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Welcome to:

Introduction to Python

9.1
Unit objectives IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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After completing this unit, you should be able to :

• Give an Introduction to Python

• Install Python on your platform

• Learn different flavors of Python

• Execute Python programs in different ways

• Learn syntax of Python programming

History of Python
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Introduction

Popular version : Python 2.7 –July 4, 2010

Current running : Python 3.6 - December 23, 2016

Latest release : Python 3.7 - June 27, 2018

What’s Python buzz? IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• General purpose programming language

• Named after Monty Python-British comedy group

• Used to do things from testing microchips at Intel

• Used to powering Instagram

• building video games ,popular in IoT, Data Science ,Big Data,AI and so on….

• Followed by millions of users worldwide

Why to Learn Python? IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Here we go with Python

• fast, lower learning-curve, user-friendly

• Plays well with others
• Runs everywhere
• Known for rich-ecosystem & utilities
• Major advantage is its breadth
• Has thousands of third-party modules and libraries
• Libraries/frameworks are mature and tested for 10+ years
Example IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Python tools for Scientific community

Features of Python IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Does not need compilers to run python codes
• Its an interpreter
• Executes line by line
• Writing application, testing, deployment is faster
• Easy to integrate different modules
• Debugging is easier
• Rich data types, object-oriented
Python interpreter.. IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Growth IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Source https://stackoverflow.blog/
Strength of Python IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Python is too strong

Source https://stackoverflow.blog
Python use cases IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Python is a scripting language like PHP, Perl, Ruby
• web programming (django, Zope, Google App Engine..)
• desktop applications (Blender 3D)
• Even for games (Pygames)
• Applications:Health,Finanace,Mathematical&Scientific,Vision,Database,Data science,Machine Learning
Flavors of Python
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Python 2 vs Python 3 IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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When would one choose 2.7 ? IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Users would choose 2.7 only under these below conditions :

• Many organisations who store Python Installers for releases in their repo’s have not adopted
to v3.6 so this may be a bottleneck for developers who want to explore the new features and
libraries in v3.6
.
• The user would choose earlier version if they are going to deploy apps on an environment
that they do not have control over - and since assuming the remote deployment location still
has 2.7 - then it is understandable to use 2.7.

• If the third party releases for the product does not support 3.6 - then it is apt to use the
earlier version.
Introduction to Python IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Python is Open Source and is GPL compatible

• Python is pre-installed as default OS packages. ( like CentOS and RHEL )

• Installation is simple due to pip & setuptools.py supporting packages

• Python as it provides a web development framework for faster development and deployments
Introduction to Python IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Installation of Python IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Introduction to Python Versions of Python
Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Introduction to Python Versions of Python
Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Installation of Python on Linux

• Before you install, check if python is already installed ! ( command -v python3 on MacOS, or
type in python3 at the command prompt.)
• Python comes preinstalled on CentOS, RHEL lately and hence not required to be installed. If it is
not installed then follow the instructions in the download link provided.

• Here, you will install the python 3.6 on a Linux/UNIX server. Since there are variants to the UNIX
flavours - only DEBIAN is described here in this slide
Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Installation of Python on Linux

• For more installation procedures on different Linux servers refer to this
https://www.python.org/downloads/

• For RPMS: https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4/rpms/

• For other packages : https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-364/

• Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Files section, Here, there are links for gzip file,
XZ compressed files, ( and other OS as well )

• User would use the same Download URL, and choose the v2.7 and install it. Both versions
can co-exist.
Introduction to Python Versions of Python
Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Installing Python on Windows ( same for 32 bit and 64 bit architecture)

• One has the option of installing Python in different ways, It can be either in gzip form,
Installer, or a web based installer

• Installing the gzip or source code and compiling is only if you want to install it locally.
• However the easier way is to install using the Windows Installer.

• Scroll down to the section in this link/URL where the “Files” are listed, and you will see
different flavours of installers, and for 32 bit and 64 bit processors as well.

• Choose the appropriate package for your platform - download and install.
Testing and Validating Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Validating the installation of both Python and pip.
• pip3 - the tool to support in installation of additional libraries for Python gets automatically installed when
user installs the v3.6
• To check if this is installed - open a command prompt and type in the command pip3 ( the related
command to check in version 2.7 is pip )
• pip3 —V ( double dash )
• This indicates the version of pip installed and at the end it will say the matching python version that this
is compatible with.
• Additional information on installing pip can be obtained from

https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/

• On a related note: one can upgrade pip by running the command

• pip install -U pip
• Once satisfied that the installation was successful, try listing the different package using the pip
command.
PIP3 LIST 1 of 1 IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• A sample pip list command should return something like this. ( This is just an example )

