# Python for Data Analysis - Chapter 1: Preliminaries (Structured Notes)
## 1. Overview
Chapter 1 introduces the scope of the book, the kinds of data analysis problems Python excels at,
and the core ecosystem of Python libraries for data analysis.
**Real-world use:**
Before diving into coding, this chapter sets the foundation: what tools you'll use and why Python is a
strong choice for data wrangling, analysis, and visualization.
---
## 2. Key Concepts & Why They Matter
### 1.1 What Is This Book About?
- Focus: Data wrangling, cleaning, transformation, visualization, statistical modeling.
- Goal: Give you practical tools to work with **real-world messy data**.
### 1.2 Why Python for Data Analysis?
- **Python as Glue:** Integrates databases, file formats, and external libraries.
- **Two-Language Problem:** Unlike R or MATLAB, Python can both *prototype* and
*productionize* code.
- **Community & Libraries:** Large ecosystem for analytics, ML, visualization.
### 1.3 Essential Python Libraries
- **NumPy:** Core numerical computing library. Powers arrays, linear algebra, random numbers.
- **pandas:** Tabular data (DataFrame) handling, data cleaning, aggregation.
- **matplotlib:** Plotting and visualization.
- **IPython/Jupyter:** Interactive coding and data exploration.
---
## 3. Code & Usage Examples
### Importing Core Libraries
```python
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
```
### Reading Data into pandas
```python
df = pd.read_csv("data.csv")
print(df.head())
```
### Simple NumPy Array
```python
arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4])
print(arr.mean()) # Output: 2.5
```
---
## 4. Project Application Ideas
- **NumPy:** Fast numerical operations (e.g., image pixel processing, simulations).
- **pandas:** Cleaning a CSV file of sales data before analysis.
- **matplotlib:** Creating line and bar charts for trends over time.
- **Jupyter:** Exploratory data analysis (EDA) notebook combining code and visuals.
---
## 5. Exercises
**From the chapter's concepts:**
1. Install NumPy, pandas, matplotlib, and Jupyter on your system.
2. Load a CSV file into pandas and display the first 5 rows.
3. Create a NumPy array of random integers and calculate the mean, min, and max.
4. Use matplotlib to plot a simple line chart of your NumPy array values.
5. Start a Jupyter Notebook and run the above steps interactively.
---
## 6. Quick Recap
- Python is a flexible, all-in-one language for data analysis.
- NumPy, pandas, matplotlib, and Jupyter form the **core toolkit**.
- Understanding these tools is the first step to doing real, production-ready data analysis.
