Python

Imagine a light switch in your room. It’s either ON or OFF — no in-between, right? In Python, we have something similar called Booleans. These are just two special values:

  • True (light switch ON)
  • False (light switch OFF)

You always write them with a capital T or F — like this:

done = False  # Light switch is OFF
done = True   # Light switch is ON

🤔 Why does this even matter?

Well, sometimes you want your program to do something only if a certain condition is met. Like: If my homework is done, then I can play games.

homework_done = True

if homework_done:
    print("Yay! Time to play games!")
else:
    print("Oops, better finish that first!")

So yeah, Booleans help your code make decisions.


💡 What counts as ON or OFF in Python?

Python is kinda smart. Even if something isn’t exactly True or False, it can still act like it is.

Here’s how it decides:

Value Type Considered True (ON) Considered False (OFF)
Numbers Any number (like 7) Zero (0)
Strings Any text ("hi") Empty text ("")
Lists etc. If it has stuff If it’s empty

🧐 How to check if something is a real Boolean?

Python lets you check like this:

is_it_on = True
print(type(is_it_on) == bool)      # True
print(isinstance(is_it_on, bool))  # True

any() – Did anyone do it?

Say you’re checking if any of your friends finished chores:

chores = [True, False, False]

print(any(chores))  # Output: True (at least one person is done!)

all() – Did everyone do it?

Now, what if you want to know if everyone is ready?

ready = [True, True, False]

print(all(ready))  # Output: False (one person isn’t ready)

Review questions:


1. You’re writing a program that checks if someone remembered to bring their ID card to school. If the variable has_id_card = False, what should the program do using an if statement?


2. You have a list of items in your backpack: ["notebook", "pen", ""]. Use a Boolean check to find out if all the items are actually filled in (not empty).


3. A game only starts if the internet is connected. If internet_connected = 0, will the game start? Why?


4. You’re checking if any of your classmates submitted their group project. You have: submissions = [False, False, True, False] What does any(submissions) return, and what does it mean?


5. You’re building an app that checks if a user has filled all required fields: name, age, and email. How would you use all() to confirm everything is provided in this list: ["John", 14, ""]?


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