Scribd
Upload
72 views

Python First Day

The document introduces Python, explaining that it is a high-level, open source programming language with many standard modules. It discusses why Python is useful for GIS tasks and covers Python concepts like strings, lists, dictionaries, conditionals, loops, modules and error handling.

Uploaded by

Sairam Prasad Marata
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
72 views

Python First Day

The document introduces Python, explaining that it is a high-level, open source programming language with many standard modules. It discusses why Python is useful for GIS tasks and covers Python concepts like strings, lists, dictionaries, conditionals, loops, modules and error handling.

Uploaded by

Sairam Prasad Marata
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 25

Introduction to Python

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 1


Introduction to Python

 Python is a high-level programming language


 Open source and community driven
 “Batteries Included”
• a standard distribution includes many modules
 Dynamic typed
 Source can be compiled or run just-in-time
 Similar to perl, tcl, ruby

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 2


Why Python?

 Unlike AML and Avenue, there is a considerable base of developers


already using the language
 “Tried and true” language that has been in development since 1991
 Can interface with the Component Object Model (COM) used by
Windows
 Can interface with Open Source GIS toolsets

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 3


Why not Visual Basic?

 Visual Basic is still the method of configuring and customizing ArcMap


 If you have a button on the toolbar, it’s VB
 Python scripts can be placed in ArcToolbox
 Python can be run from the command line without ArcMap or
ArcCatalog being open
 Using just the GIS Engine, lower overhead
 Rapid prototyping, ease of authoring, etc.

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 4


Python Interfaces

 IDLE – a cross-platform Python development environment


 PythonWin – a Windows only interface to Python
 Python Shell – running 'python' from the Command Line opens this
interactive shell
 For the exercises, we'll use IDLE, but you can try them all and pick a
favorite

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 5


IDLE – Development Environment

IDLE helps you program


in Python by:
color-coding your program
code
debugging
auto-indent
interactive shell

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 6


Example Python

Hello World
print “hello world”
Prints hello world to
standard out
Open IDLE and try it out
yourself
Follow along using IDLE

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 7


More than just printing

 Python is an object oriented language


 Practically everything can be treated as an object
 “hello world” is a string
 Strings, as objects, have methods that return the result of a function on
the string

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 8


String Methods

Assign a string to a
variable
In this case “hw”
hw.title()
hw.upper()
hw.isdigit()
hw.islower()

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 9


String Methods

 The string held in your variable remains the same


 The method returns an altered string
 Changing the variable requires reassignment
• hw = hw.upper()
• hw now equals “HELLO WORLD”

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 10


Other Python Objects

 Lists (mutable sets of strings)


• var = [] # create list
• var = [‘one’, 2, ‘three’, ‘banana’]
 Tuples (immutable sets)
• var = (‘one’, 2, ‘three’, ‘banana’)
 Dictionaries (associative arrays or ‘hashes’)
• var = {} # create dictionary
• var = {‘lat’: 40.20547, ‘lon’: -74.76322}
• var[‘lat’] = 40.2054
 Each has its own set of methods

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 11


Lists

 Think of a list as a stack of cards, on which your information is written


 The information stays in the order you place it in until you modify that
order
 Methods return a string or subset of the list or modify the list to add or
remove components
 Written as var[index], index refers to order within set (think card
number, starting at 0)
 You can step through lists as part of a loop

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 12


List Methods

 Adding to the List


• var[n] = object
replaces n with object
• var.append(object)
adds object to the end of the list
 Removing from the List
• var[n] = []
empties contents of card, but preserves order
• var.remove(n)
removes card at n
• var.pop(n)
removes n and returns its value

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 13


Lists in ArcToolbox

You will create lists:


Layers as inputs
Attributes to match
Arrays of objects
You will work with lists:
List of field names
List of selected features

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 14


Tuples

 Like a list, tuples are iterable arrays of objects


 Tuples are immutable –
once created, unchangeable
 To add or remove items, you must redeclare
 Example uses of tuples
• County Names
• Land Use Codes
• Ordered set of functions

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 15


Dictionaries

 Dictionaries are sets of key & value pairs


 Allows you to identify values by a descriptive name instead of order in a
list
 Keys are unordered unless explicitly sorted
 Keys are unique:
• var[‘item’] = “apple”
• var[‘item’] = “banana”
• print var[‘item’] prints just banana

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 16


Indentation and Blocks

 Python uses whitespace and indents to denote blocks of code


 Lines of code that begin a block end in a colon:
 Lines within the code block are indented at the same level
 To end a code block, remove the indentation
 You'll want blocks of code that run only when certain conditions are met

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 17


Conditional Branching

 if and else
if variable == condition:
#do something based on v == c
else:
#do something based on v != c
 elif allows for additional branching
if condition:
elif another condition:
…
else: #none of the above

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 18


Looping with For

 For allows you to loop over a block of code a set


number of times
 For is great for manipulating lists:
a = ['cat', 'window', 'defenestrate']
for x in a:
print x, len(x)
Results:
cat 3
window 6
defenestrate 12

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 19


Looping with For

 We could use a for loop to perform geoprocessing tasks on each layer in


a list
 We could get a list of features in a feature class and loop over each,
checking attributes
 Anything in a sequence or list can be used in a For loop
 Just be sure not to modify the list while looping

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 20


Modules

 Modules are additional pieces of code that further extend Python’s


functionality
 A module typically has a specific function
• additional math functions, databases, network…
 Python comes with many useful modules
 arcgisscripting is the module we will use to load ArcGIS toolbox
functions into Python

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 21


Modules

 Modules are accessed using import


• import sys, os # imports two modules
 Modules can have subsets of functions
• os.path is a subset within os
 Modules are then addressed by modulename.function()
• sys.argv # list of arguments
• filename = os.path.splitext("points.txt")
• filename[1] # equals ".txt"

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 22


Files

 Files are manipulated by creating a file object


• f = open("points.txt", "r")
 The file object then has new methods
• print f.readline() # prints line from file
 Files can be accessed to read or write
• f = open("output.txt", "w")
• f.write("Important Output!")
 Files are iterable objects, like lists

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 23


Error Capture

 Check for type assignment errors, items not in a list, etc.


 Try & Except
try:
a block of code that might have an error
except:
code to execute if an error occurs in "try"
 Allows for graceful failure
– important in ArcGIS

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 24


Additional Python Resources

 Python Homepage
http://www.python.org/
 Dive Into Python
http://www.diveintopython.org/
 Learning Python, 3rd Edition
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596513986/
 Getting Started Writing Geoprocessing Scripts
Available on ESRI's support page

Copyright TVS Limited | Private & Confidential | Page 25

You might also like