Variables
We use variables to temporarily store data in the computer’s memory.
price = 10
rating = 4.9
course_name = ‘Python for Beginners’
is_published = True
In the above example,
• price is an integer (a whole number without a decimal point)
• rating is a float (a number with a decimal point)
• course_name is a string (a sequence of characters)
• is_published is a boolean. Boolean values can be True or False.
Comments
We use comments to add notes to our code. Good comments explain the hows and
whys, not what the code does. That should be reflected in the code itself. Use
comments to add reminders to yourself or other developers, or also explain your
assumptions and the reasons you’ve written code in a certain way.
This is a comment and it won’t get executed.
Our comments can be multiple lines.
Receiving Input
We can receive input from the user by calling the input() function.
birth_year = int(input(‘Birth year: ‘))
The input() function always returns data as a string. So, we’re converting the
result into an integer by calling the built-in int() function.
Strings
We can define strings using a single (‘ ‘) or double (“ “) quotes.
To define a multi-line string, we surround our string with tripe quotes (“””).
We can get individual characters in a string using square brackets [].
course = ‘Python for Beginners’
course[0] # returns the first character
course[1] # returns the second character
course[-1] # returns the first character from the end
course[-2] # returns the second character from the end
We can slice a string using a similar notation:
course[1:5]
The above expression returns all the characters starting from the index position of 1
to 5 (but excluding 5). The result will be ytho
If we leave out the start index, 0 will be assumed.
If we leave out the end index, the length of the string will be assumed.
We can use formatted strings to dynamically insert values into our strings:
name = ‘Mosh’
message = f’Hi, my name is {name}’
message.upper() # to convert to uppercase
message.lower() # to convert to lowercase
message.title() # to capitalize the first letter of every word
message.find(‘p’) # returns the index of the first occurrence of p
(or -1 if not found)
message.replace(‘p’, ‘q’)
To check if a string contains a character (or a sequence of characters), we use the in
operator:
contains = ‘Python’ in course
Arithmetic Operations
+
-
*
/ # returns a float
// # returns an int
% # returns the remainder of division
** # exponentiation - x ** y = x to the power of y
Augmented assignment operator:
x = x + 10
x += 10
Operator precedence:
parenthesis
exponentiation
multiplication / division
addition / subtraction
If Statements
if is_hot:
print(“hot day”)
elif is_cold:
print(“cold day”)
else:
print(“beautiful day”)
Logical operators:
if has_high_income and has_good_credit:
...
if has_high_income or has_good_credit:
...
is_day = True
is_night = not is_day
Comparison operators
a > b
a >= b (greater than or equal to)
a < b
a <= b
a == b (equals)
a != b (not equals)
While loops
i = 1
while i < 5:
print(i)
i += 1
For loops
for i in range(1, 5):
print(i)
• range(5): generates 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
• range(1, 5): generates 1, 2, 3, 4
• range(1, 5, 2): generates 1, 3
Lists
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
numbers[0] # returns the first item
numbers[1] # returns the second item
numbers[-1] # returns the first item from the end
numbers[-2] # returns the second item from the end
numbers.append(6) # adds 6 to the end
numbers.insert(0, 6) # adds 6 at index position of 0
numbers.remove(6) # removes 6
numbers.pop() # removes the last item
numbers.clear() # removes all the items
numbers.index(8) # returns the index of first occurrence of 8
numbers.sort() # sorts the list
numbers.reverse() # reverses the list
numbers.copy() # returns a copy of the list
Tuples
They are like read-only lists. We use them to store a list of items. But once we
define a tuple, we cannot add or remove items or change the existing items.
coordinates = (1, 2, 3)
We can unpack a list or a tuple into separate variables:
x, y, z = coordinates
Dictionaries
We use dictionaries to store key/value pairs.
customer = {
“name”: “John Smith”,
“age”: 30,
“is_verified”: True
}
We can use strings or numbers to define keys. They should be unique. We can use
any types for the values.
customer[“name”] # returns “John Smith”
customer[“type”] # throws an error
customer.get(“type”, “silver”) # returns “silver”
customer[“name”] = “new name”
Functions
We use functions to break up our code into small chunks. These chunks are easier
to read, understand and maintain. If there are bugs, it’s easier to find bugs in a
small chunk than the entire program. We can also re-use these chunks.
def greet_user(name):
print(f”Hi {name}”)
greet_user(“John”)
Parameters are placeholders for the data we can pass to functions. Arguments
are the actual values we pass.
We have two types of arguments:
• Positional arguments: their position (order) matters
• Keyword arguments: position doesn’t matter - we prefix them with the parameter
name.
Two positional arguments
greet_user(“John”, “Smith”)
Keyword arguments
calculate_total(order=50, shipping=5, tax=0.1)
Our functions can return values. If we don’t use the return statement, by default
None is returned. None is an object that represents the absence of a value.
def square(number):
return number * number
result = square(2)
print(result) # prints 4
Exceptions
Exceptions are errors that crash our programs. They often happen because of bad
input or programming errors. It’s our job to anticipate and handle these exceptions
to prevent our programs from cashing.
try:
age = int(input(‘Age: ‘))
income = 20000
risk = income / age
print(age)
except ValueError:
print(‘Not a valid number’)
except ZeroDivisionError:
print(‘Age cannot be 0’)
Classes
We use classes to define new types.
class Point:
def __init__(self, x, y):
self.x = x
self.y = y
def move(self):
print(“move”)
When a function is part of a class, we refer to it as a method.
Classes define templates or blueprints for creating objects. An object is an instance
of a class. Every time we create a new instance, that instance follows the structure
we define using the class.
point1 = Point(10, 5)
point2 = Point(2, 4)
init is a special method called a constructor. It gets called at the time of
creating new objects. We use it to initialize our objects.
Inheritance
Inheritance is a technique to remove code duplication. We can create a base class
to define the common methods and then have other classes inherit these methods.
class Mammal:
def walk(self):
print(“walk”)
class Dog(Mammal):
def bark(self):
print(“bark”)
dog = Dog()
dog.walk() # inherited from Mammal
dog.bark() # defined in Dog
Modules
A module is a file with some Python code. We use modules to break up our
program into multiple files. This way, our code will be better organized. We won’t
have one gigantic file with a million lines of code in it!
There are 2 ways to import modules: we can import the entire module, or specific
objects in a module.
importing the entire converters module
import converters
converters.kg_to_lbs(5)
importing one function in the converters module
from converters import kg_to_lbs
kg_to_lbs(5)
Packages
A package is a directory with init.py in it. It can contain one or more
modules.
importing the entire sales module
from ecommerce import sales
sales.calc_shipping()
importing one function in the sales module
from ecommerce.sales import calc_shipping
calc_shipping()
Python Standard Library
Python comes with a huge library of modules for performing common tasks such as
sending emails, working with date/time, generating random values, etc.
Random Module
import random
random.random() # returns a float between 0 to 1
random.randint(1, 6) # returns an int between 1 to 6
members = [‘John’, ‘Bob’, ‘Mary’]
leader = random.choice(members) # randomly picks an item
Pypi
Python Package Index (pypi.org) is a directory of Python packages published by
Python developers around the world. We use pip to install or uninstall these
packages.
pip install openpyxl
pip uninstall openpyxl
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