Introduction to Python (Part I)

Variables and data types

Week1

Middlesex University Dubai. Winter ‘23, CST4050

Instructor: Dr. Ivan Reznikov
Plan
Python Basics:
– Variables
– Comments
– Basic Data Types:
●
String
●
Integer
●
Float
●
Boolean
●
List
●
Dictionary
2
Variables
some_answer = 42 42

print(some_answer)
>>>42
some_
answe
print(type(some_answer)) r
>>>int

3
Naming variables
Can you guess what is in each box?

cat c var_
1
Variables: Naming convention

Bad examples Good examples

'l' (lowercase letter “el”), temp_celsius
'O' (uppercase letter “oh”) station_id
'I' (uppercase letter “eye”) current_timestamp

'some_variable'
'NOT_GLOBAL_VAR' ----
'Averagecamelsizeindesert' tempCelsius
'number-of-cans-in-a-sixpack' stationID
'xxrstaqwe' currentTimestamp

5
Basic operations with variables

Create Read Update Delete

6
Comments
# This is a comment before some code '''
print("Hello Python!") multi-row
comment
'''

print("Winter is coming!") # this is an in-line comment

Comments are left to increase the understandability of ones code.

Very often to later version of yourself.

7
 Data Type: String my_string = "Burj Khalifa"

my_string[xstart:xend:step] Speed Task:

my_string[0:4] >>>"Burj" my_string[5:] >>>

my_string[2] >>>"r" my_string[4] >>>
my_string[-1] >>>"a" my_string[-0] >>>
my_string[2:-5] >>>"rj Kh" my_string[3:9:2] >>>
my_string[::3] >>>"Bjhi" my_string[::-1] >>>
8
 Data Type: String my_string = "Burj Khalifa"

my_string[xstart:xend:step] Speed Task:

my_string[0:4] >>>"Burj" my_string[5:] >>>"Khalifa"

my_string[2] >>>"r" my_string[4] >>>" "
my_string[-1] >>>"a" my_string[-0] >>>"B"
my_string[2:-5] >>>"rj Kh" my_string[3:9:2] >>>"jKa"
my_string[::3] >>>"Bjhi" my_string[::-1]
>>>"afilahK jruB" 9
 Data Type: Updating Strings
String concatenation:
string_one = "Expo2020 took"
string_two = "place in 2021"
string_three = string_one + string_two
>>>Expo2020 tookplace in 2021

string_three = string_three + " " + "in Dubai"

>>>Expo2020 tookplace in 2021 in Dubai

string_three += "!"
>>>Expo2020 tookplace in 2021 in Dubai!
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String methods
dir(my_string)
>>>[‘__add__’, ‘__class__’, ‘__contains__’, ‘__delattr__’, ‘__doc__’, ‘__eq__’, ‘__format__’,
‘__ge__’, ‘__getattribute__’, ‘__getitem__’, ‘__getnewargs__’, ‘__getslice__’, ‘__gt__’,
‘__hash__’, ‘__init__’, ‘__le__’, ‘__len__’, ‘__lt__’, ‘__mod__’, ‘__mul__’, ‘__ne__’, ‘__new__’,
‘__reduce__’, ‘__reduce_ex__’, ‘__repr__’, ‘__rmod__’, ‘__rmul__’, ‘__setattr__’,
‘__sizeof__’, ‘__str__’, ‘__subclasshook__’, ‘_formatter_field_name_split’,
‘_formatter_parser’, ‘capitalize’, ‘center’, ‘count’, ‘decode’, ‘encode’, ‘endswith’,
‘expandtabs’, ‘find’, ‘format’, ‘index’, ‘isalnum’, ‘isalpha’, ‘isdigit’, ‘islower’, ‘isspace’,
‘istitle’, ‘isupper’, ‘join’, ‘ljust’, ‘lower’, ‘lstrip’, ‘partition’, ‘replace’, ‘rfind’, ‘rindex’,
‘rjust’, ‘rpartition’, ‘rsplit’, ‘rstrip’, ‘split’, ‘splitlines’, ‘startswith’, ‘strip’, ‘swapcase’,
‘title’, ‘translate’, ‘upper’, ‘zfill’]

11
Data Type: Integers and Floats

Integer: Whole numbers Float: Fraction numbers

my_number = 5 my_number = 5.0

type(my_number) type(my_number)
>>><class 'int'> >>><class 'float'>
int(5.0) float(5)
>>><class 'int'> >>><class 'float'>
my_number += 1 del my_number
>>>6 >>>

13
Data Type: Boolean
Boolean values represent True/False statements.
Often used to check for None, empty strings, list, objects, etc.

my_bool = 2 + 2 == 5
my_bool, type(my_bool)
>>>False, <class 'bool'>

bool(False), bool(None), bool(0), bool(""), bool(()), bool([]), bool({})

>>>False, False, False, False, False, False, False

bool(True), bool(1), bool("a"), bool((b)), bool([c]), bool({"d":"e"})

>>>True, True, True, True, True, True

14
 Data Type: List
my_string = [4,8,15,16,23,42]

my_list[xstart:xend:step] my_list[0] = 1
my_list[0] >>>4 >>>[1, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42]
my_list[-1] >>>42
my_list[1:4] >>>[8, 15, 16] my_list = my_list + [100]
my_list[3:] >>>[16, 23, 42] >>>[1, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, 100]
my_list[::-1] >>>[42, 23, 16, 15, 8, 4]
my_list[:] >>>[4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42] del my_list[-2]
>>>[1, 8, 15, 16, 23, 100]
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List methods
dir(my_list)
>>>['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__delitem__', '__dir__',
'__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__getitem__',
'__gt__', '__hash__', '__iadd__', '__imul__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__', '__iter__',
'__le__', '__len__', '__lt__', '__mul__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__',
'__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__reversed__', '__rmul__', '__setattr__', '__setitem__',
'__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'append', 'clear', 'copy', 'count',
'extend', 'index', 'insert', 'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']

16
 Data Type: Tuple
my_tuple = (16,2,4,8)

my_tuple[0] = 0 Tuples are immutable.

>>>TypeError: 'tuple' object Neither they, nor their elements
does not support item assignment can be changed.

my_tuple.append(0) Tuples are ordered. Their order

>>> AttributeError: 'tuple' won’t change. They maintain
object has no attribute 'append' the order of data insertion.

my_tuple[-1] >>>8
my_tuple[1:3] >>>(2, 4)

17
 Data Type: Set
my_set = {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32}

my_set = {16,1,2,32,2,2,4,8,16,1,1} Sets contain unique values.

>>>{1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32} Duplicate values are not
allowed.
my_set.add(5.0)
my_set.add(False) Sets are immutable.
>>>{False, 1, 2, 4, 5.0, 8, 16} Their elements cannot be
changed.
my_list = [8, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8]
my_set = set(my_list) Sets are unordered. They don’t
>>> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8} maintain the order of data
insertion.
18
Data Type: Dictionary my_dictionary = {
"name" : "Burj Khalifa",
"height_m" : 830,
my_dictionary["name"]
"completed" : True
>>>”Burj Khalifa”
}
my_dictionary.keys()
{
>>>dict_keys(['name', 'height_m',
"key": "value"
'completed'])
}
Keys are unique within a
my_dictionary.values()
dictionary
>>>dict_values(['Burj Khalifa', 830, True])
Dictionaries are ordered
by key, not maintaining
initial order
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 Data Type: Dictionary
my_dictionary = {
my_dictionary['height_m'] = 829.8 "name" : "Burj Khalifa",
"height_m" : 830,
my_dictionary['hashtags'] = ["#burjkhalifa", "completed" : True
"#dubai", "#uae", "#dubaimall"] }

del my_dictionary['completed']

>>>{
"name" : "Burj Khalifa",
"height_m" : 829.8,
"hashtags" : ["#burjkhalifa",
"#dubai", "#uae", "#dubaimall"]
}
20
Dictionary methods
dir(my_dictionary)
>>>['__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__delitem__', '__dir__', '__doc__',
'__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__getitem__', '__gt__',
'__hash__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__', '__iter__', '__le__', '__len__', '__lt__',
'__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__reversed__',
'__setattr__', '__setitem__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'clear',
'copy', 'fromkeys', 'get', 'items', 'keys', 'pop', 'popitem', 'setdefault', 'update',
'values']

21
Data Type comparison