Question

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Why there are no ++ and — operators in Python?

This question may seem strange, but I’m wondering why is there no such operation in Python.

I know, x += 1 is almost as simple as x++, but still. There is such operation in most languages I’m familiar with (C, C++, Java, C#, JavaScript, PHP), but there isn’t in Python.

Maybe it has something to do with the phylosophy of this language?

Answer 1

To avoid preincrement, postincrement confusions and to keep things simple.

Also datatypes such as int, long are immutable. Meaning of ++, -- operators is to change the current datatype. Hence not supported.

After an increment operation the python object itself changes.

>>> a = int(10)
>>> b = a
>>> print id(a), id(b)
166744132 166744132
>>> a += 1
>>> print id(a), id(b)
166744120 166744132
>>> print a, b
11 10

Duplicate question as following which have more info :

Why are there no ++ and –​ operators in Python?

Behaviour of increment and decrement operators in Python