1

Python Programming
ing Problem Solving Approach

Reema Thareja

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 CHAPTER 3
Basics of Python
Programming

2
 Features of Python
• Simple • Embeddable
• Easy to Learn • Extensive
• Versatile • Easy maintenance
• Free and Open Source • Secure
• High-level Language • Robust
• Interactive • Multi-threaded
• Portable • Garbage Collection
• Object Oriented
• Interpreted
• Dynamic
• Extensible 3
 Limitations of Python
Parallel processing can be done in Python but not as elegantly as done in some other
languages (like JavaScript and Go Lang).
• Being an interpreted language, Python is slow as compared to C/C++. Python is not a
very good choice for those developing a high-graphic 3d game that takes up a lot of CPU.
• As compared to other languages, Python is evolving continuously and there is little
substantial documentation available for the language.
• As of now, there are few users of Python as compared to those using C, C++ or Java.
• It lacks true multiprocessor support.
• It has very limited commercial support point.
• Python is slower than C or C++ when it comes to computation heavy tasks and desktop
applications. 4

• It is difficult to pack up a big Python application into a single executable file. This
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
 Applications of Python
• Embedded scripting language: Python is used as an embedded scripting language for
various testing/ building/ deployment/ monitoring frameworks, scientific apps, and
quick scripts.
• 3D Software: 3D software like Maya uses Python for automating small user tasks, or
for doing more complex integration such as talking to databases and asset
management systems.
• Web development: Python is an easily extensible language that provides good
integration with database and other web standards.
GUI-based desktop applications: Simple syntax, modular architecture, rich text
processing tools and the ability to work on multiple operating systems makes Python a
preferred choice for developing desktop-based applications.
• Image processing and graphic design applications: Python is used to make 2D
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
5
 Applications of Python
• Scientific and computational applications: Features like high speed, productivity and
availability of tools, such as Scientific Python and Numeric Python, have made Python a
preferred language to perform computation and processing of scientific data. 3D
modeling software, such as FreeCAD, and finite element method software, like Abaqus,
are coded in Python.
Games: Python has various modules, libraries, and platforms that support development
of games. Games like Civilization-IV, Disney's Toontown Online, Vega Strike, etc. are
coded using Python.
• Enterprise and business applications: Simple and reliable syntax, modules and
libraries, extensibility, scalability together make Python a suitable coding language for
customizing larger applications. For example, Reddit which was originally written 6 in
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
Common Lips, was rewritten in Python in 2005. A large part RESERVED.
of Youtube code is also
 Writing and Executing First Python Program

Step 1: Open an editor.

Step 2: Write the instructions
Step 3: Save it as a file with the filename having the extension .py.
Step 4: Run the interpreter with the command python program_name.py or use IDLE
to run the programs.
To execute the program at the command prompt, simply change your working
directory to C:\Python34 (or move to the directory where you have saved Python)
then type python program_name.py.
If you want to execute the program in Python shell, then just press F5 key or click on
Run Menu and then select Run Module.
7

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Literal Constants
The value of a literal constant can be used directly in programs. For example, 7, 3.9, 'A',
and "Hello" are literal constants.
Numbers refers to a numeric value. You can use four types of numbers in Python
program- integers, long integers, floating point and complex numbers.
• Numbers like 5 or other whole numbers are referred to as integers. Bigger whole
numbers are called long integers. For example, 535633629843L is a long integer.
• Numbers like are 3.23 and 91.5E-2 are termed as floating point numbers.
• Numbers of a + bi form (like -3 + 7i) are complex numbers.
Exampl
es:

8
 Literal Constants
Strings
A string is a group of characters.
• Using Single Quotes ('): For example, a string can be written as 'HELLO'.
• Using Double Quotes ("): Strings in double quotes are exactly same as those in single
quotes. Therefore, 'HELLO' is same as "HELLO".
• Using Triple Quotes (''' '''): You can specify multi-line strings using triple quotes. You
can use as many single quotes and double quotes as you want in a string within triple
quotes.
Exampl
es:

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Escape Sequences
Some characters (like ", \) cannot be directly included in a string. Such characters must
be escaped by placing a backslash before them.

