Simplest problem Invalid syntax

Question

I'm learning Python and can't even write the first example:

print 2 ** 100

this gives SyntaxError: invalid syntax

pointing at the 2.

Why is this? I'm using version 3.1

Answer 1

You need parentheses:

print(2**100)

Answer 2

That's weird. It works for me in Python 2.6 & it does work without parenthesis.

Answer 3

That is because in Python 3, they have replaced the print statement with the print function.

The syntax is now more or less the same as before, but it requires parens:

From the "what's new in python 3" docs:

Old: print "The answer is", 2*2
New: print("The answer is", 2*2)

Old: print x,           # Trailing comma suppresses newline
New: print(x, end=" ")  # Appends a space instead of a newline

Old: print              # Prints a newline
New: print()            # You must call the function!

Old: print >>sys.stderr, "fatal error"
New: print("fatal error", file=sys.stderr)

Old: print (x, y)       # prints repr((x, y))
New: print((x, y))      # Not the same as print(x, y)!

Answer 4

They changed print in Python 3. In 2 it was a statement, now it is a function and requires parenthesis.

Here's the docs from Python 3.0.