An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language?

Mon Jul 11 11:01:58 EDT 2011

On 07/11/2011 04:36 PM, Dave Angel wrote:
> The character you're asking about is the colon. It goes at the end of
> an if, else, for, with, while statement. I doubt it's absolutely
> essential, but it helps readability, since a conditional expression
> might span multiple lines.
> if someexpression ==
> someotherexpression:
> body_of_the_conditional

That, of course, is not legal Python. Your point stands when you add
brackets or a backslash to hold the condition together.