DEV Community: Sharon Chang'ach

Python for everyone: Mastering Python The Right Way

Sharon Chang'ach — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 18:51:16 +0000

According to Malcolm Gladwell in his blockbuster book “Outliers”, it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials. We do have to ask ourselves though what exactly is mastering, and does it mean you have gotten everything?

We could use this 10,000 hours rule but how exactly do we use it well. First of all, we have to cultivate passion. Learning any language can be hard and without passion, you could easily give up and stop learning.
Doing thorough learning starting from the basics all the way through to the hard stuff. The job is to learn what python exactly is then pushing yourself to learn how to use it.

Just as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Consistent practice helps you keep your skills sharp and lets you learn new things every time.

Learning through use of projects is also a great way to learn python. Projects push you to learn more things, some that you wouldn't even know if you were not applying them. It helps sharpen your skills and prepare you for the real world. It also improves critical and creative thinking. It would also help you in identifying what field you are more interested in among the many applications of python.

Reading books and articles also helps in sharpening your mind. It helps keep you informed on emerging trends and furthermore helps open up your mind.

There is no shame in getting stuck. You have to normalize not knowing everything. You can source answers from peers or from googling the problems.

Learning python can be very exciting. Its many applications give a wider range for applications and very diverse projects. Therefore learning it can be quite fun, but challenging as well. This is why one needs to know how to learn it the right way.

I hope this article helps you get the right way to learn. Happy learning.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Sharon Chang'ach — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 21:03:14 +0000

Introduction

A data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that enables efficient access and modification. It shows the relationships among the data, and the functions or operations that can be applied to the data. Algorithms on the other hand are a set of instructions that solve a problem.

Data Structures

sets
lists
stacks
linked lists
queues
dictionaries
Trees

Sets

A set is an unordered collection of unique elements. This means that it does not allow duplication.

basket={'apple', 'eggs', 'banana', 'orange'}
same =set(['apple', 'eggs', 'banana', 'orange'])
print(basket==same)

Lists

A list is a container data type that stores a sequence of elements. This means that it allows different types of elements in the list.

List = [1, 2, 3, "GFG", 2.3]
print(List)

output:

[1, 2, 3, 'GFG', 2.3]

Stacks

Think of a loading books into a box. Books are loaded one by one and the first one in becomes the last one when the loading is done. This is basically the working of a stack as well.
The functions in a stack are:

empty() – prints out whether the stack is empty.
size() – prints out the number of elements in the stack.
top() – prints out the topmost element.
append() – Inserts the element at the top of a stack.
pop() – Deletes the topmost element.

stack=[3]
stack.append(42)
stack.append(12)
stack.pop()

output:

12,42,3
12

Linked list

It is a linear data structure, in which the elements are not stored at contiguous memory locations.

Queues

Consider a line in a bank. The first person is at the front of the line and as people join, they are added from the rear. This is basically what a queue is. The structure reduces from the front.
Commands:

Enqueue: Adds an item to the queue.
Dequeue: Removes an item from the queue.
Front: prints out the front item from queue
Rear: prints out the last item from queue

Dictionaries

It is a useful data structure for storing (key, values) pairs.

# Creating a Dictionary
Dict = {'Name': 'Geeks', 1: [1, 2, 3, 4]}
print("Creating Dictionary: ")
print(Dict)

# accessing a element using key
print("Accessing a element using key:")
print(Dict['Name'])

# accessing a element using get()
# method
print("Accessing a element using get:")
print(Dict.get(1))

# creation using Dictionary comprehension
myDict = {x: x**2 for x in [1,2,3,4,5]}
print(myDict)

output:

Creating Dictionary: 
{'Name': 'Geeks', 1: [1, 2, 3, 4]}
Accessing a element using key:
Geeks
Accessing a element using get:
[1, 2, 3, 4]
{1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25}

Trees

A tree is a hierarchical data structure.
There are two types of trees:

Binary Search Tree
Red Black Trees
It has several functions which include:
Traversal, search, insertion, deletion and update.

Functions in data structures

Insertion
It is the addition of elements in the data structures.
Deletion
It is the removal of elements from the data structures
Update
It is when an element is changed in the data structures.
Search
It is where an element is searched in the data structure.

Python 101:Ultimate Guide To Python

Sharon Chang'ach — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 18:12:09 +0000

Introduction

If you can learn something new everyday, you can teach something new everyday. -Martha Stewart

What Exactly is python?

Developed in 1991 by Guido Van Rossum, python is an interpreted high level programming language.
I know what you're thinking, why would I learn this when there are so many other languages out there? Well, here are a few reasons why you should start learning it now:

It is simple and easy to learn syntax
It has automatic garbage collection
No more semicolons!
Huge amount of libraries
Is interpreted

To learn more about python, we will do a fun project :)

What Disney princess would you be?

Have you ever wondered what disney princess you would be? Let's find out.
After creating a new file on your preferred text editor, proceed to write this code:

prompt user to enter name and introduce them to the program.
name= input("What is your name? \n") print("Hello "+name+ " Do you ever wonder what disney character you would be? FIND OUT TODAY!")
main question for the user
# questions to help user identify traits trait = input("What is your favorite color? pink,blue,yellow or green \n ").lower
Sequence of if statements to determine the best character

if trait =="pink":
    ans=input("Do you like adventure? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans=="y":
        print("Hello Rapunzel")
    else:
            print("hello Sleeping Beauty")
if trait == "yellow":
    ans2= input("Would you consider yourself brave? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans2=="y":
       ans3= input("Would you die for anyone? y or n: \n").lower
       if ans3=="y":
           print("hello Moana")
if trait=="blue":
    ans4=input("Would you consider yourself confident? y or n: \n").lower
    ans6=input("Would you consider yourself hardworking? y or n: \n ").lower
    ans7=input("would you consider yourself a leader? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans7=="yes":
        print("Hello Elsa")
    elif ans6=="y":
        print("Hello Snow White")
    elif ans4=="y":
        print("Hello Snow White")

if trait =="green":
    ans8=input("Would you consider yourself a princess? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans8=="n":
        print("Hello Tiana")
    else:
        ans9=input("Would you consider yourself a girly girl? y or n: \n").lower
        if ans9=="n":
            print("Hello Mulan")
        else:
            ans10=input("Do you have a great singing voice? y or n:\n ")
            if ans10=="y":
                print("Hello Ariel")
            else:
                print("Hello Merida")

The full code will look like this:

name= input("What is your name? \n")
print("Hello "+name+ " Do you ever wonder what disney character you would be? fIND OUT TODAY!")
# questions to help user identify traits
trait = input("What is your favorite color? pink,blue,yellow or green \n ").lower

if trait =="pink":
    ans=input("Do you like adventure? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans=="y":
        print("Hello Rapunzel")
    else:
            print("hello Sleeping Beauty")
if trait == "yellow":
    ans2= input("Would you consider yourself brave? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans2=="y":
       ans3= input("Would you die for anyone? y or n: \n").lower
       if ans3=="y":
           print("hello Moana")
if trait=="blue":
    ans4=input("Would you consider yourself confident? y or n: \n").lower
    ans6=input("Would you consider yourself hardworking? y or n: \n ").lower
    ans7=input("would you consider yourself a leader? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans7=="yes":
        print("Hello Elsa")
    elif ans6=="y":
        print("Hello Snow White")
    elif ans4=="y":
        print("Hello Snow White")

if trait =="green":
    ans8=input("Would you consider yourself a princess? y or n: \n").lower
    if ans8=="n":
        print("Hello Tiana")
    else:
        ans9=input("Would you consider yourself a girly girl? y or n: \n").lower
        if ans9=="n":
            print("Hello Mulan")
        else:
            ans10=input("Do you have a great singing voice? y or n:\n ")
            if ans10=="y":
                print("Hello Ariel")
            else:
                print("Hello Merida")