GLS UNIVERSITY

IMScIT SEM 5
221601501 INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON

UNIT– I
Introduction to Python

Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and high-

level programming language.

Python is a cross-platform programming language, meaning, it runs on multiple

platforms like Windows, MacOS, Linux and has even been ported to the Java and
.NET virtual machines. It is free and open source.

Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not need to compile
your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.

Python is an object-oriented programming language.

It is ideally designed for rapid prototyping of complex applications.

Many large companies use the Python programming language include NASA,
Google, YouTube, BitTorrent, etc.

Python is widely used in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language

Generation, Neural Networks and other advanced fields of Computer Science.
History of Python

Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early
nineties at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer
Science in the Netherlands.

Python was created as a successor of a language called ABC (All Basic Code)
and released publicly in 1991 and version 1.0 was released in 1994.

Python is derived from other languages like C, C++, SmallTalk, and Unix shell
and other scripting languages. Python source code is now available under the
GNU General Public License (GPL).

Latest version of Python – 3.13
Where Python is used?
Features of Python
Features of Python


It provides rich data types and easier to read syntax than any other
programming languages

It is a platform independent scripted language with full access to operating
system.

Compared to other programming languages, it allows more run-time flexibility

Libraries in Pythons are cross-platform compatible with Linux, MacIntosh,
and Windows

For building large applications, Python can be compiled to byte-code.

Python supports functional and structured programming as well as OOP

It supports interactive mode that allows interacting Testing and debugging of
snippets of code

In Python, since there is no compilation step, editing, debugging and testing is
fast.

It supports automatic garbage collection.
Web Frameworks for Python


A Web framework is a collection of packages or modules which allow
developers to write Web applications or services without having to handle such
low-level details as protocols, sockets or process/thread management.

Django is the most popular Python framework around, and it’s easy to
understand. Thousands of websites are currently using Django, from daily
newspapers to social media and sharing sites to major foundations and
nonprofits.

Django is known for being fast to build and friendly to beginning programmers.

Web2py easy to learn as Django, but also more flexible and extremely portable.
The same code can run with a SQL database or MongoDB.

The Web2py framework comes with a code editor, debugger, and deployment
tool with which you can develop and debug code, as well as test and maintain
applications.
Web Frameworks for Python

Pyramid as the “Goldilocks” framework, feature-rich without enforcing one
way of doing things, lightweight without leaving you on your own as your app
grows. It’s a favorite framework among many experienced Python developers
and transparency, and has been used by small teams as well as tech giants like
Dropbox, Yelp, SurveyMonkey, and Mozilla.

Other frameworks like Flask, Bottle, Tornado, etc...
Basics of Python

The Python language has many similarities to Perl, C, and Java.

Python files have extension .py.

Assuming that you have Python interpreter set in PATH variable.

Execute: python test.py

Python comments
comments do not change the outcome of a program, they still play an important role in
any programming and not just Python. Comments are the way to improve the readability
of a code, by explaining what we have done in code in simple english.

This is especially helpful when someone else has written a code and you are analysing it
for bug fixing or making a change in logic, by reading a comment you can understand the
purpose of code much faster then by just going through the actual code.

Types of Comments in Python:

There are two types of comments in Python.

1. Single line comment

2. Multiple line comment

Python comments

Single line comment

In python we use # special character to start the comment.

Ex:- ‘#’ This is just a comment. Anything written here is ignored by Python

Multi-line comment:
To have a multi-line comment in Python, we use triple single quotes at the beginning and
at the end of the comment, as shown below.

Ex:-
'''
This is a
multi-line
comment
'''
Python Keywords and Identifiers

Python Keywords

Keywords are the reserved words in Python.

We cannot use a keyword as a variable name, function name or any other

identifier. They are used to define the syntax and structure of the Python
language.

In Python, keywords are case sensitive. There are 33 keywords in Python 3.12

All the keywords except True, False and None are in lowercase and they must be
written as it is. The list of all the keywords is given below.
Basics of Python

Reserve Keywords


Python Identifiers

An identifier is a name given to entities like class, functions, variables, etc. It

helps to differentiate one entity from another.

Rules for writing identifiers:-


Identifiers can be a combination of letters in lowercase (a to z) or uppercase (A
to Z) or digits (0 to 9) or an underscore _. Names like myClass, var_1 and
print_this_to_screen, all are valid example.

An identifier cannot start with a digit. 1variable is invalid, but variable1 is
perfectly fine.

Keywords cannot be used as identifiers.

We cannot use special symbols like !, @, #, $, % etc. in our identifier.

Identifier can be of any length.
Python Variables
Python Variables :- A variable is a named location used to store data in the
memory. It is helpful to think of variables as a container that holds data which can
be changed later throughout programming. For example: number =10

Variable name is known as identifier. There are few rules that you have to follow
while naming the variables in Python.
1. The name of the variable must always start with either a letter or an underscore
(_).
For example: _str, str, num, _num are all valid name for the variables.
2. The name of the variable cannot start with a number.
For example: 9num is not a valid variable name.
3. The name of the variable cannot have special characters such as %, $, # etc,
they can only have alphanumeric characters and underscore (A to Z, a to z, 0-9 or
_ ).
4. Variable name is case sensitive in Python which means num and NUM are two
different variables in python.
Python Variables

Variable Naming Rules


Must begin with a letter (a - z, A - B) or underscore (_)

Other characters can be letters, numbers or _

Case Sensitive

Reserved words cannot be used as a variable name


Equalto sign

Python variables do not need explicit declaration to reserve memory space.

The equal to sign creates new variables and gives them values.

<variable> = <expr>.

It read right to left only.

Multiple assignment:

a=b=c=1

a,b,c = 1,2,"john"
Data Types

Standard Data Types: Data type defines the type of the variable, whether it is an
integer variable, string variable, tuple, dictionary, list etc.

Python data types are divided in two categories, mutable Objects and immutable
Objects.

Immutable (In-built) Data types in Python

1. Numeric
2. String
3. Tuple

Mutable Data types in Python

1. List
2. Dictionary
3. Set

Data Types - Number
Integers, floating point numbers and complex numbers falls under Python
numbers category.

They are defined as int, float and complex class in Python.

We can use the type() function to know which class a variable or a value belongs
to.

Integers can be of any length, it is only limited by the memory available.

A floating point number is accurate up to 15 decimal places.

Integer and floating points are separated by decimal points.

1 is integer, 1.0 is floating point number.

Complex numbers are written in the form, x + yj, where x is the real part and y is
the imaginary part. Here are some examples.


int (signed integers)


long (long integers, they can also be represented in octal and
hexadecimal)


float (floating point real values)


complex (complex numbers)


Python displays long integers with an uppercase L.

A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating-point

numbers denoted by x + yj, where x and y are the real numbers and j is the
imaginary unit.
Data Type

Boolean (bool)

It represents the truth values False and True.

String

String is sequence of Unicode characters.

Follows (left-to- right order) of characters

We can use single quotes or double quotes to represent strings.

Multi-line strings can be denoted using triple quotes, '''.

Subsets of strings can be taken using the slice operator ([ ] and [:] ) with
indexes starting at 0 in the beginning of the string.

The plus (+) sign is the string concatenation operator and the asterisk (*) is the
repetition operator.
Data Type
List

List is an ordered sequence of items. It is one of the most used datatype in
Python and is very flexible. All the items in a list do not need to be of the same
type.

It is similar to array in C only difference is that elements it contains have
different data type.

We can use the slicing operator [ ] to extract an item from a list. Index starts
form 0 in Python.

Tuple

A tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to the list.

The main differences between lists and tuples are: Lists are enclosed in brackets
( [ ] ) and their elements and size can be changed, while tuples are enclosed in
parentheses ( ( ) ) and cannot be updated.

Tuples are read-only lists.

Tuples are used to write-protect data so it is faster than list as it cannot change
dynamically.
Data Type

Dictionary

Dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs.

They work like associative arrays or hashes found in Perl and consist of key-
value pairs.

A dictionary key can be almost any Python type, but are usually numbers or
strings.

Key and value can be of any type.

It is generally used when we have a huge amount of data.

Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces ({ }) and values can be assigned and
accessed using square braces ([]).
Processing Input and Output

Input/Output

Functions like input() and print() are widely used for standard input and
output operations respectively.

print() function

It is used to output data to the standard output device (screen).

You can write print(argument) and this will print the argument in the next
line when you press the ENTER key

To format our output str.format() method is used.

