Assignment operator

[ichabod801]

"Assignment Operator x += 3 is the same as x = x + 3" Why would I bother with the assignment operator ?

x += 3 is just shorthand for x = x + 3. It's a common operation, so they made it easier. You can use it or not as you wish.

I still cannot figure out the underlying point.

The underlying point is that there are two different things going on. One is assigning a value to a variable, and the other is comparing two values to see if they are the same. Python, like many languages, uses two different symbols to represent this.