Alright, Python’s Operator Precedence Hierarchy because who doesn’t love a good hierarchy? But before we dive in, let me first explain what operator precedence is for those of you who might be new to this whole coding thing.

Operator precedence refers to the order in which operators are evaluated when multiple operations are present within an expression. It helps us understand how Python decides which operation gets executed first and ensures that we get the correct result every time.

Now, let’s take a look at Python’s Operator Precedence Hierarchy (OPH) it’s like a family tree for operators! At the top of this hierarchy are the most important operators with the highest precedence, and as you move down the list, the precedence decreases.

Here’s what it looks like:

1. ** (exponentiation)
2. * / // % (multiplication, division, floor division, modulo)
3. + (addition, subtraction)
4. (bitwise left shift, bitwise right shift)
5. & (bitwise AND)
6. ^ (bitwise XOR)
7. | (bitwise OR)
8. == != < <= > >= is is not in not in (comparisons, identity, and membership tests)
9. not (Boolean NOT)
10. and (Boolean AND)
11. or (Boolean OR)
12. := (Walrus operator)

So what does this mean for us? Well, let’s say we have an expression like:

x = y * z + w / q r ** s

According to the OPH, Python will first evaluate the exponentiation operation (the highest precedence), then move on to multiplication and division operations. After that, it will perform addition and subtraction operations in left-to-right order since they have equal precedence.

But what if we want to change the evaluation order? We can use parentheses! By enclosing a group of operators within parentheses, we can override Python’s default evaluation order and ensure that our desired operation is executed first. For example:

x = (y * z) + w / q r ** s

In this case, the multiplication operation will be performed before any other operations because it has been enclosed within parentheses.

Python’s Operator Precedence Hierarchy is a crucial concept to understand when working with expressions in Python. By following these rules and using parentheses where necessary, we can ensure that our code produces the correct results every time.