The Python Conceptual Hierarchy Revisited

Another way to understand the role of statements is to revisit the concept hierarchy introduced in Chapter 4, which talked about built-in objects and the expressions used to manipulate them. This chapter climbs the hierarchy to the next level of Python program structure:

  1. Programs are composed of modules.

  2. Modules contain statements.

  3. Statements contain expressions.

  4. Expressions create and process objects.

At their base, programs written in the Python language are composed of statements and expressions. Expressions process objects and are embedded in statements. Statements code the larger logic of a program’s operation—they use and direct expressions to process the objects we studied in the preceding chapters. Moreover, statements are where objects spring into existence (e.g., in expressions within assignment statements), and some statements create entirely new kinds of objects (functions, classes, and so on). At the top, statements always exist in modules, which themselves are managed with statements.