The print() Function

1. The Basics of print()

You have already been using print() since Module 1. Now let us explore its full power. At its simplest, print() takes a value and displays it:

print("Hello, World!")
print(42)
print(3.14)
print(True)

You can also print the value of variables:

name = "Alice"
age = 25
print(name)
print(age)

2. Printing Multiple Values

You can pass multiple values to print() separated by commas. Python will automatically insert a space between each value:

name = "Alice"
age = 25

print("Name:", name)
print("Age:", age)
print("Hello,", name, "you are", age, "years old.")

# With commas (easier!)
print("Score:", 95)

# With concatenation (must convert manually)
print("Score: " + str(95))

You can print as many values as you want, mixing different types freely:

print("Name:", "Alice", "| Age:", 25, "| GPA:", 3.85, "| Active:", True)

3. The sep Parameter

By default, print() separates multiple values with a space. You can change this using the sep (separator) parameter:

# Default separator (space)
print("apple", "banana", "cherry")

# Custom separators
print("apple", "banana", "cherry", sep=", ")
print("apple", "banana", "cherry", sep=" - ")
print("apple", "banana", "cherry", sep="\n")

month = 3
day = 15
year = 2025

print(month, day, year, sep="/")

hours = 9
minutes = 30
print(hours, minutes, sep=":")

You can even use an empty string as a separator to join items with no space:

print("2", "0", "2", "5", sep="")

4. The end Parameter

By default, print() adds a newline character (\n) at the end, which is why each print() appears on a new line. You can change this behavior with end:

# Default behavior - each on a new line
print("Hello")
print("World")

print()  # blank line

# Using end to keep printing on the same line
print("Hello", end=" ")
print("World")

# Countdown on one line
print("3", end="...")
print("2", end="...")
print("1", end="...")
print("Go!")

You can use sep and end together:

print("a", "b", "c", sep="-", end="!\n")
print("Done.")

5. Printing Blank Lines and Multi-Line Output

Calling print() with no arguments prints a blank line:

print("Section 1")
print()
print("Section 2")

You can also use the \n escape character within a string to create multi-line output from a single print() call:

print("Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3")

6. Putting It All Together

# A formatted student report
name = "Maria Garcia"
student_id = 12345
grade = 92.5

print("=" * 30)
print("STUDENT REPORT")
print("=" * 30)
print("Name:", name)
print("ID:", student_id)
print("Grade:", grade)
print("=" * 30)