P40 · Data & Types Basics
numbers, text (strings), true/false, lists, dictionaries, variables, simple operations — the vocabulary of code, using a language professional's material
The few shapes all data takes: numbers, text, true/false, variables, lists and dictionaries — met through a language professional's material, not maths.
Every piece of material you work with — a word count, a glossary entry, a question with a yes-or-no answer, a column of terms, a tally — takes one of a very small number of forms once it is inside a notebook. This block introduces those forms, and only those. There is no mathematics here beyond arithmetic you already do on paper, and every example is drawn from a language professional's day: counting words, joining phrases, sorting term lists, tallying how often something appears.
The order is the natural one. First the values themselves — numbers, text, true/false — and the trick of giving a value a name so you can use it again. Then the two containers that hold many values at once: the list, which is a column of things you can sort and count, and the dictionary, which is a two-column tally table. Master these few shapes and you have the entire vocabulary the automation block will speak.