The Python Shell

The Python Shell is an excellent tool to experiment with single lines of code.

Accessing the Python Shell

To access the Python Shell, in the terminal, simply type $ python. Make sure it opens to python 3.6 or higher. On some computers, many versions of Python may be installed. On our Chromebooks, open the shell with $ python3.8. It should look something like:

Python 3.8.0 (tags/v3.8.0:fa919fd, Oct 14 2019, 19:37:50) [MSC v.1916 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Running commands

You will know you are in the Python Shell by the three greater-than signs >>>. You can then type in python code one line at a time to see the result.

>>> 3 + 5
8
>>> a = 6
>>> b = 2
>>> a + b
8
>>> a
6

Exiting the Python Shell

To exit the Python shell, press ctrl + z and press ENTER (for Windows) or ctrl + d (for Linux). In the shell, pressing ctrl + z should look like:

>>> ^Z