Increment number by 1 in Python

In this tutorial, you will learn how to increment a number by 1 in Python.

If you are used to programming in languages like C++ and Java, you will be acquainted with using the increment operator (++) to increment the value of a number by 1.
However, you should now know that the increment operator does not exist for Python.

How else do you increment a number then?
In Python, instead of incrementing the value of a variable, we reassign it.

This can be done in the following ways:

Using the augmented assignment statement: increment integer in Python

You can use the += operator followed by the number by which you want to increment a value.
You can increment a number by 1 using the same as shown:

x=0
print(x)
x+=1
print(x)

0

1

Note:
When you perform the above operation in Python, you are not simply incrementing the value but re-assigning it. The same is shown below for a better understanding:

x=0
print(id(x))
x+=1
print(id(x))

140729511223664
140729511223696

Remember, x+=1 works only as a standalone operator and cannot be combined with other operators (e.g.: x=y+=1, this is not allowed)

Using direct assignment:

You can simply increment a number by direct assignment as shown:

x=0
x=x+1
print(x)

1

Even in this method, the id of the variable changes, as you are assigning it with a new value and not simply incrementing.

x=0
print(id(x))
x=x+1
print(x)
print(id(x))

140729511223664
1
140729511223696

Using the in-built function operator:

One of the many advantages of python is that it comes with many pre-defined functions. We can use such functions to increment a number without using even the arithmetic operator.

An example for incrementing a number by 1 using the operator function is as shown:

import operator
x=0
x=operator.add(x,1)
print(x)

1

However, this is preferable when you want scalability for your code. It is not very suitable when you want to just increment a single number by 1.

What happens if you use the increment operator (++) in Python?

If you use the pre-increment operator (++x), the parser interprets it as the identity operator (+), returning the value x. Thus, even though it throws no error, the value remains the same.

x=0
++x
print(x)

0

However, if you use the post-increment operator(x++), the parser interprets x as a variable followed by the arithmetic operator +, and thus expects another operand/variable after +. On finding + instead of an operand, it throws a syntax error as shown.

x=0
x++
print(x)

File "<ipython-input-3-f33a6b3667d6>", line 2
    x++
       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Another important thing to keep in mind is that you can only increment a number by another number. Don’t forget, trying to increment a character with an integer number will only give you errors.

To learn about character incrementing, click Ways to increment a character in Python