Display output with print

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The most fundamental thing a program can do is communicate with you. In Python, you display output to the screen using the built-in print() function.

Using print()

The print() function outputs text to the console. You call it by passing the text you want to display inside parentheses, enclosed in quotes:

print("Hello, world!")

Output:

Hello, world!

You can try running this code yourself in an online python interpreter at https://aka.ms/python-coder.

Single vs. double quotes

Python doesn't care if you use single quotes (') or double quotes ("), as long as you match them up. For example, `print('Hello, world!') works the exact same way.

Avoid missing quotes

If you want to print words, you must use quotes. Omitting them tells Python to look for a variable instead of text. A variable acts as a container for a value. For example:

# This code is missing quotes around the text
print(Hello)

This code results in an error NameError: name 'Hello' is not defined. Don't panic if you see this; it just means Python is looking for a container that doesn't exist yet!

Note

The # symbol is used to add comments to your code. Comments are notes for humans reading the code, and Python ignores them when running the program.

Printing multiple items

You can pass multiple values to print() by separating them with commas. Python automatically inserts a space between each item for you, which is great for combining text:

print("Hello", "world!")

Output:

Hello world!

Using escape characters

Adding a space between items is helpful, but sometimes you need more control over how your text is formatted, like starting a new line, adding a tab space, or including quotation marks inside your text. You can't just press Enter or Tab inside your quotes to do this. Instead, Python uses escape characters, which act as secret commands inside your text. They always start with a backslash (\):

Escape sequence	What it does	Example	Output
\n	Moves text to a new line	print("Line 1\nLine 2")	Line 1 Line 2
\t	Adds a tab space	print("Name:\tAlex")	Name: Alex
\\	Prints a literal backslash	print("C:\\Users")	C:\Users
\"	Prints a double quote	print("She said, \"Hi!\"")	She said, "Hi!"

Make sure to use the backslash (\) and not the forward slash (/). Typing /n will just print /n on your screen.