Python programming - Introduction

Prerequisites

Some level of experience with at least one other programming language is desirable. This is not an Introduction to Programming course. Working/user level knowledge of an operating system such as Linux, Windows, or MacOS.

Who should attend

Programmers who would like to understand how to program using Python to collect, process and visualise data or automate tasks.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, attendees will be able to: Design and program python applications using Spyder (Or Pycharm) and Jupyter environments Use the main flow of control elements in python Choose the appropriate variable type when required Use the different collection types, including lists, tuples and dictionaries Write functions and pass parameters Create classes and objects Read, write and parse different types of files Access operating system variables and automate tasks Use Numpy and Pandas to represent data sets Graph data sets using Matplotlib and other tools.

Python basics

The Python environment PyCharm or Spyder environment (or other) Variables Keywords Built in functions Variable types

Flow Control

if and elif
Conditional expressions
Relational operators
Boolean operators
while loops
Alternate ways to exit a loop

Functions

Defining a function
Function parameters
Global variables
Variable scope
Returning values

Modules and Packages

The import statement
Zipped libraries
Creating Modules
Packages

Lists and Tuples

About sequences Lists Indexing and slicing Iterating through a sequence Functions for all sequences Using enumerate Operators and keywords for sequences The xrange() function

Working with files

Text file I/O Opening a text file The with block Reading a text file Writing to a text file "Binary" (raw, or non-delimited) data

Exception handling

Exceptions Handling exceptions with try Handling multiple exceptions Handling generic exceptions Ignoring exceptions Using else Cleaning up with finally re-raising exceptions Raising a new exception The standard exception hierarchy

Dictionaries and sets

About dictionaries
When to use dictionaries
Creating dictionaries
Getting dictionary values
Iterating through a dictionary
Reading file data into a dictionary

OS Services and Task Automation

The OS module Environment variables Launching external processes Paths, directories, and filenames Walking directory trees

Classes

Defining classes Instance objects Instance attributes Methods Properties Class data Inheritance Pseudo-private variables Static methods

Juypter

Tab completion Magic commands Benchmarking External commands Enhanced help Notebooks

Numpy

Objectives Python's scientifc stack numpy overview Creating arrays Creating ranges Working with arrays Shapes Slicing and indexing Indexing with Booleans Stacking Iterating

Pandas

About pandas Architecture Series DataFrames Index Objects Basic Indexing Broadcasting

Graphing with Matplotlib

Setting up Matplotlib Creating different plot tyles Customizing your plot. Alternatives to matplotlib – e.g Seaborn