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In general, top-level (unnested) code must start in column 1. Nested blocks can startin any column; indentation may consist of any number of spaces and tabs, as long asit’s the same for all the statements in a given single block. That is, Python doesn’tcare how you indent your code; it only cares that it’s done consistently. Technically,tabs count for enough spaces to move the current column number up to a multiple of8, but it’s usually not a good idea to mix tabs and spaces within a block—use one orthe other.The only major place in Python where whitespace matters is when it’s used to the leftof your code, for indentation; in most other contexts, space can be coded or not.However, indentation is really part of Python syntax, not just a stylistic suggestion:all the statements within any given single block must be indented to the same level,or Python reports a syntax error. This is intentional—because you don’t need toexplicitly mark the start and end of a nested block of code, some of the syntacticclutter found in other languages is unnecessary in Python.Making indentation part of the syntax model also enforces consistency, a crucialcomponent of readability in structured programming languages like Python.Python’s syntax is sometimes described as “what you see is what you get”—theindentation of each line of code unambiguously tells readers what it is associatedwith. This consistent appearance makes Python code easier to maintain and reuse.Consistently indented code always satisfies Python’s rules. Moreover, most texteditors (including IDLE) make it easy to follow Python’s indentation model by automaticallyindenting code as you type it.Statement DelimitersA statement in Python normally ends at the end of the line on which it appears.When a statement is too long to fit on a single line, though, a few special rules maybe used to make it span multiple lines:• Statements may span multiple lines if you’re continuing an open syntactic pair.Python lets you continue typing a statement on the next line if you’re codingsomething enclosed in a (), {}, or[] pair. For instance, expressions in parentheses,and dictionary and list literals, can span any number of lines; your statementdoesn’t end until the Python interpreter reaches the line on which you typethe closing part of the pair (a ), }, or]). Continuation lines can start at anyindentation level, and should all be vertically aligned.• Statements may span multiple lines if they end in a backslash. This is a somewhatoutdated feature, but if a statement needs to span multiple lines, you canalso add a backslash (\) at the end of the prior line to indicate you’re continuingon the next line. Because you can also continue by adding parentheses aroundlong constructs, backslashes are almost never used.Python Syntax Rules | 241