Python Programming

MCA-106

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 1
 UNIT-I
Introduction to Python

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 2
 Learning Objectives

In this unit, we’ll cover the following:

• History
• Features and Future of Python
• Installation
• Interactive Shell and Program Structure
• Identifiers, Keywords, Variables, Assignments, Immutable Variables
Escape Sequences
• Data-Types, Operators and Operands,
• Command-Line arguments
• Control Flow
• Functions
• Modules

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 3
 History

• Invented in the Netherlands, early 90s by Guido van

Rossum
• Named after Monty Python
• Open sourced from the beginning
• Considered a scripting language, but is much more
scalable, object oriented and functional from the beginning
• Used by Google from the beginning
• Increasingly popular
• Python 2.0 was released on 16 October 2000
• Python 3.0 was released on 3 December 2008 (Latest is
3.11.x)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 4
 Features of Python

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 5
 Features of Python
continued …
1. Readable: Python is a very readable language.
2. Easy to Learn: Python is a high level programming (OOP)
language still it is easy to understand and learn the language
3. Cross platform: Python is available and can run on
various operating systems such as Mac, Windows, Linux,
Unix etc. This makes it a cross platform and portable
language.
4. Open Source: Python is a open source programming
language.
5. Large standard library: Python comes with a large
standard library that has some handy codes and functions
which we can use while writing code in Python.
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 6
 Features of Python
continued …
6. Free: Python is free to download and use. This means you can
download it for free and use it in your application. See:
Open Source Python License.
7. Python is an example of a FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source
Software), which means you can freely distribute copies of this
software, read its source code and even modify it.
8. Supports exception handling
9. Advanced features: Supports Dynamic typing, Programming-in-
the large support, Built-in object types, Built-in tools ,Library
utilities, Third-party utilities
10. Automatic memory management: Python supports automatic
memory management which means the memory is cleared and
freed automatically. You do not have to bother clearing the memory.
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 7
 Applications of
Python
• Web development
• Machine learning / Mathematics
• Data Analysis
• Scripting
• Game development
• Embedded applications development
• Desktop applications
• System Programming

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 8
 Installation of Python
• You can install Python on any operating system such as
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix and others.
• To install the Python on your operating system, go to this
link: https://www.python.org/downloads/
• Download latest version 3.11.x
• Installation steps are simple. You just have to accept the
agreement and finish the installation.
• Python IDEs and code editors – IDLE, PyCharm, Visual
Studio Code, Spyder, Anaconda (Data Science- Python &
R for scientific programming)
• Three primary implementations of the Python language—
CPython, Jython, and IronPython
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 9
 Interactive Shell

We will be using IDLE shell 3.9.x

• IDLE is an Integrated DeveLopment Environment for
Python, typically used on Windows
• Multi-window text editor with syntax highlighting, auto-
completion, smart indent and other.
• Python shell with syntax highlighting.
• Integrated debugger with stepping, persistent breakpoints,
and call stack visibility

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 10
 Program Structure
and Execution
• Python was designed for readability
• Python uses new lines to complete a command, as
opposed to other programming languages
• Python Indentation - Python uses indentation to indicate a
block of code and define scope of loops, functions and
classes
• Python Comments (#)
• Multi-line comments (“ ” ” – Triple quotes)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 11
 Program Structure
and Execution
• Programmer’s view - a Python program is just a text file
containing Python statements.
• Python’s view - It’s first compiled to something called “byte
code” and then routed to something called a “virtual
machine.”
• Source code(.py)  Bite Code (.pyc)  Python Virtual
Machine (PVM)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 12
 First Python Program

# This program adds two numbers

num1 = 1.5
num2 = 6.3

# Add two numbers

sum = num1 + num2

# Display the sum

print('The sum of {0} and {1} is {2}'.format(num1, num2, sum))

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 13
 First Python Program

# Store input numbers

num1 = input('Enter first number: ')
num2 = input('Enter second number: ')

# Add two numbers

sum = float(num1) + float(num2)

# Display the sum

print('The sum of {0} and {1} is {2}'.format(num1, num2, sum))

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 14
 Python Variable
Variables are containers for storing data values.
• Python has no command for declaring a variable.
• A variable is created the moment you first assign a value to it.
• Variables do not need to be declared with any particular type, and can
even change type after they have been set.
x=4 # x is of type int
x = “Arjun" # x is now of type str
print(x)
• If you want to specify the data type of a variable, this can be done with
casting.
x = str(3) # x will be '3'
y = int(3) # y will be 3
z = float(3) # z will be 3.0
• You can get the data type of a variable with the type() function
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 15
 Python Variable
continued …
String variables can be declared either by using single or double quotes
x = “Arjun"
# is the same as
x = ‘Arjun‘
Variable names are case-sensitive.
A variable can have a short name (like x and y) or a more descriptive
name (age, carname, total_volume). Rules for Python variables:
•A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore character
•A variable name cannot start with a number
•A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and
underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _ )
•Variable names are case-sensitive (age, Age and AGE are three different
variables)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 16
 Python Variable
continued …
Python allows you to assign values to multiple variables in one line:
x, y, z = “RED", “GREEN", “BLUE“
And you can assign the same value to multiple variables in one line:
x = y = z = “RED“
If you have a collection of values in a list, tuple etc. Python allows you
extract the values into variables. This is called unpacking.
colors= ["RED", "GREEN", "BLUE"]
x, y, z = colors
print(x)
print(y)
print(z)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 17
 Python Variable
continued …
Python - Output Variables
The python print statement is often used to output variables. To combine
both text and a variable, Python uses the + character.
x = “Powerful"
print("Python is " + x + “ language”)

Python - Global Variables

•Variables that are created outside of a function (as in all of the examples
above) are known as global variables.
•Global variables can be used by everyone, both inside of functions and
outside.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 18
 Python Data Types
Built-in Data Types
•In programming, data type is an important concept.
•Variables can store data of different types, and different types can do different
things.
•Python has the following data types built-in by default, in these categories:
Data Type Keyword used in Python
Text Type str
Numeric Type int, float, complex
Sequence Type list, tuple, range
Mapping Type Dict
Set Type set, frozenset
Boolean Type bool
Binary Types bytes, bytearray, memoryview

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 19
 Python String
Strings in python are surrounded by either single quotation marks, or
double quotation marks.
‘Powerful’ is same as “Powerful”
You can display a string literal with the print() function.
Assigning a string to a variable is done with the variable name followed by
an equal sign and the string:
a = "Hello“ or a = ’Hello’
You can assign a multiline string to a variable by using three quotes:
a = “ ” ” Python was designed for readability, and has some similarities
to the English language with influence from mathematics. “ “ ”
Or
a = ‘ ‘ ‘ Python was designed for readability, and has some similarities
to the English language with influence from mathematics. ‘ ‘ ‘

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 20
 Python String
continued…
Strings are Arrays
•Like many other popular programming languages, strings in Python are
arrays of bytes representing unicode characters.
•However, Python does not have a character data type, a single character
is simply a string with a length of 1.
•Square brackets can be used to access elements of the string.

Get the character at position 1 (remember that the first character has the
position 0):

a = "Hello, World!"
print(a[1])

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 21
 Python String
continued…
String functions or operations on strings:
•Looping Through a String
for x in “BVICAM":
print(x)
•String Length – len()
•Check String – returns boolean
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
print("free" in txt)
•Check if NOT - returns boolean
txt = "The best things in life are free!"
print("expensive" not in txt)
•Slicing
b = "Hello, World!"
print(b[2:5])
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 22
 Python String
continued…
Upper Case
Lower Case
Remove whitespace – strip()
Replace String
Split String
String Concatenation
String Format - we can combine strings and numbers by using the
format method. The format() method takes the passed arguments,
formats them, and places them in the string where the placeholders { }
are:
code= 106
txt = “Paper Code of Python Programming is MCA - { }"
print(txt.format(code))

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 23
 Python Escape
Characters
To insert characters that are illegal in a string, use an escape character.
An escape character is a backslash \ followed by the character you want
to insert.
An example of an illegal character is a single or double quote inside a
string that is surrounded by double quotes:
txt = ‘MCA Students\’ Datasheet’

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 24
 Python Operators
Operators are used to perform operations on variables and values

Python divides the operators in the following groups:

– Arithmetic operators
– Assignment operators
– Comparison operators
– Logical operators
– Identity operators
– Membership operators
– Bitwise operators

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 25
 Python Operators
continued ..
Arithmetic operators
Operator Description Example

+ Addition Adds values on either side of the operator. a + b = 30

- Subtraction Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand. a – b = -10

* Multiplication Multiplies values on either side of the operator a * b = 200

/ Division Divides left hand operand by right hand operand b/a=2

% Modulus Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and returns b%a=0
remainder

** Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators a**b =10 to the power 20

// Floor Division - The division of operands where the result is the 9//2 = 4 and 9.0//2.0 = 4.0, -11//3 = -4, -
quotient in which the digits after the decimal point are removed. But 11.0//3
if one of the operands is negative, the result is floored, i.e., rounded
away from zero (towards negative infinity) −

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 26
 Python Operators
Assignment operators
Operator Example Same as

= x=5 x=5

+= x += 3 x=x+3

-= x -= 3 x=x-3

*= x *= 3 x=x*3

/= x /= 3 x=x/3

%= x %= 3 x=x%3

**= x **= 3 = x ** 3

//= x //= 3 x = x // 3x

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 27
 Python Operators
Comparison operators
Operato Description Example
r

== If the values of two operands are equal, then the condition becomes (a == b) is not true.
true.

!= If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes true. (a != b) is true.

<> If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes true. (a <> b) is true. This is
similar to != operator.

> If the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, (a > b) is not true.
then condition becomes true.

< If the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, then (a < b) is true.
condition becomes true.

>= If the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right (a >= b) is not true.
operand, then condition becomes true.

<= If the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right (a <= b) is true.
operand, then condition becomes true.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 28
 Python Operators
Logical operators

Operator Description Example

and Logical AND If both the operands are (a and b) is true.
true then condition
becomes true.
or Logical OR If any of the two (a or b) is true.
operands are non-zero
then condition becomes
true.
not Logical NOT Used to reverse the Not(a and b) is false.
logical state of its
operand.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 29
 Python Operators
Identity operators
Operator Description Example

is Evaluates to true if the variables

on either side of the operator x is y, here is results in 1 if id(x)
point to the same object and false equals id(y).
otherwise.

is not Evaluates to false if the variables

on either side of the operator x is not y, here is not results in 1 if
point to the same object and true id(x) is not equal to id(y).
otherwise.

x=3 a=3
y=x b=5
x is y a is b

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 30
 Python Operators
Membership operators
Operator Description Example

in Evaluates to true if it finds a variable in the x in y, here in results in a 1 if x is a

specified sequence and false otherwise. member of sequence y.

not in Evaluates to true if it does not finds a variable in x not in y, here not in results in a 1
the specified sequence and false otherwise. if x is not a member of sequence y.

a = 10
b = 20
list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ];

if ( a in list ):
print "Line 1 - a is available in the given list"
else:
print "Line 1 - a is not available in the given list“

Now set a=2 and try the above code

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 31
 Python Operators
Bitwise operators – Consider a = 0011 1100 and b = 0000 1101
Operator Description Example

& Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists

(a & b) (means 0000 1100)
in both operands

| Binary OR It copies a bit if it exists in either operand. (a | b) = 61 (means 0011 1101)

^ Binary XOR It copies the bit if it is set in one operand

(a ^ b) = 49 (means 0011 0001)
but not both.

~ Binary Ones
It is unary and has the effect of 'flipping'
Complement (~a ) = -1100 0011
bits.

<< Binary Left Shift The left operands value is moved left by the
number of bits specified by the right a << 2 = 240 (means 1111 0000)
operand.

>> Binary Right Shift The left operands value is moved right by
the number of bits specified by the right a >> 2 = 15 (means 0000 1111)
operand.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 32
 Operators Precedence
Sr.No. Operator & Description

1 ** Exponentiation (raise to the power)

2 ~ + - Complement, unary plus and minus (method names for the last two are +@ and -@)

3 * / % // Multiply, divide, modulo and floor division

4 + - Addition and subtraction

5 >> << Right and left bitwise shift

6 & Bitwise 'AND'

7 ^ | Bitwise exclusive `OR' and regular `OR'

8 <= < > >= Comparison operators

9 <> == != Equality operators

10 = %= /= //= -= += *= **= Assignment operators

11 is or is not Identity operators

12 in not in Membership operators

13 not or and Logical operators

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 33
 Type conversion in
Python
Python defines type conversion functions to directly convert one data type
to another which is useful in day to day and competitive programming.
There are two types of Type Conversion in Python:
•Implicit Type Conversion
In Implicit type conversion of data types in Python, the Python
interpreter automatically converts one data type to another without any
user involvement.
x = 10
print("x is of type:",type(x))
y = 10.6
print("y is of type:",type(y))
x=x+y
print(x)
print("x is of type:",type(x))

