Question: I'm very new to Python and am trying to teach myself a few things using various online resources. In the WIkipedia article on algorithms, there is a sample BASIC program; I've decided to try and write the same program using Python, but I am running into problems with the syntax of my if/else statements. I'm pretty sure it's a basic formatting problem, but I don't have enough experience with coding to understand what I'm doing wrong. The following chunk of code:

```
# Euclid's algorithm for greatest common divisor

print "Euclid's algorithm for greatest common divisor"

print "Type two integers greater than 0"
("\n")
("\a")

# Gather input from user in the form of a string. 

("\n")
a = raw_input("Integer 1? ")
("\n")
b = raw_input("Integer 2? ")
("\n")

# Calculate equalities.

if b = 0:
    print a

elif a > b:
a = a - b
print a

b = b - a

if b = 0:
print a

```

returns the error:

```
  File "euclid.py", line 35
    if b = 0:
         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

```

I realize the module as a whole is incomplete, but I would like to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong in this part before I move on to the next part.

Answer: 
1. = is assignment (as in `x=4`, which means `set x=4`). == is equality checking. You want ==.
2. python requires indentation.

Thus

```
if True:
print 'happy'`

```

is a syntax error, whereas

```
if True:
  print 'happy'

```

is okay.

1. This isn't strictly speaking a syntax error, but what are the `("\n")` statements in your code there for? Currently they don't do anything.
For most programming languages checks for equality are denoted by a double equal sign meaning check if these are equal and return true/1 or false/0. This is because you need to distinguish between asking if two things are equal and stating the relation.

So use == instead of =