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Basics of Python
by Kaustubh Vaghmare
(IUCAA, Pune)

E-mail: kaustubh[at]iucaa[dot]ernet[dot]in

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Topics to be Covered
(Not in any specific order.)

Basic I/O in Python

Data Types in Python
Programming Philosophy
Under The Hood
Conditionals
Loops
Basics of Objects and Methods
etc.

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Assumptions!!!
You are not new to programming.
(Will freely throw jargon around!)

You are new to Python!

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Python 2 or 3?
Python's key strength lies in its libraries.
These are not ready / optimized for Python 3 yet.
But they soon(!) will be! (Almost are!)

Keep track of progress & Migrate!

http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/imprint_downloads/informit
/promotions/python/python2python3.pdf

http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/rasbt/python_reference/blob/master
/tutorials/key_differences_between_python_2_and_3.ipynb

https://pypi.python.org/pypi (select Python 3 Packages on the left)

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Our First Program!

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In [1]: a = 3
b = 5
c = a+b
d = a-b
q, r = a/b, a%b # Yes, this is allowed!

# Now, let's print!

print "Hello World!" # We just had to do this, did we not?
print "Sum, Difference = ", c, d
print "Quotient and Remainder = ", q, r

Hello World!
Sum, Difference = 8 -2
Quotient and Remainder = 0 3

What can we learn from this simple program?

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Dynamic Typing

We don't declare variables and types in advance. (dynamic typing)

Variables created when first assigned values.
Variables don't exist if not assigned. (strong typing)

Commenting
Everything after # is a comment and is ignored. Comment freely

"print" statement
Replaced by a print() function in Python 3.

Tuple unpacking assignments

a,b = 5,6

More complicated forms introduced in Python 3.

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Other Things
Behavior of / and % operators with integer types. (/ changes in
Python 3)
No termination symbols at end of Python statements.
Exception to the above...

a = 3; b = 5

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Under the Hood

No explicit compiling/linking step. Just run... $ python First.py
Internally, program translated into bytecode (.pyc files)
The "translation + execution" happens line-by-line

Implications of "line-by-line" style

N lines will be executed before error on N+1th line haults program!

An interactive shell.

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[ Interactive Shell Demo ]

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[ Introduction to iPython ]

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The First Tour of the Data Types

Numbers - Integers
Numbers - Floats

(Exploration of math module)

Strings

(Methods of Declaring Strings)

(Concept of Sequences)

(Concept of Slicing)

(Concept of Mutability)

(Introduction of Object.Method concepts)

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Integers

In [2]: 8 ** 2 # Exponentiation

Out[2]: 64

In [3]: 23**100 # Auto-upgrade to "LONG INT" Notice the L!

Out[3]: 1488619150636303939379155658655975423198711965380136868657698
8209222433278539331352152390143277346804233476592179447310859
520222529876001L

In [4]: 5 / 2, 5%2 # Quotient-Remainder Revisited.

Out[4]: (2, 1)

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Floats

In [5]: 5.0 * 2, 5*2.0 # Values upgraded to "higher data type".

Out[5]: (10.0, 10.0)

In [6]: 5**0.5 # Yes, it works! Square-root.

Out[6]: 2.23606797749979

In [7]: 5 / 4.0 # No longer a quotient.

Out[7]: 1.25

In [47]: 5 % 4.0, 5 % 4.1 # Remainder, yes!!!

Out[47]: (1.0, 0.9000000000000004)

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Math Module

A module can be thought of as a collection of related functions.

To use a module,

import ModuleName
To use a function inside a module, simply say

ModuleName.Function(inputs)

Let's see the math module in action!

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In [9]: import math

x = 45*math.pi/180.0
math.sin(x)

Out[9]: 0.7071067811865475

In [10]: math.sin( math.radians(45) ) # nested functions

Out[10]: 0.7071067811865475

There are about 42 functions inside Math library! So, where can one get a
quick reference of what these functions are, what they do and how to use
them!?!?

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In [11]: print dir(math) # Prints all functions associated with Math mo

dule.

['__doc__', '__name__', '__package__', 'acos', 'acosh', 'asin

', 'asinh', 'atan', 'atan2', 'atanh', 'ceil', 'copysign', 'co
s', 'cosh', 'degrees', 'e', 'erf', 'erfc', 'exp', 'expm1', 'f
abs', 'factorial', 'floor', 'fmod', 'frexp', 'fsum', 'gamma',
'hypot', 'isinf', 'isnan', 'ldexp', 'lgamma', 'log', 'log10'
, 'log1p', 'modf', 'pi', 'pow', 'radians', 'sin', 'sinh', 'sq
rt', 'tan', 'tanh', 'trunc']

In [12]: help(math.hypot)

Help on built-in function hypot in module math:

hypot(...)
hypot(x, y)

Return the Euclidean distance, sqrt(x*x + y*y).

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Strings
There are three methods of defining strings.

