Interactive mode is the quickest way you can start using Python. To use the Python interactive shell we just need Python installed on the machine.
Start Interactive Shell
Then just type the command “python“, and you will get into the interactive shell-
> python
Python 3.12.4 (tags/v3.12.4:8e8a4ba, Jun 6 2024, 19:30:16) [MSC v.1940 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>Or if you have Python 3 installed separately, and available as the command “python3“, like I have in my Ubuntu box, then type “python3” to access the interactive shell-
$ python3
Python 3.10.12 (main, Nov 20 2023, 15:14:05) [GCC 11.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>Interact with Interactive Shell
Then we can start interacting with the interactive shell-
>>> a = 100
>>> a
100
>>> b = 500
>>> b
500
>>> a + b
600
>>> a * b
50000
>>> print("Hello BigBoxCode")
Hello BigBoxCode
>>> print("a + b = ", a+b)
a + b = 600
>>> # some comment here
>>>Evaluate Expression
We can use the Python interactive shell to evaluate expressions only-
>>> 2 + 4
6
>>> x = 3
>>> x + 8
11
>>> x
3
>>> "this is my sample string"
'this is my sample string'
>>> my_str = "abc" + " some extension"
>>> my_str
'abc some extension'
>>> 20 * 3 + 9 / (2 +3)
61.8We can evaluate other Python expressions in the interactive shell-
>>> big_box_tpl = ("Big", "Box", "Code")
>>> big_box_tpl
('Big', 'Box', 'Code')
>>> type(big_box_tpl)
<class 'tuple'>
>>> "Big", "Box", "Code"
('Big', 'Box', 'Code')
>>> big_box_tpl = "Big", "Box", "Code"
>>> big_box_tpl
('Big', 'Box', 'Code')
>>> type(big_box_tpl)
<class 'tuple'>