Syntax of print():

print(*objects, sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)
Processing Input and Output

print() Parameters

 objects - object to the printed. * indicates that there may be more than one
object
 sep - objects are separated by sep. Default value: ' '
 end - end is printed at last
 file - must be an object with write(string) method. If omitted it, sys.stdout will
be used which prints objects on the screen.
 flush - If True, the stream is forcibly flushed. Default value: False

Note: sep, end, file and flush are keyword arguments.

Processing Input and Output


print(1,2,3,4)

# Output: 1 2 3 4


print(1,2,3,4, sep ='*')

# Output: 1*2*3*4


print(1,2,3,4,sep='#',end='&')

# Output: 1#2#3#4&
Processing Input and Output

The input() is used to take the input from the user.


Syntax: input([prompt])

where prompt is the string we wish to display on the screen. It is optional.

 In Python 2, you have a built-in function raw_input(), whereas in Python 3, you

have input().

num = input('Enter a number: ')

Enter a number: 10
'10'
Working with Python Files

Import

When program size increases it is divided into different modules.

A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements.

Definitions inside a module can be imported to another module, import
keyword to do this.

Syntax
import module_name

We can also import some specific attributes and functions only, using the
from keyword.
Operators

Operators

Operators are special symbols which represent symbols and perform arithmetic
and logical computations.

The values the operator uses are called operands.

Python supports following types of Operators:

Arithmetic Operators

Comparison/Relational Operators

Assignment Operators

Logical Operators

Membership Operators

Identity Operators

Bitwise Operators
Operators
Arithmetic Operators:

Arithmetic operators are used to perform mathematical operations like addition,

subtraction, multiplication etc.
Operators
Comparison Operators:

Comparison operators are used to compare values. It either returns True or False
according to the condition.
Operators
Bitwise Operators:

Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit by bit operation.

Assignment Operators:

Assignment operators are used in Python to assign values to variables.

Operators

Logical Operators:
Operators

Identity Operators:

is and is not are the identity operators in Python. They are used to check if two
values (or variables) are located on the same part of the memory. Two variables
that are equal does not imply that they are identical.
Operators

Membership Operators:

in and not in are the membership operators in Python.

They are used to test whether a value or variable is found in a sequence (string,
list, tuple, set and dictionary).
String

Creating String

A string is a sequence of characters.

Strings can be created by enclosing characters inside a single quote or double
quotes. Even triple quotes can be used in Python but generally used to
represent multiline strings and docstrings.

var1 = 'Hello World!'

var2 = "Python Programming"

In Python, Strings are stored as individual characters in a contiguous memory
location.

The benefit of using String is that it can be accessed from both the directions in
forward and backward.

Both forward as well as backward indexing are provided using Strings in
Python.

Forward indexing starts with 0,1,2,3,....

Backward indexing starts with -1,-2,-3,-4,....
String


str[0] = 'P' = str[-6]

str[1] = 'Y' = str[-5]

str[2] = 'T' = str[-4]

str[3] = 'H' = str[-3]

str[4] = 'O' = str[-2]

str[5] = 'N' = str[-1].
String
String Functions String Functions

Capitalize 
Startwith

Count 
Swapcase

Endswith 
Lstrip

Find 
Rstrip

Index

Isalnum

Isalpha

Isdigit

Islower

Isupper

Isspace

len

Lower

Upper
String Functions
 Capitalize():
 It capitalizes the first character of the String.
Syntax:
str.capitalize()

Example:
str = "this is string example";
print "str.capitalize() : "

Output:
This is string example
String

count(string,begin,end):
Counts number of times substring occurs in a String between begin and end
index.

Syntax:

str.count(sub, start= 0,end=len(string))
Parameters
sub − This is the substring to be searched.
start − Search starts from this index. First character starts from 0 index.
By default search starts from 0 index.
end − Search ends from this index. First character starts from 0 index.
By default search ends at the last index.

str = "this is string example...";

sub = "i";
print "str.count(sub, 4, 40) : ", //2
sub = "wow";
print "str.count(sub) : " //1
String

endswith(suffix ,begin=0,end=n):
Returns a Boolean value if the string terminates with given suffix between begin
and end.
Syntax
str.endswith(suffix[, start[, end]])
Parameters
suffix − This could be a string or could also be a tuple of suffixes to look for.
start − The slice begins from here.
end − The slice ends here

str = "this is string example....wow!!!";

suffix = "wow!!!";
print str.endswith(suffix) //True
print str.endswith(suffix,20) //True
suffix = "is";
print str.endswith(suffix, 2, 4) //True
String

find(substring ,beginIndex, endIndex):

