Introduction to Python

Dr. Noman Islam

Print
• In Python, the command print tells the program to
display words or numbers on the screen
• Keywords
• String
Variables
• name=“Noman”
• Variables can change their values
• With variables, Python is blind to semantics
• Give your variables meaningful names
• You can have spaces between variable assignments:
• nickname = "Bub“
• Variable names can't have spaces in them
Variables for numbers
• weight = 150
• Consider
• original_num = 23
• new_num = original_num + 7
• Python substitutes the original_number with value 23
• original_num = original_num + 10
• A variable can start out as one type of variable, then
become another type of variable.
Variable names
• 1st_prime_number = 2 is illegal. Why?
• prime_number_that_comes1st = 2 is legal
Math expressions
• +, -, *, /
• popular_number = 2 + 2
• sum_of_numbers = num + another_num
Legal and illegal variable names
• You can't enclose variable names in quotation marks.
• You can't have any spaces in it.
• It can't be a number or begin with a number
• A variable can't be any of Python's reserved words, also
known as keywords
Python keywords
• Variable names are case-sensitive
• Python's governing body recommends breaking up
multi-word variables with underscores
• You should balance readability with conciseness
Unfamiliar operators
• whats_left_over = 10 % 3
• % is the modulo operator.
• age += 1
• age -= 2
• age *= 3
Math Expressions: Eliminating ambiguity
• total_cost = 1 + 3 * 4
• In Python, as in algebra, the ambiguity is cleared up by
precedence rules
• Multiplication operations are completed before addition
operations
• Parentheses override all the other precedence rules.
Concatenating text strings
• greeting = "Hello"
• addressee = "World“
• whole_greeting = greeting + addressee
• You can use the plus sign to sum numbers, and you can
use it to concatenate strings
• But you can't use the plus sign to combine strings and
numbers
• print("The sum of 2 plus 2 is " + 4)
If statements
• if species == "cat":
• print("Yep, it's cat.")
• Note that it's two equal signs, ==, not one
• if 2 + 2 == 4:
• print("Everything makes sense.")
• Indentation is very important
Comparison operators
• == is a type of comparison operator, specifically it's the
equality operator
• !=
•>
•<
• >=
• <=
else and elif
• Often, you want something to happen either way
• Statements that execute in the else case are indented
• Finally, there's elif. It's short for else if. If no test has
been successful yet, an elif tries something else.
Testing set of conditions
• You can test for a combination of conditions in Python
by using the keyword and
• You can also create a test that passes if any condition is
met. The keyword is or.
• You can combine any number of and and or conditions
If statements nested
• Nest levels are communicated to Python by indentations
Comments
• Comments are lines of text in your code that Python
ignores
• A comment can help you figure out your code when you
come back to it a month or a year later
• To write a comment, begin with #. For readability, add a
space after the #
Lists
• A list is a variable that can have a sequence of values
assigned to it
• In a list, these values are known as elements
• cities = ["Atlanta", "Baltimore", "Chicago“]
• The first element in a list always has an index of 0, the
second element an index of 1, and so on
• You can even mix the different types of values in the
same list
Adding and changing elements in list
• cities.append("New York")
• There's an alternative way to append. It allows you to
add one or more elements to a list:
• cities = cities + ["Dubuque", "New Orleans"]
• todays_tasks = []
• If I want to insert "New York" at the beginning of the list,
I write:
• cities.insert(0, "New York")
Lists: Taking slices out of them
• cities[2:5]
• smaller_list_of_cities = cities[:5]
• smaller_list_of_cities = cities[2:]
Lists: Deleting and removing elements
• del tasks[0]
• tasks.remove("call Sarah")
Lists: popping elements
• latest_task_accomplished = tasks.pop(1)
• To pop the last element in a list, skip the index number
• tasks_accomplished.insert(1, tasks.pop(1))
Tuples
• They can't be changed—unless you redefine the whole
tuple
• states_in_order_of_founding = ("Delaware",
"Pennsylvania", "New Jersey", "Georgia")
Tuple
• A tuple-pronounced "toople" by some people and
"tupple" by others-is like a list, but the elements are
fixed
• Example:
• states_in_order_of_founding = ("Delaware", "Pennsylvania",
"New Jersey", "Georgia")
• A tuple starts numbering at 0
• You can't add, modify, remove, delete, or pop
For loop
• for a_clean_city in cleanest_cities:
if city_to_check == a_clean_city:
print("It's one of the cleanest cities")
• If Python finds a match, there's no point in continuing
the loop. So you stop the loop by adding a break
statement
Nested loop
• for a_first_name in first_names:
• for a_last_name in last_names:
• full_names.append(a_first_name + " " + a_last_name)
Input
• input()
• int()
• float()
• str()
Changing case
• lower()
• upper()
• title()
Dictionaries
• A dictionary works something like a list, but instead of a
simple series of things, a dictionary is a series of pairs
of things
• Each pair contains a key and a value
• customer_29876 = {"first name": "David", "last name":
"Elliott", "address": "4803 Wellesley St."}
• customer_29876["address"]
• But keys don't have to be strings. They can be numbers
Adding items in dictionary
• customer_29876["city"] = "Toronto“
• Empty dictionary
• things_to_remember = {}
Removing and changing elements
• del customer_29876["address"]
• customer_29876["city"] = "Winipeg”
Looping through dictionary
• for each_value in customer_29876.values():
• print(each_value)
• for each_key in customer_29876.keys():
• print(each_key)
• for each_key, each_value in customer_29876.items():
• print("The customer's " + each_key + " is " + each_value)
List of dictionary
• Defining a list of dictionary
• Picking up values
• Length of customers
• Append
Dictionary of list
• customer_29876 = {"first name": "David", "last name":
"Elliott", "address": "4803 Wellesley St.", "discounts":
["standard", "volume", "loyalty"]}
• in keyword
Dictionary of dictionary
• customers = { "johnog": {"first name":"John", "last
name": "Ogden", "address": "301 Arbor Rd." },
"coder1200": {"first name":"Ann", "last name":
"Sattermyer", "address": "PO Box 1145" },
"madmaxine": {"first name":"Jill", "last name":
"Somers", "address": "3 Main St." }
}
Functions
• A function is a block of Python code that robotically does the
same thing again and again, whenever you invoke its name
def add_numbers():
first_number = 2
second_number = 3
total = first_number + second_number
print(total)

add_numbers()
Note: The function definition must come before the function
call.
Passing arguments to function
def add_numbers(first_number, second_number):
total = first_number + second_number
print(total)

add_numbers(1.11, 2.22)
• positional arguments
Keyword arguments
def say_names_of_couple(husband_name, wife_name):
print("The names of the couple are " + husband_name
+ " and " + wife_name)

say_names_of_couple(husband_name="Bill",
wife_name="Zelda")
Assigning default values
def calc_tax(sales_total, tax_rate=.04):
print(sales_total * tax_rate)
• You can mix positional arguments and keyword
arguments. For example, you can code…
give_greeting("Hello there", first_name="Al”)
• Positional arguments must come before keyword
arguments
• Lists and dictionaries, as well as strings and numbers,
can be arguments passed to a function
Unknown number of arguments
def display_result(winner, score, **other_info):
print("The winner was " + winner)
print("The score was " + score)
for key, value in other_info.items():
print(key + ": " + value)

display_result(winner="Real Madrid", score="1-0", overtime ="yes",

injuries="none")
• The two asterisks followed by a parameter name mean that there
may or may not be one or more extra arguments passed.
• Positional arguments can be optional as well. To handle
optional positional arguments, you use a single asterisk
def display_nums(first_num, second_num, *opt_nums):
print(first_num)
print(second_num)
print(opt_nums)

display_nums(100, 200, 300, 400, 500)

Passing information back from functions
def calc_tax(sales_total, tax_rate):
tax = sales_total * tax_rate
return tax

sales_tax = calc_tax(sales_total=101.37, tax_rate=.05)

print(sales_tax)
Using functions as variables
• print(calc_tax(sales_total=101.37, tax_rate=.05))
• result_of_adding = add_numbers(1, 2)
• result_of_subtracting = subtract_numbers(3, 2)
• sum_of_results = result_of_adding +
result_of_subtracting
Local Vs Global variables
def whatever(b, c):
total = b + c
return total

print(b)
you'll get an error message
• A variable defined in a function is recognized inside the function—
and only inside the function
• Remember, variables defined in the main code are global, meaning
that they're recognized everywhere, including inside functions
Functions within functions
def say_something():
what_to_say = "Hi"
now_say_it()

def now_say_it():
print(what_to_say)
While loops
• while user_input != "q":
• user_input = input("Enter a city, or q to quit:")
• break
• True, False
Classes
• In Python, classes are templates. They help you standardize
and organize information

class Patient():
def __init__(self, last_name):
self.last_name = last_name

pid4343 = Patient("Taleb")
• Instead of creating a class and then creating multiple instances
of the class, you could create a dictionary for each patient
Adding more attributes
• self.first_name = first_name
• self.age = age

• Getting info out of class:

• age_of_patient = pid4343.age
Building functions
• Rather than coding a freestanding function, we can
build the function into the class itself. When we do that,
the function is called a method
def say_if_minor(self):
if self.age < 21:
print(self.first_name + " " + self.last_name + " is a minor")
Changing an attributes value
• pid4343.last_name = "Ortega“
• Using method to change value
Data files
• with open("greet.txt", "w") as f:
• f.write("Hello, world!")
• with open("greet.txt", "r") as f:
• text_of_file = f.read()
• The read-file mode is the default for the open
statement, so if you're opening a file to read data, you
can, if you like, skip the "r"
Appending data
• with open("greet.txt", "a") as f:
• f.write("\nHave a nice day!")
Modules
• Write a function once, call it from any Python program.
• Keep your main programs shorter and simpler to read.
• Use code written by other people by importing their
modules

• import calculations
• tax_for_this_order =
calculations.calc_tax(sales_total=101.37, tax_rate=.05)
CSV files
Year,Event,Winner
1995,Best-Kept Lawn,None
1999,Gobstones,Welch National
2006,World Cup,Burkina Faso

• import csv
• with open("competitions.csv") as f:
• contents_of_file = csv.reader(f)
• for each_line in contents_of_f:
• potter_competitions += each_line
Picking information from CSV
• print(potter_competitions[4])
• index_number_of_target =
potter_competitions.index("Best-Kept Lawn")
Loading information in CSV
• with open("whatever.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
• data_handler = csv.writer(f, delimiter=",")
• data_handler.writerow(["Year", "Event", "Winner"])
• data_handler.writerow(["1995", "Best-Kept Lawn", "None"])
• data_handler.writerow(["1999", "Gobstones", "Welch
National"])
• Use with open("whatever.csv", "a", newline="") as f: to
append
Saving a python list to dictionary
• You can't save a Python list in a text file. You can only
save a text string
• You can save a list in a CSV file, but a more
straightforward approach is to use JSON.
• The four characters stand for JavaScript Object Notation.
• import json
• alphabet_letters = ["a", "b", "c"]
• with open("alphabet_list.json", "w") as f:
• json.dump(alphabet_letters, f)
Retrieving contents from json
• with open("customer_29876.json") as f:
• customer_29876 = json.load(f)
Exception handling
• Bad things can happen to good programs.
• Try
• Except FileNotFoundError: