Coding 1002 – Getting Started

with Python

Flo Pachinger, Developer Advocate

@flopachinger

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What do we cover today?

• Why coding as a Network Engineer is important

• Python
• Interpreter
• Basic operators
• Conditionals, Functions and Loops
• Libraries and how to install them

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Why Coding as a
Network Engineer?
The Value-Proposition for Programmability

Coding is the process of writing down instructions, in a language a

computer can understand, to complete a specific task.
Q: What task?
A: Your task.

for switch in my_network:

for interface in switch:
if interface.is_down() and interface.last_change() > thirty_days:
interface.shutdown()
interface.set_description("Interface disabled per Policy")

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What Changed?

API & Language Maturity

✓ RESTful APIs
✓ Expressive Modern Languages

Online Communities
✓ Open Source
✓ Social Code Sharing (GitHub)

✓ Public Package Repositories

You can get powerful things done with relatively small amounts of code!

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Coding with Python
 • Very popular programming
language
What is Python? • Free
• Huge Community

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 • Powerful
• Readable and easy to learn
Why Python for • Widely available and Open
Source
Network Engineers?
• Windows, Mac, Linux
• Routers & Switches
• Lots of training resources

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 • A Python Interpreter installed
on your system where you run
What do you need? the script
• Text editor

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 sample.py

How does Python

work?

Output

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Let’s dive more into Python!
What python should I use?

• Python 3.x
• Python 2.7 will not be maintained past 2020

Check your python version

$ python -V

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Using your Python Interpreter

How to… Command

Access the Python Interactive Shell $ python

Running a Python script $ python script.py

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Python Script Structure and Execution
Import Modules

Functions

Output/Input
Variables

Conditionals & Loops

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hello-world.py
Fun with Python
Basic Syntax
Basic Data Types

Python Values >>> type(3)

type() (examples) <class ‘int’>

int -128, 0, 42 >>> type(1.4)

<class ‘float’>
float -1.12, 0, 3.14159
>>> type(True)
bool True, False <class ’bool’>

str “Hello” >>> type("Hello")

Can use ‘’, “”, and “””””” <class ’str’>

bytes b”Hello \xf0\x9f\x98\x8e” >>> type(b"Hello")

<class ‘bytes’>

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Numerical Operators

Math Operations >>> 5 + 2

7
Addition: + >>> 9 * 12
108
Subtraction: - >>> 13 / 4
Multiplication: * 3.25
>>> 13 // 4
Division: / 3
>>> 13 % 4
Floor Division: // 1
Modulo: % >>> 2 ** 10
1024
Power: **

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Variables

Names >>> b = 7
>>> c = 3
• Cannot start with a number [0-9] >>> a = b + c
• Cannot conflict with a language keyword >>> a
10
• Can contain: [A-Za-z0-9_-]
• Recommendations for naming (variables, >>> string_one = "Foo"
classes, functions, etc.) can be found in PEP8 >>> string_two = "Bar"
>>> new_string = string_one + string_two
Created with the = assignment operator >>> new_string
'FooBar'
Can see list of variables in the current
scope with dir()

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Working with Strings

String Operations >>> "One" + "Two"

'OneTwo'
Concatenation: +
>>> "Abc" * 3
Multiplication: * 'AbcAbcAbc'

>>> "Hi, my name is {}!".format("Chris")

Some Useful String Methods 'Hi, my name is Chris!'

Composition: “{}”.format() >>> "a b c".split(" ")

['a’, 'b’, 'c']
Splitting: “”.split()
Joining: “”.join() >>> ",".join(['a’, 'b’, 'c'])
'a,b,c'

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Basic I/O

Get Input with input() Display Output with print()

• Can pass multiple values
• Pass it a prompt string
• It will concatenate those values with
• It will return the user’s input as a string separators in between (default = spaces)
• You can convert the returned string to the • It will add (by default) a newline (‘\n’) to
data type you need int(), float(), etc. the end

>>> print(‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’)

abc

>>> i = input(“Enter a Number: ”)

Enter a Number: 1
>>> int(i)
1

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Python Conditionals & Loops
Conditionals

Syntax: Comparison Operators:

if expression1:
Less than <
statements…
elif expression2: Greater than >
statements…
Less than or equal to <=
else:
statements… Greater than or equal to >=
Equal ==
✓ Indentation is important!
Not Equal !=
✓ 4 spaces indent recommended Contains element in
✓ You can nest if statements Combine expressions with: and, or
Negate with: not

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Conditionals | Examples

>>> b = 5 >>> words = "Foo Bar"

>>> if b < 0: >>> if "Bar" in words:
... print("b is less than zero") ... print("words contains 'Bar'")
... elif b == 0: ... elif "Foo” in words:
... print("b is exactly zero") ... print("words contains 'Foo'")
... elif b > 0: ...
... print("b is greater than zero") words contains 'Bar'
... else:
... print("b is something else")
...
b is greater than zero

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Loops

Iterative Loops Conditional Loops

for individual_item in iterator: while logical_expression:
statements… statements…

>>> names = ["chris", "iftach", "jay"] >>> i = 0

>>> while i < 5:
>>> for name in names:
... print(i)
... print(name)
... i += 1
... ...
chris 0
iftach 1
jay 2
3
4

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Python Functions
Functions | Don’t Repeat Yourself

Modularize your code >>> def add(num1, num2):

... result = num1 + num2
• Defining your own Functions ... return result
• (optionally) Receive arguments ...
>>>
• (optionally) Return a value
>>> add(3, 5)
8
Syntax:
def function_name(arg_names):
>>> def say_hello():
statements…
... print("Hello!")
return value >>>
... >>> say_hello()
Hello!
function_name(arg_values)

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Python Libraries
Python Libraries

sample.py

Library 1 Library 2 Library 3

Python Interpreter + Base Modules

Computing Hardware

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Importing and Using Packages & Modules

Import “other people’s” code into your >>> import requests

>>> requests.get('https://google.com')
script. <Response [200]>

Syntax:
import module >>> response = requests.get('https://google.com')
>>> response.status_code
from module import thing 200

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PIP Installs Packages

• Included with Python v3+ (venv) $ pip install requests

Collecting requests
Coupled with a Python installation;
Downloading
may be called pip3 outside a venv <-- output omitted for brevity -->
Installing collected packages: idna, certifi, chardet, urllib3,
• Uses the open PyPI Repository requests
Python Package Index Successfully installed certifi-2018.4.16 chardet-3.0.4 idna-2.6
requests-2.18.4 urllib3-1.22
• Installs packages and their (venv) $
dependencies
• You can post your packages to PyPI!

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Learning Outlook

• 1. Getting the basics done.

• Python Virtual Environments

• Work with various Libraries
• Python Classes

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Continue your learning journey…

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