09/05/2023 09:47 01-Python_01-Programming-Basics
Python for Data Science ¶
Python
Multi-platform
Interpreted / Dynamic Typing
Garbage Collected
Object-Oriented & Procedural
Large Standard Library
Created by Guido van Rossum (https://www.linkedin.com/in/guido-van-rossum-4a0756/), first released in
1991
REPL
Read, Eval, Print, Loop.
Open your terminal and launch:
ipython
Documentation
👉 The Python 3.8 Standard Library (https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/index.html)
Built-in Types
Let's look at the important sections of the documentation (https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/stdtypes.html)
and explore the simple built-in types.
Numeric Types (https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/stdtypes.html#numeric-
types-int-float-complex)
In [ ]:
type(42)
Out[ ]:
int
In [ ]:
type(3.14)
Out[ ]:
float
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In [ ]:
4 + 9.5
Out[ ]:
13.5
In [ ]:
abs(-5)
Out[ ]:
Booleans (https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/stdtypes.html#truth-value-
testing)
In [ ]:
type(True) # or type(False)
Out[ ]:
bool
In [ ]:
True and False
Out[ ]:
False
In [ ]:
True or False
Out[ ]:
True
In [ ]:
not True
Out[ ]:
False
What are falsy values in Python?
Constants defined to be false: None and False .
Zero of any numeric type: 0 , 0.0 , etc.
Empty sequences and collections: '' , () , [] , {} , set() , range(0)
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Comparisons
In [ ]:
5 < 3 # Strictly less than
Out[ ]:
False
In [ ]:
4 <= 4 # Less than or equal
Out[ ]:
True
In [ ]:
"boris" == "seb" # equal, note the `double` =
Out[ ]:
False
In [ ]:
"boris" != "seb" # not equal
Out[ ]:
True
Text Sequence Type (Strings, str )
In [ ]:
"boris"
Out[ ]:
'boris'
In [ ]:
"boris".capitalize()
Out[ ]:
'Boris'
In [ ]:
" boris ".strip()
Out[ ]:
'boris'
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In [ ]:
type(int("42"))
Out[ ]:
int
Check out the documentation (https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/stdtypes.html#string-methods) for more
str methods.
Advanced built-in types
Sequence Types
list (https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/stdtypes.html#list)
tuple (https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/stdtypes.html#tuple)
range (https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/stdtypes.html#range)
An example of list
In [ ]:
["apple", "cherries", "banana"]
Out[ ]:
['apple', 'cherries', 'banana']
In [ ]:
len(["apple", "cherries", "banana"])
Out[ ]:
In [ ]:
"banana" in ["apple", "cherries", "banana"]
Out[ ]:
True
Mapping Type
There is just one in Python, dict (read dictionary)
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In [ ]:
{'city': 'Paris', 'population': 2_141_000}
Out[ ]:
{'city': 'Paris', 'population': 2141000}
In [ ]:
len({'city': 'Paris', 'population': 2_141_000})
Out[ ]:
In [ ]:
'city' in {'city': 'Paris', 'population': 2_141_000}
Out[ ]:
True
Variables
In [ ]:
name = 'John' # Assignment
print(name)
John
In [ ]:
name = 'Paul' # Re-assignment
print(name)
Paul
In [ ]:
first_name = 'John'
last_name = 'Lennon'
In [ ]:
full_name = first_name + last_name
print(full_name)
JohnLennon
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String Formatting - Interpolation
In [ ]:
sentence = f'Hi, my name is {first_name} {last_name}'
print(sentence)
Hi, my name is John Lennon
list operations
In [ ]:
# Indexes: 0 1 2
beatles = ['john', 'paul', 'ringo']
In [ ]:
beatles[0] # Read
Out[ ]:
'john'
In [ ]:
beatles.append('george') # Create (in place)
print(beatles)
['john', 'paul', 'ringo', 'george']
In [ ]:
beatles[1] = 'Paul' # Update (in place)
print(beatles)
['john', 'Paul', 'ringo', 'george']
Other list operations
In [ ]:
beatles
Out[ ]:
['john', 'Paul', 'ringo', 'george']
In [ ]:
beatles[1:3] # Slice of 1 to 3 (excluded)
Out[ ]:
['Paul', 'ringo']
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In [ ]:
del beatles[1] # Delete (in place)
print(beatles)
['john', 'ringo', 'george']
dict operations
In [ ]:
instruments = {'john':'guitar', 'paul':'bass'} # Keys are `str`, Values too
In [ ]:
instruments['john'] # Read
Out[ ]:
'guitar'
In [ ]:
instruments['ringo'] = 'drums' # Create / Update
print(instruments)
{'john': 'guitar', 'paul': 'bass', 'ringo': 'drums'}
In [ ]:
del instruments['john']
instruments
Out[ ]:
{'paul': 'bass', 'ringo': 'drums'}
Other dict operation
In [ ]:
instruments
Out[ ]:
{'paul': 'bass', 'ringo': 'drums'}
What will happen if we run instruments['john'] ?
