Chapter – 4 -

Control Structure
 If ... Else
• An "if statement" is written by using the if keyword.

• Indentation
• Python relies on indentation (whitespace at the beginning of a line) to define scope
in the code. Other programming languages often use curly-brackets for this purpose.
 If ... Else
• Elif
• The elif keyword is Python's way of saying "if the previous conditions were not true,
then try this condition".

• Else
• The else keyword catches anything which isn't caught by the preceding conditions.
 If ... Else
• Short Hand If
• If you have only one statement to execute, you can put it on the same line as the if
statement.

• Short Hand If ... Else

• If you have only one statement to execute, one for if, and one for else, you can put it
all on the same line:

• You can also have multiple else statements on the same line:
 If ... Else
• And
• The and keyword is a logical operator, and is used to combine conditional statements:

• Or
• The or keyword is a logical operator, and is used to combine conditional statements:
 If ... Else
• Not
• The not keyword is a logical operator, and is used to reverse the result of the
conditional statement:

• Nested If
• You can have if statements inside if statements, this is called nested if statements.

• The pass Statement

• if statements cannot be empty, but if you for some reason have an if statement
with no content, put in the pass statement to avoid getting an error.
Looping
 While Loops
• With the while loop we can execute a set of statements as long as a condition is true.

• Note: remember to increment i, or else the loop will continue forever.

• The while loop requires relevant variables to be ready, in this example we need to define
an indexing variable, i, which we set to 1.
• The break Statement
• With the break statement we can stop the loop even if the while condition is true:
 While Loops
• The continue Statement
• With the continue statement we can stop the current iteration, and continue with the
next:

• The else Statement

• With the else statement we can run a block of code once when the condition no
longer is true:
 For Loops
• A for loop is used for iterating over a sequence (that is either a list, a tuple, a dictionary,
a set, or a string).

• This is less like the for keyword in other programming languages, and works more like
an iterator method as found in other object-orientated programming languages.

• With the for loop we can execute a set of statements, once for each item in a list, tuple,
set etc.

• The for loop does not require an indexing variable to set beforehand.
• Looping Through a String
• Even strings are iterable objects, they contain a sequence of characters:
 For Loops
• The break Statement
• With the break statement we can stop the loop before it has looped through all the
items:

• The continue Statement

• With the continue statement we can stop the current iteration of the loop, and
continue with the next:
 For Loops
• The range() Function
• To loop through a set of code a specified number of times, we can use the range() function,
• The range() function returns a sequence of numbers, starting from 0 by default, and
increments by 1 (by default), and ends at a specified number.

• Note that range(6) is not the values of 0 to 6, but the values 0 to 5.

• The range() function defaults to 0 as a starting value, however it is possible to specify the
starting value by adding a parameter: range(2, 6), which means values from 2 to 6 (but not
including 6):
 For Loops
• The range() function defaults to increment the sequence by 1, however it is possible to
specify the increment value by adding a third parameter: range(2, 30, 3):

• Else in For Loop

• The else keyword in a for loop specifies a block of code to be executed when the
loop is finished:

• Note: The else block will NOT be executed if the loop is stopped by a break
statement.
 For Loops
• Nested Loops
• A nested loop is a loop inside a loop.
• The "inner loop" will be executed one time for each iteration of the "outer loop":

• The pass Statement

• for loops cannot be empty, but if you for some reason have a for loop with no
content, put in the pass statement to avoid getting an error.
 Chapter – 5

• Functions and Optimization

 Functions
• A function is a block of code which only runs when it is called.
• You can pass data, known as parameters, into a function.
• A function can return data as a result.
• Creating a Function
• In Python a function is defined using the def keyword:

• Calling a Function
• To call a function, use the function name followed by parenthesis:

• Arguments
• Information can be passed into functions as arguments.
• Arguments are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses. You can add
as many arguments as you want, just separate them with a comma.
 Functions
• Arguments

• Parameters or Arguments?
• The terms parameter and argument can be used for the same thing: information that are
passed into a function.
• From a function's perspective:
• A parameter is the variable listed inside the parentheses in the function definition.
• An argument is the value that is sent to the function when it is called.
• Number of Arguments
• By default, a function must be called with the correct number of arguments. Meaning that if your
function expects 2 arguments, you have to call the function with 2 arguments, not more, and not less.
 Functions
• Arbitrary Arguments, *args
• If you do not know how many arguments that will be passed into your function, add
a * before the parameter name in the function definition.
• This way the function will receive a tuple of arguments, and can access the items
accordingly:

• Keyword Arguments
• You can also send arguments with the key = value syntax.
• This way the order of the arguments does not matter.

• The phrase Keyword Arguments are often shortened to kwargs in Python

documentations.
 Functions
• Arbitrary Keyword Arguments, **kwargs
• If you do not know how many keyword arguments that will be passed into your
function, add two asterisk: ** before the parameter name in the function definition.
• This way the function will receive a dictionary of arguments, and can access the
items accordingly:

• Default Parameter Value

• The following example shows how to use a default parameter value.
• If we call the function without argument, it uses the default value:
 Functions
• Passing a List as an Argument
• You can send any data types of argument to a function (string, number, list,
dictionary etc.), and it will be treated as the same data type inside the function.
• E.g. if you send a List as an argument, it will still be a List when it reaches the
function:

• Return Values
• To let a function return a value, use the return statement:
 Functions
• The pass Statement
• function definitions cannot be empty, but if you for some reason have a function
definition with no content, put in the pass statement to avoid getting an error.

• Positional-Only Arguments
• You can specify that a function can have ONLY positional arguments, or ONLY
keyword arguments.
• To specify that a function can have only positional arguments, add , / after the
arguments:

• Without the , / you are actually allowed to use keyword arguments even if the
function expects positional arguments:
 Functions
• But when adding the , / you will get an error if you try to send a keyword argument:

• Keyword-Only Arguments
• To specify that a function can have only keyword arguments, add *, before the
arguments:

• Without the *, you are allowed to use positional arguments even if the function
expects keyword arguments:

• But when adding the *, / you will get an error if you try to send a positional
argument:
 Functions
• Combine Positional-Only and Keyword-Only
• You can combine the two argument types in the same function.
• Any argument before the / , are positional-only, and any argument after the *, are
keyword-only.

• Recursion
• Recursion is a common mathematical and programming concept. It means that a
function calls itself. This has the benefit of meaning that you can loop through data
to reach a result.
 Lambda
• A lambda function is a small anonymous function.
• A lambda function can take any number of arguments, but can only have one
expression.
• Syntax:

• Lambda functions can take any number of arguments:

 Lambda
• Why Use Lambda Functions?
• The power of lambda is better shown when you use them as an anonymous function
inside another function.
• Say you have a function definition that takes one argument, and that argument will
be multiplied with an unknown number:

• Use that function definition to make a function that always doubles the number you
send in:

• Or, use the same function definition to make a function that always triples the
number you send in: