Difference between Python 2 and Python 3 with Examples

In previous lesson, we studied Python’s brief explanation and key importance in version 3. Now we’ll discuss the difference between Python 2 and Python 3.

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Import future module

Python 3 got many new features that are incompatible with Python 2 which can be used in version 2 by importing them using built-in module called __future__. For example, see below

from __future__ import division

Integer division

In Python 2, Division of two integers are rounded to nearest integer i.e. 10/3 = 3.

In Python 3, Division gives floating point result which is similar to human calculation i.e. 10/3 = 3.333. To achieve this in version 2 either of two integers should be floating point like 10/3.0 or 10.0/3 and by using __future__ module.

#Python 2.x 

>>> print 10/3 
3 
>>> print 10/3.0, 10.0/3 
3.333 3.333 

#Python 2.x importing __future__ module

from __future__ import division 
>>>print 10/3 
3.3333

#Python 3.x 

>>> print (10/3) 
3.3333 
print("thank you")

Input from Keyboard

Python 2.x has two function namely raw_input() and input() to take input from user. Keyword raw_input() treats everything entered as string and assign to given variable, while input() function treats entered number as integer and input entered under quotes (“xyz” or ‘xyz’) treated as string.

#Python 2 
>>>x=raw_input(‘Given input:’) 
Given input: 12 
>>>x 
‘12’ 
>>> x=input(‘Given input:’) 
Given input:12 
>>> x 
12 
>>> x=input(‘Given input:’) 
Given input: ‘12’ 
>>>x 
‘12’

In Python 3.x, raw_input() function removed and uses input() which treats everything entered as string, numbers are explicitly converted in to integers with suffix int keyword to

#Python 3 
>>> x = input('Entered input:') 
Entered input :10 
>>> x 
'10'
>>> x=int(input("Enter")) 
Enter:10 
>>> x 
10 
>>> x+10 
20

Print Function

Most well know change in Python 3 is print() function. In Python 2, print function with or without parenthesis is valid i.e. print() and print to display the output, but in Python 3 parenthesis are mandatory to display output else it will raise a syntax error.

Note: single and double quotes (‘x’ or “x”) used for strings.

#Python 2 
>>> print ‘Welcome to hellocodies.com’ 
Welcome to hellocodies.com 
>>> print(“Welcome to hellocodies.com”) 
Welcome to hellocodies.com 

#Python 3 
>>> print(‘Welcome to hellocodies.com’) 
Welcome to hellocodies.com 
>>> print ‘Welcome to hellocodies.com’ 

SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'.
Did you mean print('Welcome to hellocodies.com')?

Unicode Support

Python language supports two types of strings Unicode and bytes.

Python 2 stores string as ASCII characters by default. To save string as Unicode we need mark the string explicitly with prefix ‘u’ (u’string’) whereas bytes used to store arbitrary binary data.

For version 2.x both Unicode and byte are basically same type i.e. string can be added.

#Python 2 
>>> print type('string') 
<type 'str'> 
>>> print type(u'string') 
<type 'unicode'> 
>>>print type(b'string') 
<type 'str'> 
>>> print 'you can add string' + b' the byte' 
you can add string the byte

In Python 3 strings are Unicode by default and has separate type class for byte. If you want to make sure Python 3 code is compatible with Python 2 mark it Unicode strings with a “u”.

#Python 3
>>>type('string')
<class'str'>
>>> type(u'hellocodies.com')
<class'str'>
>>> type(b'hellocodies.com')
<class'bytes'>
>>> print('you cannot add string' + b' bytes ')

Traceback (most recent call last): 
	File "<pyshell#8>", line 1,in <module>
print('note that we cannot add a string' + b'bytes for data')
	TypeError:can only concatenate str (not "bytes") to str

Xrange() and range()

Python use generators which are effective at utilization of memory. In Python 2, xrange() is a generator, and range() give a list of items.

#Python 2 
>>> for x in xrange(1, 5): print(x) 
1 2 3 4 
>>> for x in range(1, 5): print(x) 
1 2 3 4

In Python 3, the range() function is deprecated, and xrange() renamed as range(). Any operator which was returning a list of items in 2.x is replaced with a generator object in version 3.

#Python 3
>>> range(5)
range(0, 5)
>>> for i in range(5): print(i)
0
1
2
3
4
>>> xrange()

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#15>", line 1,in <module>
xrange()
NameError:name 'xrange' is not defined

Raising an Exceptions

While raising an exception in Python 2, exception arguments can be enclosed in parentheses and even works without parenthesis.

#Python 2
>>> raise IOError, "error"

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
	raise IOError, " error"
OSError: error
>>> raise IOError("error")

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
	raise IOError(" error")
OSError: error

But in Python 3, raising an exception use of parenthesis are mandatory.

#Python 3 
>>> raise IOError("error") 

Traceback (most recent call last):  
File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>    
	raise IOError("error") 
OSError: file error 
>>> raise IOError," error" #without () 

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Exception Handling

A small in version 3 replacing comma with “as”.

 #Python 2
try:
	Error_Occured
except NameError, error:
	print error, '-- our error message'

#OUTPUT
name 'Error_Occured' is not defined -- our error message

#Python 3
try:
	Error_Occured
except NameError as error:
	print (error, '-- our error message')

#OUTPUT
name 'Error_Occured' is not defined -- our error message

Import __future__ module