What is print in Python and How to use its Parameters?

One of the most important fundamentals of programming is printing the outputs. Every programming language has its own methods to print the output either to the console or to files. In Python, this process of returning outputs becomes very simple with the print function of Python. In this article, you will be learning all the important aspects of print in Python.

Before moving on, let’s take a look at the contents that are covered over here:

• What is print in Python?
• Using print in Python
  • Without optional parameters
  • Specifying separator
  • Using the end parameter
  • Writing to a file
  • Changing the flush parameter

What is print in Python?

print in Python is the standard function used to print the output to the console. The syntax of this function is as follows:

SYNTAX:

print(value1, value2, …, sep = ‘ ‘ , end = ‘ n ‘, file = sys.stdout, flush = False)

The parameters and their descriptions are as follows:

NOTE: All objects will be converted to a string before being returned as the output.

Using print in Python

The print function can be used as follows:

Without optional parameters:

You can make use of the print statement to simply print any output objects as you require. Consider the following example:

EXAMPLE:

print("Using the print function in Python")

OUTPUT:    Using the print function in Python

Here, the print function just prints out the given string to the console.

Let us now give more than one value to a single print statement.

EXAMPLE:

a=2019
b='World'
print('Hello',a,b)

OUTPUT:     Hello 2019 World

As you can see, in the above example, a single print statement prints three different objects. Also, the ‘ + ‘ operator allows concatenation of objects for example:

EXAMPLE:

a='Hi'
b='Welcome'
print(a+b)

OUTPUT:    HiWelcome

Here are few more examples that you can try out:

EXAMPLE:

print('Hello')
print('Hello','World')              #printting two strings
print('Hello'+'World')              #concatenating two strings
print('Hellon'+'World')             #printing with n
print('Hello','World',2019)         #printing strings along with integers
print(2019,'Hello World')           
print(str(2019)+'Hello World')      #concatenating integers with strings (using type conversion) 
print(34+67)                        #adding within print

You can also specify any type of separators between each object.

Specifying Separator:

Separator creates a partition between different objects that are present within the print statement. The default value of this attribute is a whitespace character ( ‘ ‘ ). The user can change the value of this operator as and when required.

EXAMPLE:

a='Hello'
b='World'
print(a,2019,b,sep=',')

OUTPUT:   Hello,2019,World

In the above example, different objects are separated by a comma ( , ) rather than a whitespace character in contrast to the previous example.

You can also adjust what you what to print at the end of the output.

Using the end parameter:

The end parameter allows you to configure what you what to print at the end of the output. The default value of this parameter is ‘n’ or the next line character. Let us see what happens when I use two separate print functions to print outputs.

EXAMPLE:

a='Hi'
b='Welcome'
print(a)
print(b)

OUTPUT:   

Hi
Welcome

Here, the end parameter is not set and hence, the outputs are printed in two separate lines. In case you want to print it them in the same line, you can do as follows:

EXAMPLE:

a='Hi'
b='Welcome'
print(a,end=' & ')
print(b)

OUTPUT:     Hi & Welcome

In the above example, the value of the end parameter is ‘ & ‘ as seen between the outputs.

The print statement can also write outputs to a file.

Writing to a file:

The output can be written to a file optionally using the file parameter. In case the file is not present, it creates a new file with that name and writes the output to it. For example:

EXAMPLE:

newfile = open('abc.txt','w')
print('Hi Welcome', file = newfile)
newfile.close()

OUTPUT:  Take a look at the file in the image below:

The flush parameter:

The flush parameter of print in Python allows you to choose buffered or unbuffered output. the default value of this parameter is False, meaning the output will be buffered. In case you set this to be True, the output is unbuffered and this process is usually slower than the former. Take a look at the time taken for default buffered output in the example below:

EXAMPLE:

import time
g=open('sample.txt', 'r')
a=g.read()
s=time.time()
print(a,flush=False)
e=time.time()
print(e-s)

OUTPUT:

The time taken for this to execute is 0.00099 seconds. Now, let’s try to change the value to True.

EXAMPLE:

import time
g=open('sample.txt', 'r')
a=g.read()
s=time.time()
print(a,flush=True)
e=time.time()
print(e-s)

OUTPUT:

The same process takes 0.003 seconds when the output is unbuffered. This is because its easier to transfer the output in chunks rather than printing it in a sequence of characters. Usually all I/Os are buffered. However, this option is convenient when the user needs to flush the entire output in special scenarios.

This brings to the end of this article on “print in Python”. I hope you have understood everything clearly. Make sure you practice as much as possible and revert your experience.