Exploring Python Reserved Keywords: Printing and Understanding

2 min readApr 30, 2024

Python, as a dynamically typed language, has a set of reserved keywords that have predefined meanings and cannot be used as identifiers (such as variable names, function names, etc.) in Python code. These reserved keywords play an important role in defining the syntax and structure of the language. In this blog, we will explain how to print or find all the reserved words in Python, understand their importance and provide a detailed list of these reserved words.

### Understanding Python Reserved Keywords

Reserved keywords are words that Python has reserved for specific purposes, and they cannot be used as identifiers or variable names in your code. These keywords are essential for defining the language's syntax and are fundamental to writing correct Python programs.

Python's reserved keywords include keywords for control flow (if, else, while, for), defining functions and classes (def, class), logical operations (and, or, not), and more. Attempting to use these keywords as variable names will result in a syntax error.

### Printing or Finding Python Reserved Keywords

Python provides a straightforward way to print or find all the reserved keywords using the `keyword` module. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish this:

#### Step 1: Import the `keyword` Module

First, you need to import the `keyword` module, which provides access to functions and attributes related to Python's reserved keywords.

import keyword

#### Step 2: Retrieve the List of Reserved Keywords

The `keyword.kwlist` attribute in the `keyword` module contains a list of all the reserved keywords in Python. You can retrieve this list using:

keywords_list = keyword.kwlist

#### Step 3: Print or Process the Reserved Keywords

You can then print each keyword from the list or perform any further processing as needed. For printing, a simple loop suffices:

for keyword in keywords_list:
    print(keyword)

### List of Python Reserved Keywords

Here is a comprehensive list of Python reserved keywords as of Python 3.10:

False      await      else       import     pass
None       break      except     in         raise
True       class      finally    is         return
and        continue   for        lambda     try
as         def        from       nonlocal   while
assert     del        global     not        with
async      elif       if         or         yield

### Conclusion

Understanding Python reserved keywords is essential for writing clean, error-free code. By using the `keyword` module, you can easily access and print the complete list of reserved keywords. Remember that attempting to use these keywords as variable names will result in syntax errors, so it's crucial to choose appropriate identifiers for your code.
Happy coding in Python!