Exampl
e:

10

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Raw Strings
If you want to specify a string that should not handle any escape sequences and want to
display exactly as specified then you need to specify that string as a raw string. A raw
string is specified by prefixing r or R to the string.

Exampl
e:

11

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Variables and Identifiers
Variable means its value can vary. You can store any piece of information in a
variable. Variables are nothing but just parts of your computer’s memory where
information is stored. To be identified easily, each variable is given an appropriate
name.
Identifiers are names given to identify something. This something can be a variable,
function, class, module or other object. For naming any identifier, there are some
basic rules like:
• The first character of an identifier must be an underscore ('_') or a letter (upper or
lowercase).
• The rest of the identifier name can be underscores ('_'), letters (upper or
lowercase), or digits (0-9). 12

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

• Identifier names are case-sensitive. For example, myvar RESERVED.
and myVar are not the
 Assigning or Initializing Values to Variables
In Python, programmers need not explicitly declare variables to reserve memory space.
The declaration is done automatically when a value is assigned to the variable using the
equal sign (=). The operand on the left side of equal sign is the name of the variable and
the operand on its right side is the value to be stored in that variable.

Exampl
e:

13

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Data Type Boolean
Boolean is another data type in Python. A variable of Boolean type can have one of the
two values- True or False. Similar to other variables, the Boolean variables are also
created while we assign a value to them or when we use a relational operator on them.
Exampl
es:

14

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Input Operation
To take input from the users, Python makes use of the input() function. The input()
function prompts the user to provide some information on which the program can
work and give the result. However, we must always remember that the input function
takes user’s input as a string.
Exampl
e:

15

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Comments
Comments are the non-executable statements in a program. They are just added to
describe the statements in the program code. Comments make the program easily
readable and understandable by the programmer as well as other users who are
seeing the code. The interpreter simply ignores the comments.
In Python, a hash sign (#) that is not inside a string literal begins a comment. All
characters following the # and up to the end of the line are part of the comment

Exampl
e:

16

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Indentation
Whitespace at the beginning of the line is called indentation. These whitespaces or the
indentation are very important in Python. In a Python program, the leading whitespace
including spaces and tabs at the beginning of the logical line determines the
indentation level of that logical line.
Exampl
e:

17

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
Arithmetic Operators

18

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
Comparison Operators

19

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Unary Operators
Unary operators act on single operands. Python supports unary minus operator. Unary
minus operator is strikingly different from the arithmetic operator that operates on
two operands and subtracts the second operand from the first operand. When an
operand is preceded by a minus sign, the unary operator negates its value.
For example, if a number is positive, it becomes negative when preceded with a unary
minus operator. Similarly, if the number is negative, it becomes positive after applying
the unary minus operator. Consider the given example.
b = 10 a = -(b)
The result of this expression, is a = -10, because variable b has a positive value. After
applying unary minus operator (-) on the operand b, the value becomes -10, which
indicates it as a negative value. 20

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Bitwise Operators
As the name suggests, bitwise operators perform operations at the bit level. These
operators include bitwise AND, bitwise OR, bitwise XOR, and shift operators. Bitwise
operators expect their operands to be of integers and treat them as a sequence of bits.
The truth tables of these bitwise operators are given below.

21

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Shift Operators
Python supports two bitwise shift operators. They are shift left (<<) and shift right
(>>). These operations are used to shift bits to the left or to the right. The syntax for
aExampl
shift operation can be given as follows:
es:

22

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Logical Operators
Logical AND (&&) operator is used to simultaneously evaluate two conditions or
expressions with relational operators. If expressions on both the sides (left and right
side) of the logical operator are true, then the whole expression is true. For example, If
we have an expression (a>b) && (b>c), then the whole expression is true only if both
expressions are true. That is, if b is greater than a and c.
Logical OR (||) operator is used to simultaneously evaluate two conditions or expressions
with relational operators. If one or both the expressions of the logical operator is true,
then the whole expression is true. For example, If we have an expression (a>b) || (b>c),
then the whole expression is true if either b is greater than a or b is greater than c.
Logical not (!) operator takes a single expression and negates the value of the
expression. Logical NOT produces a zero if the expression evaluates to a non-zero value
23
and produces a 1 if the expression produces a zero. In other words, it just reverses the
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
value of the expression. For example, a = 10, b b = !a; Now, the value of b = 0. The value
 Membership and Identity Operators
Python supports two types of membership operators–in and not in. These operators,
test for membership in a sequence such as strings, lists, or tuples.
in Operator: The operator returns true if a variable is found in the specified sequence
and false otherwise. For example, a in nums returns 1, if a is a member of nums.
not in Operator: The operator returns true if a variable is not found in the specified
sequence and false otherwise. For example, a not in nums returns 1, if a is not a
member of nums.

Identity Operators
is Operator: Returns true if operands or values on both sides of the operator point to
the same object and false otherwise. For example, if a is b returns 1, if id(a) is same as
24
id(b). © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
is not Operator: Returns true if operands or values on both sides of the operator does
 Expressions
An expression is any legal combination of symbols (like variables, constants and
operators) that represents a value. In Python, an expression must have at least one
operand (variable or constant) and can have one or more operators. On evaluating an
expression, we get a value. Operand is the value on which operator is applied.
Constant Expressions: One that involves only constants. Example: 8 + 9 – 2
Integral Expressions: One that produces an integer result after evaluating the
expression. Example:
a = 10
• Floating Point Expressions: One that produces floating point results. Example: a * b / 2
• Relational Expressions: One that returns either true or false value. Example: c = a>b
• Logical Expressions: One that combines two or more relational expressions and returns
25

a value as True or False. Example: a>b && y! = 0 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.

• Bitwise Expressions: One that manipulates data at bit level. Example: x = y&z
 Operations on Strings

Exampl
es:

26

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Slice Operations on Strings
You can extract subsets of strings by using the slice operator ([ ] and [:]). You need to
specify index or the range of index of characters to be extracted. The index of the first
character is 0 and the index of the last character is n-1, where n is the number of
characters in the string.
If you want to extract characters starting from the end of the string, then you must
Exampl
specify the index as a negative number. For example, the index of the last character is -
es:
1.

27

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Lists
Lists are the most versatile data type of Python language. A list consist of items
separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets The values stored in a list are
accessed using indexes. The index of the first element being 0 and n-1 as that of the last
element, where n is the total number of elements in the list. Like strings, you can also
Exampl
use the slice, concatenation and repetition operations on lists.
es:

28

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Tuples
A tuple is similar to the list as it also consists of a number of values separated by
commas and enclosed within parentheses. The main difference between lists and tuples
is that you can change the values in a list but not in a tuple. This means that while tuple
is a read only data type, the list is not.
Exampl
es:

29

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Dictionary
Python’s dictionaries stores data in key-value pairs. The key values are usually strings
and value can be of any data type. The key value pairs are enclosed with curly braces
({ }). Each key value pair separated from the other using a colon (:). To access any value
in the dictionary, you just need to specify its key in square braces ([]).Basically
dictionaries
Exampl are used for fast retrieval of data
e:

30

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Type Conversion
In Python, it is just not possible to complete certain operations that involves different
types of data. For example, it is not possible to perform "2" + 4 since one operand is an
Exampl and the other is of string type.
integer
e:

31

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.
 Type Casting vs Type Coercion
In the last slide, we have done explicit conversion of a value from one data type to
another. This is known as type casting.
However, in most of the programming languages including Python, there is an implicit
conversion of data types either during compilation or during run-time. This is also
known type coercion. For example, in an expression that has integer and floating point
numbers (like 21 + 2.1 gives 23.1), the compiler will automatically convert the integer
into floating point number so that fractional part is not lost.

32

© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2017. ALL RIGHTS

RESERVED.