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 34
 Type conversion in
Python
• Explicit Type Conversion
In Explicit Type Conversion in Python, the data type is manually
changed by the user as per their requirement.
#convert from int to float:
x = float(1)
#convert from float to int:
y = int(2.8)
#convert from int to complex:
z = complex(x)
print(x)
print(y)
print(z)

print(type(x))
print(type(y))
print(type(z))
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 35
 Short Circuit Evaluation in
Python
Short-circuit evaluation means that when evaluating Boolean expression like
AND and OR, you can stop as soon as you find the first condition which satisfies
or negates the expression.
Operation Result Description

x or y If x is false, then y else x Only evaluates the second

argument(y) if the firs one is
false

x and y If x is false, then x else y Only evaluates the second

argument(y) if the first one(x) is
True

not x If x is false, then True, else False Not has a lower priority than
non-boolean operators

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 36
 Lazy Evaluation in Python
Lazy evaluation is an evaluation strategy which holds the evaluation of an
expression until its value is needed. It avoids repeated evaluation.
Lazy Evaluation − Advantages
•It allows the language runtime to discard sub-expressions that are not
directly linked to the final result of the expression.
•It reduces the time complexity of an algorithm by discarding the
temporary computations and conditionals.
•It allows the programmer to access components of data structures out-of-
order after initializing them, as long as they are free from any circular
dependencies.
•It is best suited for loading data which will be infrequently accessed.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 37
 Lazy Evaluation in Python
Lazy Evaluation − Drawbacks
•It forces the language runtime to hold the evaluation of sub-expressions
until it is required in the final result by creating thunks (delayed objects).
•Sometimes it increases space complexity of an algorithm.
•It is very difficult to find its performance because it contains thunks of
expressions before their execution.
Lazy Evaluation in Python
•The range method in Python follows the concept of Lazy Evaluation. It
returns a sequence of numbers, starting from 0 by default, and increments
by 1 (by default), and stops before a specified number.
r = range(start, stop, step)
r= range(6)
r= range(3,6)
r= range(3,20,2)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 38
 Conditional Statements in
Python
Decision making is anticipation of conditions occurring while execution of
the program and specifying actions taken according to the conditions.
•Decision structures evaluate multiple expressions which produce TRUE
or FALSE as outcome. You need to determine which action to take and
which statements to execute if outcome is TRUE or FALSE otherwise.
•Following is the general form of a typical decision making structure found
in most of the programming languages −

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 39
 Conditional Statements in
Python
• Python programming language assumes any non-zero and non-
null values as TRUE, and if it is either zero or null, then it is assumed
as FALSE value.
• Python programming language provides following types of decision
making statements. Click the following links to check their detail.

Sr.No. Statement & Description

1 if statements An if statement consists of a boolean expression followed
by one or more statements.
2 if...else statements An if statement can be followed by an optional else
statement, which executes when the boolean expression is FALSE.
3 nested if statements You can use one if or else if statement inside
another if or else if statement(s).

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 40
 Conditional Statements in
Python
Python Conditions and If statements
Python supports the usual logical conditions from mathematics:
•Equals: a == b
•Not Equals: a != b
•Less than: a < b
•Less than or equal to: a <= b
•Greater than: a > b
•Greater than or equal to: a >= b
a = 33
b = 200
if b > a:
print("b is greater than a")
elif a== b:
print("a and b are equal")
else:
print(“a is greater than b")
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 41
 Conditional Statements in
Python
Short Hand If
If you have only one statement to execute, you can put it on the same line
as the if statement : Example
if a > b: print("a is greater than b")
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: Example
a=2
b = 330
print("A") if a > b else print("B")
The pass Statement
If statements cannot be empty, but if you for some reason have an if
statement with no content, put in the statement to avoid getting an error.
if b > a:
pass
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 42
 Python Loops
• In general, statements are executed sequentially: But, there may be a
situation when you need to execute a block of code several number of
times.
• Programming languages provide various control structures that allow
for more complicated execution paths.
• A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of
statements multiple times. The following diagram illustrates a loop
statement −

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 43
 Python Loops
Python programming language provides following types of loops to handle
looping requirements.

Sr.No. Loop Type & Description

1 while loop Repeats a statement or group of statements while a given
condition is TRUE. It tests the condition before executing the loop body.

2 for loop Executes a sequence of statements multiple times and

abbreviates the code that manages the loop variable.

3 nested loops You can use one or more loop inside any another while, for
or do..while loop.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 44
 Python Loops
• Loop Control Statements
• Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence. When
execution leaves a scope, all automatic objects that were created in that scope
are destroyed.
• Python supports the following control statements. Click the following links to
check their detail.
• Let us go through the loop control statements briefly

Sr.No. Control Statement & Description

1 break statement Terminates the loop statement and transfers execution to
the statement immediately following the loop.
2 continue statement Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and
immediately retest its condition prior to reiterating.
3 pass statement The pass statement in Python is used when a statement is
required syntactically but you do not want any command or code to execute.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 45
 Python Loops
Python while Loop Statements
•A while loop statement in Python programming language repeatedly
executes a target statement as long as a given condition is true.
•The syntax of a while loop in Python programming language is −
while expression
statements(s)
•Here, statement(s) may be a single statement or a block of statements.
The condition may be any expression, and true is any non-zero value.
The loop iterates while the condition is true.
•When the condition becomes false, program control passes to the line
immediately following the loop.
•In Python, all the statements indented by the same number of character
spaces after a programming construct are considered to be part of a single
block of code. Python uses indentation as its method of grouping
statements.
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 46
 Python Loops
Using else Statement with While Loop
•Python supports to have an else statement associated with a loop
statement.
•If the else statement is used with a while loop, the else statement is
executed when the condition becomes false.
•The following example illustrates the combination of an else statement
with a while statement that prints a number as long as it is less than 5,
otherwise else statement gets executed.
count = 0
while count < 5:
print count, “ is less than 5 ”
count = count +1
else:
print count, “ is not less than 5 ”
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 47
 Python Loops
Python for Loop Statements
It has the ability to iterate over the items of any sequence, such as a list or
a string.
for iterating_var in sequence:
statement(s)
Example:
for letter in “BVICAM”
print ‘Current Letter:’ , letter

colors = [‘RED’, ‘GREEN’, ‘BLUE’]

for color in colors:
print ‘Current Color:’ , color

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 48
 Functions
A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a
single, related action.
Functions provide better modularity for your application and a high degree
of code reusing.

Basically, we can divide functions into the following two types:

•Built-in functions - Functions that are built into Python.
•For example – abs(), complex(), dict(), float(), format(), id()

•User-defined functions - Functions defined by the users themselves.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 49
 User-defined functions
Advantages of user-defined functions
•User-defined functions help to decompose a large program into small
segments which makes program easy to understand, maintain and debug.
(Modular Programming)
•If repeated code occurs in a program, functions can be used to include
those codes and execute when needed by calling that function.
•Programmers working on large project can divide the workload by making
different functions.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 50
 User-defined functions
Defining a user-defined functions
•Function blocks begin with the keyword def followed by the function name
and parentheses ( ( ) ).
•Any input parameters or arguments should be placed within these
parentheses.
•The first statement of a function can be an optional statement - the
documentation string of the function or docstring.
•The code block within every function starts with a colon (:) and is
indented.
•The statement return [expression] exits a function. A return statement with
no arguments is the same as return None.
•pass statement can be used in case function has an empty body.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 51
 Functions
def function_name( paramenters ) :
“Function_docstring”
Fucntion_Body
return [expression]

Example :
def print_me( str ):
“This prints a passed string into this function”
print str
return

print_me(“Test String”)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 52
 Arguments
Arguments
Information can be passed into functions as arguments.
You can add as many arguments as you want, just separate them with a
comma.
Number of Arguments
By default, a function must be called with the correct number of
arguments.
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
def my_function(*students)
print(“The topper of the class is ” + students[3])
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 53
 Arguments
Keyword Arguments
•You can also send arguments with the key = value syntax.
•This way the order of the arguments does not matter.
def my_function(stud1, stud2, stud3, stud4)
print(“The topper of the class is ” + students[3])

my_function(stud2=‘Amit’, stud3=‘Suman’, stud1= ‘Nikita’, stud4=‘Parth’)

Default Parameter Value

def my_function(country = ‘INDIA’)
print(“I am from “ + country)
my_fucntion(“Canada”)
my_fucntion ()
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 54
 Scope and Lifetime of
variables
• Scope of a variable is the portion of a program where the variable is
recognized. Parameters and variables defined inside a function are not
visible from outside the function. Hence, they have a local scope.
• The lifetime of a variable is the period throughout which the variable
exits in the memory. The lifetime of variables inside a function is as long
as the function executes.
• They are destroyed once we return from the function. Hence, a function
does not remember the value of a variable from its previous calls.
def my_function():
x=10
print(“Value of x inside function = ” , x)
my_function()
x=20
print(“Value of x outside function = ” , x)
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 55
 Scope and Lifetime of
variables
Global vs. Local variables
•Variables that are defined inside a function body have a local scope, and
those defined outside have a global scope.
•This means that local variables can be accessed only inside the function
in which they are declared, whereas global variables can be accessed
throughout the program body by all functions. When you call a function,
the variables declared inside it are brought into scope.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 56
 Calling a Function
• Defining a function only gives it a name, specifies the parameters that
are to be included in the function and structures the blocks of code.
• Once the basic structure of a function is finalized, you can execute it by
calling it from another function or directly from the Python prompt.
Pass by reference vs value
All parameters (arguments) in the Python language are passed by
reference. It means if you change what a parameter refers to within a
function, the change also reflects back in the calling function.
def change_me(mylist):
mylist.append([1,2,3,4])
print “value inside the function: ” , mylist
return
mylist =[10,20,30]
change_me( mylist )
print “value outside the function: ” , mylist
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 57
 Calling a Function
Example:
def my_function(x):
x[0] = 20
return

# After function call

my_list= [10,11,12,13,14,15]
my_function(my_list)
print (my_list)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 58
 Calling a Function
When we pass a reference and change the received reference to
something else, the connection between the passed and received
parameter is broken.

def my_function(x):
x = [20, 30, 40]
print (my_list)
return

# After function call

my_list= [10,11,12,13,14,15]
my_function(my_list)
print (my_list)

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 59
 The Anonymous Functions
These functions are called anonymous because they are not declared in the standard manner
by using the def keyword. You can use the lambda keyword to create small anonymous
functions.
•Lambda forms can take any number of arguments but return just one value in the form of an
expression. They cannot contain commands or multiple expressions.
•An anonymous function cannot be a direct call to print because lambda requires an
expression
•Lambda functions have their own local namespace and cannot access variables other than
those in their parameter list and those in the global namespace.
•Although it appears that lambda's are a one-line version of a function, they are not equivalent
to inline statements in C or C++, whose purpose is by passing function stack allocation during
invocation for performance reasons.
Syntax
The syntax of lambda functions contains only a single statement, which is as follows −
Lambda [ agr1, [arg2, ….. agrn ]]: expression
Sum = lambda agr1, agr2 : arg1 +arg2
Print “Value of total = ” , sum(10,10)
Print “Value of total = ” , sum(20,20)
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 60
 Rercursion
Recursion is the process of defining something in terms of itself.

In Python, we know that a function can call other functions. It is even possible for the function
to call itself. These types of construct are termed as recursive functions.

Advantages of using recursion

•A complicated function can be split down into smaller sub-problems utilizing recursion.
•Sequence creation is simpler through recursion than utilizing any nested iteration.
•Recursive functions render the code look simple and effective.

Disadvantages of using recursion

•A lot of memory and time is taken through recursive calls which makes it expensive for use.
•Recursive functions are challenging to debug.
•The reasoning behind recursion can sometimes be tough to think through.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 61
 Rercursion
Syntax:

Example:
def factorial(x):
if x==1 :
Return 1
else:
return(x * factorial(x-1))
num = 3
print(“The factorial of ”, num, “ is “ , factorial(num))
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 62
 Rercursion
• The developer should be very careful with recursion as it can be quite easy to slip into
writing a function which never terminates, or one that uses excess amounts of memory or
processor power.
• However, when written correctly recursion can be a very efficient and mathematically-
elegant approach to programming.
• To a new developer it can take some time to work out how exactly this works, best way to
find out is by testing and modifying it.
• Every recursive function must have a base condition that stops the recursion or else the
function calls itself infinitely.
• The Python interpreter limits the depths of recursion to help avoid infinite recursions,
resulting in stack overflows.
• By default, the maximum depth of recursion is 1000. If the limit is crossed, it results in
RecursionError.