In [13]: a = "John's Computer" # notice the '

In [14]: b = 'John said, "This is my computer."' # notice the "

In [15]: a_alt = 'John\'s Computer' # now you need the escape sequence
\

In [16]: b_alt = "John said, \"This is my computer.\"" # again escape s

equence.

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In [17]: long_string = """Hello World!

I once said to people, "Learn Python!"

And then they said, "Organize a workshop!" """

In [18]: long_string_traditional = 'Hello World! \n\nI once said to peo

ple, "Learn Python!" \
\n\nAnd then they said, "Organize a workshop!" '

Can be used to dynamically build scripts, both Python-based and

other "languages".
Used for documenting functions/modules. (To come later!)

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String Arithmetic

In [19]: s1 = "Hello" ; s2 = "World!"

In [20]: string_sum = s1 + s2
print string_sum

HelloWorld!

In [21]: string_product = s1*3

print string_product

HelloHelloHello

In [22]: print s1*3+s2

HelloHelloHelloWorld!

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String is a sequence!

In [23]: a = "Python rocks!"

In [24]: a[0], a[1], a[2] # Positions begin from 0 onwards.

Out[24]: ('P', 'y', 't')

In [25]: a[-1], a[-2], a[-3] # Negative indices - count backwards!

Out[25]: ('!', 's', 'k')

In [26]: len(a) # Measures length of both sequence/unordered collection

s!

Out[26]: 13

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Sequences can be sliced!

In [27]: a[2:6] # elements with indices 2,3,4,5 but not 6

Out[27]: 'thon'

In [28]: a[8:-2] # indices 8,9 ... upto 2nd last but not including it.

Out[28]: 'ock'

In [29]: a[:5] # Missing first index, 0 assumed.

Out[29]: 'Pytho'

In [30]: a[5:] # Missing last index, len(a) assumed.

Out[30]: 'n rocks!'

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Crazier Slicing

In [31]: a[1:6:2],a[1],a[3],a[5] # Indices 1, 3, 5

Out[31]: ('yhn', 'y', 'h', 'n')

In [32]: a[::2] # beginning to end

Out[32]: 'Pto ok!'

In [33]: a[::-1] # Reverse slicing!

Out[33]: '!skcor nohtyP'

In [34]: a[1:6:-1] # In a[i:j:-1], changes meaning of i and j

Out[34]: ''

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Objects and Methods - A Crude

Introduction
An object can be thought of a construct in the memory.

It has a well defined behavior with respect to other objects. (2*3 is allowed,
"a"*"b" is not!)

The properties of the object, the operations that can be performed all are
pre-defined.

A method is a function bound to an object that can perform specific

operations that the object supports.

ObjectName.MethodName(arguments)

OK, let's see some string methods in action!

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String Methods

In [35]: a = " I am a string, I am an object, I am immutable! "

In [36]: a.title()

Out[36]: ' I Am A String, I Am An Object, I Am Immutable! '

In [37]: a.split(",")

Out[37]: [' I am a string', ' I am an object', ' I am immutable! '

]

In [38]: a.strip() # Remove trailing and leading whitespaces.

Out[38]: 'I am a string, I am an object, I am immutable!'

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Strings are Immutable!

In [39]: print a # Check the value!

I am a string, I am an object, I am immutable!

In [40]: a.title() # Transform string to title case ... really?

Out[40]: ' I Am A String, I Am An Object, I Am Immutable! '

In [41]: print a # Nothing changed! Strings are immutabe.

I am a string, I am an object, I am immutable!

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In [42]: b = a.title() # String methods return strings instead.

In [43]: print b

I Am A String, I Am An Object, I Am Immutable!

In [44]: a[3] = "x" # Immutability implies no in-place changes.

-------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
TypeError Traceback (most rec
ent call last)
<ipython-input-44-b0d08958dc31> in <module>()
----> 1 a[3] = "x" # Immutability implies no in-place changes
.

TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

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Getting Help

In [45]: print dir(a) # a is a string object.

['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__do

c__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '
__getitem__', '__getnewargs__', '__getslice__', '__gt__', '__
hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__len__', '__lt__', '__mod__'
, '__mul__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex_
_', '__repr__', '__rmod__', '__rmul__', '__setattr__', '__siz
eof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '_formatter_field_name
_split', '_formatter_parser', 'capitalize', 'center', 'count'
, 'decode', 'encode', 'endswith', 'expandtabs', 'find', 'form
at', 'index', 'isalnum', 'isalpha', 'isdigit', 'islower', 'is
space', 'istitle', 'isupper', 'join', 'ljust', 'lower', 'lstr
ip', 'partition', 'replace', 'rfind', 'rindex', 'rjust', 'rpa
rtition', 'rsplit', 'rstrip', 'split', 'splitlines', 'startsw
ith', 'strip', 'swapcase', 'title', 'translate', 'upper', 'zf
ill']

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In [46]: help(a.find)

Help on built-in function find:

find(...)
S.find(sub [,start [,end]]) -> int

Return the lowest index in S where substring sub is found

,
such that sub is contained within S[start:end]. Optional
arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notat
ion.

Return -1 on failure.

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