python print "hello world" vs "hello world"

Question

>>> print "hello world"
hello world
>>> "hello world"
'hello world'
>>>

What is the difference?

The Python Hello, World! example mostly uses:

print "hello world"

Can I strip that print and just use "Hello world" for giving a Python introduction?

Answer 1

The difference is that print calls str whereas the default action of the REPL (read evaluate print loop) is to call repr on the object unless it is None.

Note that if you aren't working in the interactive interpreter (you're not in the REPL), then you won't see any output in the version without print.

Also note that there is a difference between the output. repr adds quotes on strings.

Answer 2

If you substitute the space for a newline, you'll see they don't even really work the same in the REPL.

>>> print "hello\nworld"
hello
world
>>> "hello\nworld"
'hello\nworld'

If you try to use

"hello\nworld"

by itself in a program, you will get no output of course