What is the role of indentation in Python
Python
Computer Science Engineering
1150
Krishav
In Python, indentation is required for indicating what block of code, a statement belongs to. Indentation is basically used in flow of control statements (like for, if, etc). We can give any number of spaces for indentation, but all the statements in a block must have the same indent, that means the same number of spaces.
In Python, indentation is used to indicate the grouping of statements. Unlike many other programming languages that use curly braces or keywords like "begin" and "end" to delimit blocks of code, Python uses indentation as a way of defining the structure of the program.
Indentation is particularly important for defining the scope of statements within a function or a control structure such as an if statement or a loop. In these cases, the indented code block represents the body of the function or control structure.
For example, consider the following code:
if x > 0: print("x is positive") print("still inside the if block") print("now outside the if block")
In this code, the two print statements are indented and belong to the body of the if statement. The final print statement is not indented and is outside of the if block.
It's important to note that Python uses consistent indentation for all code blocks, so mixing tabs and spaces for indentation is not allowed. It's recommended to use four spaces for each level of indentation.