def recursor():
recursor()
recursor()

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 63
 Modules
Python functions, Python modules and Python packages, three mechanisms that
facilitate modular programming.
Modular programming refers to the process of breaking a large programming task into
separate, smaller, more manageable subtasks or modules. Individual modules can then be
cobbled together like building blocks to create a larger application. several advantages
to modularizing code in a large application:
– Simplicity: Rather than focusing on the entire problem at hand, a module typically
focuses on one relatively small portion of the problem.
– Maintainability: Modules are typically designed so that they enforce logical
boundaries between different problem domains. If modules are written in a way that
minimizes interdependency, there is decreased likelihood that modifications to a
single module will have an impact on other parts of the program.
– Reusability: Functionality defined in a single module can be easily reused
– Scoping: Modules typically define a separate namespace, which helps avoid
collisions between identifiers in different areas of a program.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 64
 Modules
In programming, a module is a piece of software that has a specific functionality.

•Modules in Python are simply Python files with a .py extension. A file containing a set of
functions you want to include in your application.
•The name of the module will be the name of the file.
•A Python module can have a set of functions, classes or variables defined and implemented.

def greeting(name):
print(“Hello ” + name)
•Now we can use the module we just created, by using the import statement

import mymodule
mymodule.greeting(“Aarti")
•You can create an alias when you import a module, by using the as keyword
import mymodule as mx
mx.greeting(“Aarti")

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 65
 Exploring built-in Modules
There is a huge list of built-in modules in the Python standard library.
Two very important functions come in handy when exploring modules in Python – the dir
and help functions.

Built-in modules are written in C and integrated with the Python shell. Each built-in module
contains resources for certain system-specific functionalities such as OS management, disk
IO, etc. The standard library also contains many Python scripts (with the .py extension)
containing useful utilities.

To display a list of all available modules, use the following command in the Python console:
>>> help(‘modules’)

There is a built-in function to list all the function names (or variable names) in a module. The
dir() function:
import platform
x = dir(platform)
print(x)
© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 66
 Math Module
Python has a built-in module that you can use for mathematical tasks. It is a standard module
in Python and is always available.
To use mathematical functions under this module, you have to import the module using
import math
Functions in Python Math Module
math.ceil()
math.exp()
math.pow()
math.sqrt()
math.fmod()
math.fabs()
math.factorial()
math.gcd()
Math Constants
math.e
math.pi

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 67
 Random Module
Python has a
built-in module that you can use to make random numbers.

Method Description
seed() Initialize the random number generator
shuffle() Takes a sequence and returns the sequence in a random order
sample() Returns a given sample of a sequence
random() Returns a random float number between 0 and 1
randrange() Returns a random number between the given range
uniform() Returns a random float number between two given parameters

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 68
 Python Packages
As an application program grows larger in size , it includes a lot of modules.

As the number of modules grows, it becomes difficult to keep track of them all if they are
dumped into one location. This is particularly so if they have similar names or functionality.
You might wish for a means of grouping and organizing them.

Packages allow for a hierarchical structuring of the module namespace using dot notation.
In the same way that modules help avoid collisions between global variable
names, packages help avoid collisions between module names.

Packages are analogous to directories and modules for files. As a directory can contain
subdirectories and files, a Python package can have sub-packages and modules.

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 69
 Creating a Package
Creating a package is quite straightforward, since it makes use of the operating system’s
inherent hierarchical file structure. They are simply directories, but with a twist.

Each package in Python is a directory which MUST contain a special file called _init_.py.
This file can be empty, and it indicates that the directory it contains is a Python package, so it
can be imported the same way a module can be imported.

If we create a directory called pkg, which marks the package name, we can then create
modules inside that package called mod1.py and mod2.py. We also must not forget to add
the _init_.py file inside the pkg directory.

import pkg.mod1, pkg.mod2

pkg.mod1.greeting(“Aarti")

from pkg import mod1

mod1.greeting(“Aarti")

© Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management, New Delhi-63, by Vaishali Joshi, Assistant Professor – Unit 1 70