Assignment Operators in Python (=, +=)

Assignment operators are symbols that allow you to assign a value to a variable.

The most basic assignment operator is = (equal sign).

It means:

"Put the value on the right into the variable on the left."

For example:

score = 100

But Python is not just limited to =. It has more advanced assignment operators that perform both math operations and assigning values simultaneously. This makes your code shorter, cleaner, and easier to understand.

Compound Operators (Math + Assignment Together)

Let's go back to the game score example. Let's say you have this code:

score = 100

Now you want to add 50 to it.

(+= operator):

The += operator here is a shortcut that does both addition and assignment at the same time.

score = 100
score += 50 # This means: score = score + 50
print(score) # Output: 150

Complete List of Shortcut Operators

Here is a complete list of these handy shortcuts:

Operator	Example	Is the Same As...	Description
`+=`	`x += 5`	`x = x + 5`	Add and assign.
`-=`	`x -= 5`	`x = x - 5`	Subtract and assign.
`*=`	`x *= 5`	`x = x * 5`	Multiply and assign.
`/=`	`x /= 5`	`x = x / 5`	Divide and assign (gives a float).
`//=`	`x //= 5`	`x = x // 5`	Floor divide and assign.
`%=`	`x %= 5`	`x = x % 5`	Find remainder and assign.
`**=`	`x **= 2`	`x = x ** 2`	Raise to the power and assign.

Why use these shortcut operators?

there are two big advantages:

Clarity of Intent: When you write score += 50, it is clear that you are updating an existing value. This method shows that the value is being incremented, not that a new value is being given.
More Readable: When the program becomes larger, such short shortcut codes are easier to read and understand than repeated code.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Does the += operator work with strings?

A: Yes, it does! And it's very useful.

+= works as a concatenation of strings. This is the easiest way to do it when you need to build a long message by adding parts together.

Example:

message = "Hello"
message += " World" # appends " World" to the end of the message
print(message) # Output: Hello World

Q: Is x += 1 faster to execute than x = x + 1?

A: In today's Python, when you're working with simple data types like numbers or strings, there's not much difference in speed.

In fact, the advantage of using += is that it makes your code shorter, cleaner, and easier to read. That's why people prefer it — not for performance, but for clarity.

Next Lesson: Comparison Operators (==, !=) in Python