Your first Python program

The idea

A program is a sequence of instructions. Python normally executes these statements from top to bottom. print displays a value, and text inside matching quotes is a string. The quotes tell Python where the text begins and ends; they are not included in the displayed result.

An assignment such as completed = 2 gives a name to a value. A later statement can use that name, and a later assignment can bind it to a new value. The equals sign in an assignment means store this value under this name, not ask a yes-or-no question. Arithmetic such as completed + 1 computes a new number.

Try predicting each printed line before running the example. Change one input and compare what happened with your prediction. The next chapters build strings, lists, decisions, and functions from these small statements. You do not need to understand imports, classes, or formatting codes to begin.

name = "Coder"
completed = 2
print(name)
print(completed)
completed = completed + 1
print(completed)

Coder
2
3

The first print reads text. The last print sees the value after completed has been increased by one.