It returns the index value of the string where substring is found between begin
index and end index. It returns index if it is found else -1.
Syntax
str.find(str, beg=0, end=len(string))
Parameters
str − This specifies the string to be searched.
beg − This is the starting index, by default its 0.
end − This is the ending index, by default its equal to the length of the string.

str1 = "this is string example....";

str2 = "exam";

print str1.find(str2) #15

print str1.find(str2, 10) #15
print str1.find(str2, 40) #-1
String

index(subsring, beginIndex, endIndex):

Same as find() except it raises an exception if string is not found.
Syntax
str.index(str, beg = 0 end = len(string))
Parameters
str − This specifies the string to be searched.
beg − This is the starting index, by default its 0.
end − This is the ending index, by default its equal to the length of the string.

str1 = "this is string example....";

str2 = "exam";

print str1.index(str2) #15

print str1.index(str2, 10) #15
print str1.index(str2, 40) #Error
String

isalnum():
It returns True if characters in the string are alphanumeric i.e., alphabets or
numbers and there is at least 1 character. Otherwise it returns False.
Syntax:
str.isalnum()

str = "ty2018"; # No space in this string True

print str.isalnum()

str = "this is string example...; #False

print str.isalnum()
String

Isalpha():
It returns True when all the characters are alphabets and there is at least one
character, otherwise False.
Syntax
str.isalpha()

str = "this"; # No space & digit in this string True

print str.isalpha()

str = "this is string example....wow!!!"; False

print str.isalpha().
String

Isdigit():
It returns True if all the characters are digit and there is at least one character,
otherwise False.
Syntax
str.isdigit()

str = "123456"; # Only digit in this string

print str.isdigit() #True

str = "this is string example";

print str.isdigit() #False
String

islower():
It returns True if the characters of a string are in lower case, otherwise False.
Syntax
str.islower()

str = "THIS is string example..";

print str.islower() #False

str = "this is string example..";

print str.islower() #True
String

isupper():
It returns False if characters of a string are in Upper case, otherwise False.
Syntax
str.isupper()

str = "THIS IS STRING EXAMPLE..";

print str.isupper() #True

str = "THIS is string example..";

print str.isupper() #False
String

isspace():
It returns True if the characters of a string are whitespace, otherwise false.
Syntax
str.isspace()

str = " ";

print str.isspace() #True

str = "This is string example";

print str.isspace() #False
String

len(string):
len() returns the length of a string.
Syntax
len( str )

str = "this is string example..";

print "Length of the string: ", len(str)
String

Lower():
Converts all the characters of a string to Lower case.
Syntax
str.lower()

str = "THIS IS STRING EXAMPLE..";

print str.lower() #This is string example
String

Upper():
Converts all the characters of a string to Upper Case.
Syntax
str.upper()

str = "this is string example..";

print "str capital : ", str.upper() #THIS IS STRING EXAMPLE..
String

startswith(str ,begin=0,end=n):
Returns a Boolean value if the string starts with given str between begin and end.
Syntax
str.startswith(str, beg=0,end=len(string));
Parameters
str − This is the string to be checked.
beg − This is the optional parameter to set start index of the matching
boundary.
end − This is the optional parameter to end start index of the matching
boundary.

str = "this is string example..";

print str.startswith( 'this' ) #True
print str.startswith( 'is', 2, 4 ) #True
print str.startswith( 'this', 2, 4 ) #False
String

Swapcase():
Inverts case of all characters in a string.
Syntax
str.swapcase();

str = "this is string example..";

print str.swapcase() # THIS IS STRING EXAMPLE..

str = "THIS IS STRING EXAMPLE..";

print str.swapcase() #this is string example..
String

lstrip():
Remove all leading whitespace of a string. It can also be used to remove
particular character from leading.
Syntax
str.lstrip([chars])

Parameters
chars − You can supply what chars have to be trimmed.

str = " this is string example... ";

print str.lstrip()
str = "88888888this is string example..8888888";
print str.lstrip('8')

Output
this is string example..
this is string example..8888888
String

rstrip():
Remove all trailing whitespace of a string. It can also be used to remove
particular character from trailing.
Syntax
str.rstrip([chars])

Parameters
chars − You can supply what chars have to be trimmed.

str = " this is string example.. ";

print str.rstrip()
str = "88888888this is string example..8888888";
print str.rstrip('8')

output
this is string example..
88888888this is string example..
Math and Comparison

Math and Comparison


Adding Strings Together:

fname = “GLS”

lname = “BCA”

print(fname+lname)

Multiplication(aestrick):

s = “hello”

print(s * 5)

print(s * -5) #returns empty string when negative number is passed.

print(s * 5.5) #float gives an error

Comparing Strings:

a1 = "hello "

a2 = "Hello"

a1 == a2 # returns false as Python is case sensitive
Math Function


Math Module consists of mathematical functions and
constants.