altgraph (0.10.2)
wscli (1.14.28)
bdist-mpkg (0.5.0)
bonjour-py (0.3)
botocore (1.8.32)
certifi (2018.1.18)
chardet (3.0.4)
click (6.7)
cloudant (2.3.1)
• next, explore the pip command by typing in
• pip3 —-help
PIP3 LIST 1 of 2 IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Also, explore
• pip show command to list the package and it’s attributes
pip3 show python ( This is only a sample, Your output can vary )
• Name: Python
• Version: 2.7.10
• Summary: A high-level object-oriented programming language
• Home-page: http://www.python.org/2.7
• Author: Guido van Rossum and the Python community
• Author-email: [email protected]
• License: PSF license
• Location: /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-
dynload
• Requires:
Installation IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• Let’s just install a sample package called Cloudant ( this is a NoSQL DB)
$ pip3 install cloudant
• Collecting cloudant
• Downloading cloudant-2.8.1.tar.gz (54kB)
• 100% |████████████████████████████████| 61kB 205kB/s
• Collecting requests<3.0.0,>=2.7.0 (from cloudant)
• Using cached requests-2.18.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl
• Collecting certifi>=2017.4.17 (from requests<3.0.0,>=2.7.0->cloudant)
• Using cached certifi-2018.1.18-py2.py3-none-any.whl
• Collecting chardet<3.1.0,>=3.0.2 (from requests<3.0.0,>=2.7.0->cloudant)
• Using cached chardet-3.0.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl
• Collecting urllib3<1.23,>=1.21.1 (from requests<3.0.0,>=2.7.0->cloudant)
• Using cached urllib3-1.22-py2.py3-none-any.whl
• Collecting idna<2.7,>=2.5 (from requests<3.0.0,>=2.7.0->cloudant)
• Using cached idna-2.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl
• Installing collected packages: certifi, chardet, urllib3, idna, requests, cloudant
• Running setup.py install for cloudant ... done
• Successfully installed certifi-2018.1.18 chardet-3.0.4 cloudant-2.8.1 idna-2.6 requests-2.18.4 urllib3-1.22
• Now, run the pip3 list command and validate that the Cloudant is installed.
Checkpoint (1 of 2) IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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1 MARK QUESTION

1.Is it a good practice to write python programs in file names that ends with a .py ?
– Yes
– No.
2.‘pip’ and ‘setuptools.py’ are supporting 3rd party tools that aid in installing Python modules and other
libraries.
– Yes
– No
3.Basic Programs written for version 2.7 can be run on version 3.6 as well in general ?
– Yes
– No
4.python —version command will indicate the version of the Python executable
– Yes
– No
5.‘python’ and ‘python3’ are the executable names for python and python3 programming Language
– Yes
– No
6. Python is an interpreter and does require code to be compiled before executing.
– True
– False
Checkpoint solutions (1 of 2) IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• 1. Yes - all programs need a suffix and in the case of Python programs - they end with .py. It
helps in identifying that they are Python scripts.

• 2. Yes, pip and setuptools.py are 3rd party tools that aid in installation of libraries and
modules. They are installed as part of the v3.6 by default.

• 3. Yes, Generally, all code written for v2.7 will and should work for v3.6.

• 4. Yes, python —version will print the v2.7 and python3 —version will print the v3.6

• 5. python is the name of the v2.7 executable and python3 is the name of the v3.6 executable.

• 6. False, Python is an interpreter and does not need to be compiled for it to be run.
Checkpoint (2 of 2) IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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7.Data Types in Python are similar to Fortran Programming Language
– True
– False
8. Python syntax is indent based, and English like
– True
– False
9. Invoking the python interpreter command line can be terminated by
– Ctrl-D
– Ctrl-C

10. Python code can be executed by mentioning the location of the executable in first line of the script
– True
– False

11. Python lets integration of different components seamlessly into it’s code.
– True
– False
12. Python is fast in execution as it is a interpreter, since compilation is not done.
– True
– False

13. How do you get out of a Python command interpreter,

– quit()
– quit
Checkpoint solutions (2 of 2) IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• 7. False, Data Types are similar to C programming language.

• 8. True, Python is indent based and English like.

• 9. Ctrl-D

• 10. True, #!/usr/bin/python

• 11. True

• 12. False, Python tends to be slow in execution compared to compiled languages like Java
and others as it is an Interpreter.

• 13. quit() - this is the method to get out of the Interactive command interpreter.
Question bank IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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2 MARKS QUESTIONS
• 1. Comments in Python is indicated by a #, or triple quotes, or triple double quotes sign in the beginning
of the line.
– True
– False
• 2. Data Type of ‘x’ is obtained by “ print type(x) “
– True
– False
• 3. Python language programming is not Case-Sensitive
– True
– False
• 4. Multi Line statements are indicated by a ‘*’ at end of the line.
– True
– False
• 5. Multiple statements are allowed in a single line if they are separated by a semicolon ‘;’.
– True
– False
• 6. The “python -v” flag reports the verbose debug output when program is run.
– True
– False
Question bank IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• 4 MARKS QUESTION

• 1. Write a program that will read the number of arguments and print the arguments ? (
http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/system/python-sys-argv)

• 2.Explain any two popular applications written in Python.

• 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Python programming language.

• 4. When does one use Python 2.7 Vs Python 3.6

• 5. Install a Data Analysis package using pip command on your platform

pip3 install matplotlib, Check if package is installed by “pip3 list”

• 6. Import ‘os’ package in your sample program, and print the os.name.
import os
print os.name
Question bank IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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• 8 MARKS QUESTION

• 1. Write a program that will import os, and print os.getcwd() and os.uname().
Refer to this link for additional help. https://docs.python.org/2/library/os.html

• 2.Write a program that will import sys, and print sys.version_info

• https://docs.python.org/2/library/sys.html

• 3. Write a program that will print the arguments passed to the program. e.g python.
print_args.py. one two three
Hint : use sys.argv method.

• 4.Write a program, that will print today’s date using ‘from datetime import date’ and print
date.today()

• 5.Write a program and include help(), and when executed will print the help menu ( e.g:
help() )

• 6. Write a program a) import os, and then b) print dir (os) and check results.
Unit summary IBM ICE (Innovation Centre for Education)
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Having completed this unit, you should be able to:

• Give an Introduction to Python

• Install Python on your platform

• Learn different flavors of Python

• Execute Python programs in different ways

• Learn syntax of Python programming