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In [ ]:
instruments['john']
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
KeyError Traceback (most recent call las
t)
<ipython-input-40-4f6ae9ee253b> in <module>
----> 1 instruments['john']
KeyError: 'john'
In [ ]:
instruments.get('john', 'Default instrument')
Out[ ]:
'Default instrument'
Control Flow
Once again, the documentation is very thorough (https://docs.python.org/3.8/tutorial/controlflow.html)
if statement
In [ ]:
age = int(input("How old are you?"))
if age >= 21:
print("You can become president")
elif age >= 18:
print("You can vote")
else:
print("Be patient!")
for statement (on a list )
In [ ]:
words = ['cat', 'wolf', 'beetle']
for word in words:
print(word.upper())
CAT
WOLF
BEETLE
List comprehension
You can achieve the same result in just one line:
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In [ ]:
[print(word.upper()) for word in words]
...or store it in a new variable:
In [ ]:
uppercase_words = [word.upper() for word in words]
print(uppercase_words)
['CAT', 'WOLF', 'BEETLE']
What if you need the index inside the for loop?
In [ ]:
for index, word in enumerate(words):
print(index, word)
0 cat
1 wolf
2 beetle
for statement (on a dict )
In [ ]:
instruments
Out[ ]:
{'paul': 'bass', 'ringo': 'drums'}
In [ ]:
for beatle, instrument in instruments.items():
print(f'{beatle.capitalize()} plays the {instrument}')
Paul plays the bass
Ringo plays the drums
while loop
In [ ]:
i = 1
while i <= 4:
print(i)
i = i + 1
1
2
3
4
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Functions
Let's see how we can define and use our own functions
(https://docs.python.org/3.8/tutorial/controlflow.html#defining-functions).
In [ ]:
def is_even(number):
return number % 2 == 0
The function is named is_even
The function takes 1 parameter: number ( int )
The function returns a bool
In [ ]:
result = is_even(42)
print(result)
True
We called the function with the argument 42 . The returned value is stored in a result variable.
Keyword Arguments
Let's have a look at pandas.DataFrame.from_dict (https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-
docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.from_dict.html) (Source (https://github.com/pandas-
dev/pandas/blob/v1.0.3/pandas/core/frame.py#L1168-L1247)). Some arguments are passed with the syntax
parameter=value .
In [ ]:
def is_odd(number=0):
return number % 2 == 1
In [ ]:
result = is_odd(number=1)
print(result)
True
Mixing positional and keyword arguments
In [ ]:
def full_name(first_name, last_name, capitalize=False):
if capitalize:
return f"{first_name.capitalize()} {last_name.capitalize()}"
else:
return f"{first_name} {last_name}"
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In [ ]:
print(full_name("john", "lennon"))
print(full_name("ringo", "starr", capitalize=True))
john lennon
Ringo Starr
Modules (https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html)
As our programs will grow longer, we will want to split the code into many files & folders.
Here is a very simple example to illustrate this technique:
mkdir project && cd project
touch app.py
mkdir helpers && touch helpers/__init__.py
In [ ]:
# helpers/__init__.py
import random
import string
def generate_password(size):
"""Generate a random lowercase ASCII password of given size"""
letters = string.ascii_lowercase
return ''.join(random.choice(letters) for i in range(size))
In [ ]:
# app.py
from helpers import generate_password # Module import here
print(generate_password(16))
python app.py
Before you go, one more thing!
Debugging 🐛
print(your_variable)
ipython
python <file_name>
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When running your code with python <file_name> you can use the IPython debugger (ipdb)
(https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) thanks to the built-in breakpoint()
(https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#breakpoint) function.
It will let you investigate the current state of your code.
Let's try with our generate_password function!
Add the debugger in the function definition and run the app.py file from the Terminal.
In [ ]:
# helpers/__init__.py
import random
import string
def generate_password(size, upper=False):
"""Generate a random lowercase ASCII password of given size"""
letters = string.ascii_uppercase if upper else string.ascii_lowercase
breakpoint()
return ''.join(random.choice(letters) for i in range(size))
You can access the args , variables defined within the function ( letters ) and much more.
To continue the execution try:
next - until the next line in the current function is reached or it returns
continue - only stop when a breakpoint is encountered ( breakpoint )
If you want to see available commands type help .
Advanced Language Topics
To master Python, here are some additional topics to dive into during the Bootcamp:
List Comprehensions (https://treyhunner.com/2015/12/python-list-comprehensions-now-in-color/)
Memory Management / Garbage Collection (https://docs.python.org/3/faq/design.html?
highlight=garbage%20collector#how-does-python-manage-memory)
Object Oriented Programming (https://anandology.com/python-practice-
book/object_oriented_programming.html)
*args & **kwargs (https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-args-and-kwargs-
in-python-3)
Iterators & Generators (https://anandology.com/python-practice-book/iterators.html)
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Your turn!
Head onto Kitt, find your buddy and start your first challenge!
Remember:
Read the assignment carefully
Run your code with python <file.py> before running make
Talk with your buddy
Raise a ticket 🙋♀️
Have fun! 🚀
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