus: Reminder of a/b % operator.mod(a, b)
x = 11; y = 3
print(x % y) #output: 12

import operator
operator.mod(11, 3) #output: 2

Assignment Operators

The assignment operators are used to assign values to variables. The following table lists all the arithmetic operators in Python:

Operator Function Example in Python Shell
=
x = 5;
x 
5
+= operator.iadd(a,b)
x = 5
print(x += 5) #output: 10

import operator
x = operator.iadd(5, 5) #output: 10
-= operator.isub(a,b)
x = 5
print(x -= 2) #output: 3

import operator
x = operator.isub(5,2)
*= operator.imul(a,b)
x = 2
print(x *= 3) #output: 6

import operator
x = operator.imul(2, 3)
/= operator.itruediv(a,b)
x = 6
print(x /= 3)  #output: 2

import operator
x = operator.itruediv(6, 3)
//= operator.ifloordiv(a,b)
x = 6
print(x //= 5) #output: 1

import operator
operator.ifloordiv(6,5)
%= operator.imod(a, b)
x = 11
print(x %= 3) #output: 2

import operator
operator.imod(11, 3) #output: 2
&= operator.iand(a, b)
x = 11
print(x &= 3) #output: 1

import operator
operator.iand(11, 3) #output: 1
|= operator.ior(a, b)
x = 3
print(x |= 4) #output: 7

import operator
operator.mod(3, 4) #output: 7
^= operator.ixor(a, b)
x = 5
print(x ^= 2)  #output: 7

import operator
operator.ixor(5, 2) #output: 7
>>= operator.irshift(a, b)
x = 5
print(x >>= 2) #output: 1

import operator
operator.irshift(5, 2)  #output: 1
<<= operator.ilshift(a, b)
x = 5
print(x <<= 2)  #output: 20

import operator
operator.ilshift(5, 2)  #output: 20

Comparison Operators

The comparison operators compare two operands and return a boolean either True or False. The following table lists comparison operators in Python.

Operator Function Description Example in Python Shell
> operator.gt(a,b) True if the left operand is higher than the right one
x,y =5,6
print(x > y) #output: False

import operator
operator.gt(5,6) #output: False
< operator.lt(a,b) True if the left operand is lower than right one
x,y =5,6
print(x < y)  #output: True

import operator
operator.add(5,6) #output: True
== operator.eq(a,b) True if the operands are equal
x,y =5,6
print(x == y) #output: False

import operator
operator.eq(5,6) #output: False
!= operator.ne(a,b) True if the operands are not equal
x,y =5,6
print(x != y)  #output: True

import operator
operator.ne(5,6)  #output: True
>= operator.ge(a,b) True if the left operand is higher than or equal to the right one
x,y =5,6
print(x >= y)  #output: False

import operator
operator.ge(5,6)  #output: False
<= operator.le(a,b) True if the left operand is lower than or equal to the right one
x,y =5,6
print(x <= y)  #output: True

import operator
operator.le(5,6)  #output: True

Logical Operators

The logical operators are used to combine two boolean expressions. The logical operations are generally applicable to all objects, and support truth tests, identity tests, and boolean operations.

Operator Description Example
and True if both are true
x,y =5,6
print(x > 1 and y <10) #output: True
or True if at least one is true
x,y =5,6
print(x > 6 or y <10) #output: True
not Returns True if an expression evalutes to false and vice-versa
x = 5
print(not x > 1) #output: False

Identity Operators

The identity operators check whether the two objects have the same id value e.i. both the objects point to the same memory location.

Operator Function Description Example in Python Shell
is operator.is_(a,b) True if both are true
x,y =5,6
print(x is y) #output: False

import operator
operator.is_(x,y) #output: False
is not operator.is_not(a,b) True if at least one is true
x,y =5,6
print(x is not y)  #output: True

import operator
operator.is_not(x, y) #output: True

Membership Test Operators

The membership test operators in and not in test whether the sequence has a given item or not. For the string and bytes types, x in y is True if and only if x is a substring of y.

Operator Function Description Example in Python Shell
in operator.contains(a,b) Returns True if the sequence contains the specified item else returns False.
nums = [1,2,3,4,5]
print(1 in nums) #output: True
print(10 in nums) #output: False
print('str' in 'string') #output: True

import operator
operator.contains(nums, 2)  #output: True
not in not operator.contains(a,b) Returns True if the sequence does not contains the specified item, else returns False.
nums = [1,2,3,4,5]
print(1 not in nums)  #output: False
print(10 not in nums) #output: True
print('str' not in 'string') #output: False

import operator
not operator.contains(nums, 2)  #output: False

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators perform operations on binary operands.

Operator Function Description Example in Python Shell
& operator.and_(a,b) Sets each bit to 1 if both bits are 1.
x=5; y=10
z=x & y
print(z) #output: 0

import operator
operator.and_(x, y)
| operator.or_(a,b) Sets each bit to 1 if one of two bits is 1.
x=5; y=10
z=x | y 
print(z) #output: 15

import operator
operator.or_(x, y)
^ operator.xor(a,b) Sets each bit to 1 if only one of two bits is 1.
x=5; y=10
z=x ^ y 
print(z) #output: 15

import operator
operator.xor(x, y)
~ operator.invert(a) Inverts all the bits.
x=5
print(~x) #output: -6

import operator
operator.invert(x)

<< operator.lshift(a,b) Shift left by pushing zeros in from the right and let the leftmost bits fall off.
x=5
print(x<<2)  #output: 20

import operator
operator.lshift(x,2)

>> operator.rshift(a,b) Shift right by pushing copies of the leftmost bit in from the left, and let the rightmost bits fall off.
x=5
print(x>>2) #output: 1

import operator
operator.rshift(x,2)