Metaphor Maker

Variables and Values

In Python, we have variables and values. Think of a variable as a box, and a value as something that goes inside the box. Here is an example of a variable and its value:

animal = “cat”

In this case, animal is the variable, and “cat” is its value. In fact, it is a specific type of value--a string. A value that has letters or characters and no numbers is a string type value. We put strings inside quotation marks. When we write a variable, we are declaring the variable.

In this case, we can say that we are assigning the value of “cat” to the variable animal. The = is called the assignment operator. It’s not an “equals” sign in the sense that 2 = 2, but it does convey a relationship. We are basically saying that animal represents “cat”. That means that when we do something with animal, we are doing something with “cat”.

For example, look at this code:
print(animal)

The print function tells the program to print, or display, something in the output area of our code editor. A function is an action that we can do in Python. Keeping in mind that animal represents “cat”, what do you think we’ll see if we print the value of animal?

Try it yourself: In the code editor on the right, declare a variable called animal. Then assign it a value, like “cat” (or another animal, if you’re not a cat person). Then tell the program to print the variable. Click the large gray triangle button at the top of the editor to run your program and see the results!

You can also have multiple words as part of a single value. For example:

favorite_song = “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

Try typing the above code in the editor and then printing favorite_song.

Note that variable names are lowercase. Use underscores when you need to include multiple words, as in favorite_song, cat_name, and so on.

Sometimes we might want to have more than one value assigned to a variable. We might want to have a list of values, for instance. In Python, we can make a list, also called an array. For example:

animal = [“cat”, “dog”, “bird”, “fish”]

“Cat”, “dog”, “bird”, and “fish” are all values in the array. In this example, they are all single-word strings. But you can have multiple-word strings as values in an array, as well:

favorite_songs = [“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Happy Birthday”, “Imagine”]

What do you think would be the result if you typed the above line of code in your code editor and then printed favorite_songs? Try it and see!

Now that we know how our metaphors fit the metaphor formula, we need to turn each part into code.

First, we’ll split our noun phrases into variables and values. For each metaphor, we need to have two variables--noun phrase 1 and noun phrase 2. Because we have 3 metaphors, we’re going to make, or declare, a total of 6 variables with 6 accompanying values:

noun_phrase_1a (“All the world”) and noun_phrase_1b (“a stage”);

noun_phrase_2a (“Juliet”) and noun_phrase_2b (“the sun”);

and noun_phrase_3a (“Dying”) and noun_phrase_3b (“a wild night”).

On lines 2-7, type this code:

noun_phrase_1a = “All the world”

noun_phrase_1b = “a stage”

noun_phrase_2a = “Juliet”

noun_phrase_2b = “the sun”

noun_phrase_3a = “Dying”

noun_phrase_3b = “a wild night”

Let’s create three more variables. On lines 9-11, write this code:

metaphor_1 = noun_phrase_1a + “ is ” + noun_phrase_1b

metaphor_2 = noun__phrase_2a + “ is ” + noun_phrase_2b

metaphor_3 = noun_phrase_3a + “ is ” + noun_phrase_3b

In the code above, we are joining together both noun phrases in each metaphor with “is”. We have a space on either side of “is” within the quotation marks so that we have enough space in each metaphor. We used the “+” to add together, or concatenate, the parts of our metaphors.

To see the results of our Metaphor Maker, we need to use the print function. A function is an action we can do in Python. This function will “print” or display the output of the program. On lines 13-15, type this code:

print(metaphor_1)
print(metaphor_2)
print(metaphor_3)

Then run your program to see the results!