The Python math module provides various values of
various constants like pi, and tau.

Constants
Synatx Description Output
math.pi depicted as either 22/7 or 3.14. math.pi 3.141592653589793
provides a more precise value for the pi

math.e returns the Euler’s number 2.718281828459045

Math.tau ratio of the circumference to the radius of 6.283185307179586

a circle - equal to 2*pi
Math Function

Function Description
Name
ceil(x) Returns Smallest integer not less than x
floor(x) Returns the greatest integral value smaller than the number
pow(x,y) Compute value of x raised to the power y (x**y)
sqrt(x) Returns the square root of the number
factorial(x) Returns the factorial of the number
fabs() Returns the absolute value of the number.
min() Find the minimum value from tuple or list
max() Find the maximum value from tuple or list
String Formating

Formatting Strings

Python uses C-style string formatting to create new, formatted strings. The "%"
operator is used to format a set of variables enclosed in a "tuple" (a fixed size
list), together with a format string, which contains normal text together with
"argument specifiers", special symbols like "%s" and "%d".

The string format() method formats the given string in Python.
String Formating

Formatting Strings:

format() method takes any number of parameters. But, is divided into two types
of parameters:

Positional parameters - list of parameters that can be accessed with index of
parameter inside curly braces {index}

Keyword parameters - list of parameters of type key=value, that can be
accessed with key of parameter inside curly braces {key}
String Formating

Formatting Strings:
 Positional Argument



Keyword Argument



String Formating

Formatting Strings:

# default arguments
print("Hello {}, your balance is {}.".format("Adam", 230.2346))

# positional arguments
print("Hello {0}, your balance is {1}.".format("Adam", 230.2346))

# keyword arguments
print("Hello {name}, your balance is {blc}.".format(name="Adam",
blc=230.2346))

# mixed arguments
print("Hello {0}, your balance is {blc}.".format("Adam", blc=230.2346))

Output:
Hello Adam, your balance is 230.2346.
Formatting with alignment

Type Meaning
< Left aligned to the remaining space
^ Center aligned to the remaining space
> Right aligned to the remaining space
= Forces the signed (+) (-) to the leftmost position
String formatting with format()

# string padding with left alignment

print("{:5}".format("cat"))
c a t
# string padding with right alignment
print("{:>5}".format("cat"))
c a t
String formatting with format()

string padding with center alignment

print("{:^5}".format("cat"))
c a t

# string padding with center alignment

# and '*' padding character
print("{:*^5}".format("cat"))
* c a t *
Truncating strings with format()

# truncating strings to 3 letters

print("{:.3}".format("caterpillar"))
c a t

# truncating strings to 3 letters

# and padding
print("{:5.3}".format("caterpillar"))
c a t

# truncating strings to 3 letters,

# padding and center alignment
print("{:^5.3}".format("caterpillar"))
c a t
Conversion Functions

Conversion Functions

int(): string, floating point → integer

float(): string, integer → floating point number

str(): integer, float, list, tuple, dictionary → string

list(): string, tuple, dictionary → list

tuple(): string, list → tuple
Range Function


The built-in range function is very useful to generate sequences of numbers in
the form of a list.

The range() constructor returns an immutable sequence object of integers
between the given start integer to the stop integer.

range() constructor has two forms of definition:

range(stop)

range(start, stop[, step])

range() takes mainly three arguments having the same use in both
definitions

start - integer starting from which the sequence of integers is to be returned

stop - integer before which the sequence of integers is to be returned. The
range of integers end at stop - 1.

step (Optional) - integer value which determines the increment between each
integer in the sequence.
Range Function

x = range(3, 6)
for n in x:
print(n) # 3 4 5

x = range(3, 20, 2)
for n in x:
print(n) # 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19