Every programming language comes with a set of syntaxes for every concept it provides within it. These syntaxes are what programmers learn and understand to write the programming in any particular language. In this article, you will understand what a Python syntax is and how it helps the interpreter understand the code.
What is Python syntax?
Python syntaxes are a set of rules that define the structure of a language. The syntax of Python programming represents the rules or structure that control the layout of the keywords, symbols, punctuation, and other tokens of Python programming. Without syntaxes, programmers won't be able to extract the meaning or semantics of a language.
Even human languages such as English have syntaxes that we learn through the subject called grammar. It teaches us how to properly place each part of speech in the sentence to make it meaningful. Without syntax, it is nearly impossible to make the interpreter understand what the programmer wants to convey to the computer through the logical codes.
For example, the syntax of a print() function in Python is:
print(<"strings">, <literals> , <constants>, <expressions>)
Also, syntaxes are something, whose meaning and structural understanding is already feed to the Python interpreter. So, whenever a programmer writes something in the Python script and tries to run it using the Python interpreter, the interpreter can understand it and execute the desired output. But, if the interpreter could not parse the meaning of the syntax, it could lead to error. To understand the error, we have to understand what error is and how syntax error parses each token line by line.
What are Errors in programming? What are syntax errors?
Errors are problems in a program that occurs due to the programmer's fault or misunderstanding of a concept or syntax. The most typical reason for an error in a Python code is when a particular statement or set of statements is not placed according to the prescribed usage provided by the programming language creator while developing the interpreter. Such an error is called a syntax error, where the programmer writes something that is not according to the structure or behavior of a particular concept. The Python interpreter immediately reports errors as it executes statements line by line, and with a reason or pointing to where the program needs correction.
Importance of syntax is Python:
As we all know, Python is a high-level programming language, the syntaxes improve the code readability. Syntaxes also ensure that the four C's of coding is properly implemented:
- Communication: what the program wants to execute by the interpreter.
- Code integration: how each statement related to the other
- Consistency: how the code provides meaning and a goal throughout the program
- Clarity: what the program wants to convey to the computer in the form of instructions
The concept behind developing specific conventions is to make the code self explanatory. If the code is self-explanatory and the code structure is known to the system software (Python interpreter); it can easily parse each token into its meaningful representation.
Conclusion:
Learning syntaxes for different programming languages might seem daunting. But understanding where and why they are required and regular practice of them will help beginners keep in mind the syntactic structure of each and every concept they learn. In the beginning, the learning might go slow, but as you become more familiar with the language, learning different programming languages will not be a tough nut to crack.