Operators perform computer operations on one or more python values or expression. The value the operator is operating on is called an operand. There are three different category of operators in python. They are:

1. Arithmetic operators
2. Comparison operators
3. Logical operators

Arithmetic operators

This operators include the four basic arithmetic operations which are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Python can be used as a simple calculator because of these maths operators. Other operators that may not be common to us are the modulus operator and the exponent or power operator.

Name	Operator	Example
Addition	+	x + y
Subtraction	-	x - y
Multiplication	*	x * y
Division	/	x / y
Exponentiation	**	x**y
Modulus	%	x % y

Example arithmetic operations:

5**2 # raise 5 to the power of 2, 25

5 % 2 # returns the remainder of 5 / 2, 1

Comparison Operators

This operator compares two values and returns a boolean (True/False). There are 7 of them. One thing to note that in python the == comparison operator is the equal-to we all know and love, not to be confused with the assignment operator = used for binding a variable name to a value. The result of a comparison operation is always going to be a boolean value.

Name	Operator	Example
Equal	==	x == y
Not equal	!=	x != y
Greater than	>	x > y
Less than	<	x < y
Greater than or equal to	>=	x >= y
Less than or equal to	<=	x <= y

Example comparison operations:

'ball' == 'ball' # True

5 > 4 # 5 greater than 4, True

15 < 10 # 15 less than 10, False

Logical Operators

There are only three logical operators in python. Logical operators are used conditionally join values and expression to form a more complex expression. An understanding of truth table will give us an idea of the result of logical operations.

Operator	Description	Example
and	Returns True only when both statements are true	x == 5 and y == 10
or	Returns True if any of the statements is true	x == 5 or y == 10
not	Opposite of the result, True gives False	not (x == 5)

Truth Table

condition X	condition Y	X and Y	X or Y	not X
False	False	False	False	True
False	True	False	True	True
True	False	False	True	False
True	True	True	True	False

Example of logical operations

5 == 5 and 5 > 2 # 5 equals 5 (True) and 5 greater than 2 (True)

5 != 2 or 5 < 4 # 5 not equals 2 (True) or 5 less than 4 (False)

5 < 2 and 5 > 2 # 5 less than 2 (False) and 5 greater than 2 (True)

not 5 == 5 # not 5 equals 5 (True)

These are the classes of operators in python and their operations. Understanding them will help build the foundation for you to become an expert in python.