Python 3: Features Every Developer Should Know Of

Here's a review of some of the most significant features and enhancements introduced in Python 3, responsible for making it the programming language that developers love to work with.

- Sourav Kairi

Python 3 was first released in 2008 with the aim to end the long-standing inconsistencies found in Python 2, the earlier version of the programming language. However, for years, it had gaps in toolchains, unsupported libraries, and legacy code making developers unwilling to migrate to it. The tide turned in January 2020 when the sun set on Python 2. From then on, Python 3 has become the preferred and the sole maintained and supported version of Python.

Today, Python 3 is used widely. Libraries and frameworks are designed and built using Python 3 — from Django and Flask to NumPy and TensorFlow. Schools don’t teach anything except Python 3. Every new release of the language continues to enhance its performance and readability. New error-reporting schemes and support for modern programming practices have helped Python 3 secure its position as the default platform for all forms of software development.

Clean and consistent syntax Python 3 focuses on clarity and consistency. Much of its development has come in the form of improvements to the fundamental syntax elements that form the core of the language. Eliminating certain ambiguities allows one to write code that is easy to maintain. Here are a few code comparisons that show how Python 3 is a major syntactic improvement over Python 2.

print() as a function: Print was a statement in Python 2, not a function. This led to inconsistent behaviour and less flexibility. In Python 3, print is an actual function.

Because print is now a function, you can pass it as an argument, use keyword arguments like sep and end, or wrap it: