Many wonder the difference between Py3 and Py2. Some beginners are not sure which version of Python to learn. While most organizations still enjoys using Python 2.x, it is important to note that while Python 2 is still commonly Python 3.x comes with its perks too. I recommend that you learn Python 3.x and then study the differences between both versions since Python 3 eliminates many quirks that can unnecessarily pops up.

Integer Division

This change is particularly dangerous if you are porting code, or if you are running Python 3 code in Python 2, since the change in integer division behavior often goes unnoticed and usually raises no exceptions (SyntaxError).

python
# Python 2.7.6
print '3 / 2 =', 3 / 2
print '3 // 2 =', 3 // 2
print '3 / 2.0 =', 3 / 2.0
print '3 // 2.0 =', 3 // 2.0

text
3 / 2 = 1
3 // 2 = 1
3 / 2.0 = 1.5
3 // 2.0 = 1.0

And in python 3:

python
# Python 3.4.1
print ('3 / 2 =', 3 / 2)
print ('3 // 2 =', 3 // 2)
print ('3 / 2.0 =', 3 / 2.0)
print ('3 // 2.0 =', 3 // 2.0)

text
3 / 2 = 1.5
3 // 2 = 1
3 / 2.0 = 1.5
3 // 2.0 = 1.0

The Print Function

The change in the print syntax is one of the widely known changes. The print statement in Python 2 has been replaced the print() function in Python 3. In that case, we have to enclose the objects we want to print in a parenthesis (). Python 2 doesn’t have a problem with additional parentheses, but in contrast, Python 3 would raise a SyntaxError if we called the print function the Python 2 way without the parentheses.

python
# Python 2.7.6
print 'Hello, World!'
print('Hello, World!')

text
Hello, World!
Hello, World!

In Python 3,

python
# Python 3.4.1
print 'Hello, World!'

text
File "", line 1
print 'Hello, World!'
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Raising Exceptions

Where Python 2 accepts some Py2 and Py3 syntax, Python 3 fails to do so and raises a SyntaxError if we do not enclose the exception argument in parentheses.

python
# Python 2.7.6
raise IOError "file error"

text
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IOError                                   Traceback (most recent call last)

 in ()
----> 1 raise IOError, "file error"


IOError: file error

python
# Works in Python 2 & 3
raise IOError("file error")

text
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IOError                                   Traceback (most recent call last)

 in ()
----> 1 raise IOError("file error")


IOError: file error

python
# Python 3.4.1
raise IOError "file error"

text
File "", line 1
    raise IOError, "file error"
                 ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Handling Exceptions

In Py3, we have to use the keyword as while handling exceptions.

python
# Python 2.7.6
try:
     This_is_the_NameError
 except NameError, err:
     print err, '--> This is the error message'

text
name 'This_is_the_NameError' is not defined --> This is the error message

python
# Python 3.4.1
try:
     This_is_the_NameError
 except NameError as err:
     print(err, '--> This is the error message')

text
name 'This_is_the_NameError' is not defined --> This is the error message

Parsing User Input with input()

Fortunately, the input() function was fixed in Py3 so that it always stores the user inputs as string objects. In order to avoid the dangerous behavour in Py2 to read in other types than strings, Py2 users have to use raw_input() instead.

Importing __future__ Module

While Python 3.x introduced some Python 2 incompatible syntax, some of its features can be imported via the inbuilt __future__ module in Python 2. It is recommended to use this import if you are planning to use Python 3.x support for your code. For example, if you want to import Python 3.x integer division in Python 2, we can do this using the __future__.

python
from __future__ import division

Still unsure which version to use? You can read more from Python Wiki and Python-future documentation.