Indentation in Python (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 27 May, 2026

Indentation is used to organise and group statements into blocks of code. Unlike many other programming languages, Python uses indentation instead of braces {} to define code structure.

Statements with the same indentation belong to the same block of code.
Indentation is created using spaces or tabs, but four spaces are commonly preferred.
Inconsistent indentation causes an IndentationError. Python `

print("I have no Indentation ") print("I have tab Indentation ")

**Output

ERROR!
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<main.py>", line 2
print("I have tab Indentation ")
IndentationError: unexpected indent

**Explanation:

First print statement has no indentation, so it is correctly executed.
Second print statement has tab indentation, but it doesn't belong to a new block of code, that's why it throws IndentationError.

Indentation in Conditional Statements

All statements in a conditional block should have same alignment.

indentation_in_python

Indentation in Python

The code below demonstrate how we use indentation to define seperate scopes of if-else statements:

Python `

a = 20

if a >= 18: print('GeeksforGeeks...') else: print('retype the URL.') print('All set !')

Output

GeeksforGeeks... All set !

**Explanation:

Statements inside if and else are indented, which makes them part of their respective blocks.
Since a is greater than or equal to 18, the if block executes.
The last print() statement is outside the if-else block, so it runs every time.

Indentation in Loops

Indentation defines the set of statements that are executed repeatedly inside a loop.

Python `

j = 1

while(j<= 5): print(j) j = j + 1

**Explanation: Both print(j) and j = j + 1 are indented, so they are part of the loop block. These statements keep executing until the condition j <= 5 becomes False.