PythonTutorial

Adaptedfrom:
http://www.programiz.com

EBook preparedby:
SadaqurRahmanDepartmentofBiochemistry&MolecularBiology,ShahjalalUniver
sityofScience&Technology,Sylhet

Copyright © by Programiz |All rights reserved

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 Page

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Table of Contents
PythonIntroduction 13
Python KeywordsandIdentifier 14
Keywords 14
Identifiers 14
RulesforwritingidentifiersinPython 14
Python Statement, IndentationandComments 16
PythonStatement 16
Multi-linestatement 16
PythonIndentation 16
PythonComments 17
Multi-linecomments 17
Docstring 18
Python VariablesandDatatypes 19
PythonVariables 19
Variableassignment 19
Multipleassignments 19
DatatypesinPython 19
PythonNumbers 20
PythonList 20
PythonTuple 21
PythonStrings 21
PythonSet 22
PythonDictionary 22
Conversionbetweendatatypes 23
Python Input, OutputandImport 24
Output 24
Outputformatting 24
Input 25
Import 26
PythonOperators 27 Page
Arithmeticoperators 27
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 Comparisonoperators 28
Logicaloperators 29
Bitwiseoperators 30
Assignmentoperators 30
Specialoperators 31
Identityoperators 31
Membershipoperators 32
PythonFlowControl 34
Python if...elif...else andNestedif 35
Pythonif...else 36
Pythonif...elif...else 37
Python Nestedifstatements 39
PythonforLoop 40
Therange()function 41
for loopwithelse 42
PythonwhileLoop 43
while loopwithelse 44
Python break andcontinueStatement 46
breakstatement 46
continuestatement 47
PythonpassStatement 50
PythonLoopingTechniques 51
Theinfiniteloop 51
Loopwithconditionatthetop 51
Loopwithconditioninthemiddle 52
Loopwithconditionatthebottom 54
PythonFunctions 56
PythonFunctions 57
FunctionCall 57
Docstring 57
Thereturnstatement 58 Page
Scope and Lifetimeofvariables 59
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 TypesofFunctions 59
Python ProgrammingBuilt-inFunctions 60
Python ProgrammingUser-definedFunctions 64
PythonFunctionArguments 65
VariableFunctionArguments 65
DefaultArguments 65
KeywordArguments 66
ArbitraryArguments 67
PythonRecursion 68
PythonRecursiveFunction 68
Advantagesofrecursion 69
Disadvantagesofrecursion 69
PythonAnonymous/LambdaFunction 70
LambdaFunctions 70
PythonModules 72
Importingmodules 72
Theimportstatement 73
Importwithrenaming 73
Thefrom...importstatement 73
Importallnames 74
Python ModuleSearchPath 74
Reloadingamodule 74
The dir()built-infunction 75
PythonPackage 77
Importing module fromapackage 77
PythonNativeDatatypes 79
PythonNumbers,TypeConversionandMathematics 80
TypeConversion 81
PythonDecimal 81
PythonFractions 82
PythonMathematics 83 Page
PythonList 84
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 CreatingaList 84
Accessing Elements inaList 84
Indexing 84
Negativeindexing 85
Slicing 85
ChangingorAddingElementstoaList 85
DeletingorRemovingElementsfromaList 86
PythonListMethods 87
PythonListComprehension 88
OtherListOperations 89
Built-in FunctionswithList 89
PythonTuple 91
CreatingaTuple 91
Accessing Elements inaTuple 91
Indexing 92
NegativeIndexing 92
Slicing 92
Changing or DeletingaTuple 93
PythonTupleMethods 94
OtherTupleOperations 94
Built-in FunctionswithTuple 95
Advantage of TupleoverList 95
PythonStrings 96
CreatingaString 96
Accessing Characters inaString 96
Changing or DeletingaString 97
PythonStringOperations 97
StringMembershipTest 98
Built-infunctions 99
PythonStringFormatting 99
RawString 101 Page
Theformat()Method 101
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 Oldstyleformatting 102
PythonStringMethods 102
PythonSets 103
Creating a SetinPython 103
Changing a SetinPython 103
Removing Elements fromaSet 104
PythonSetOperation 105
PythonSetMethods 107
OtherSetOperations 108
Built-in FunctionswithSet 109
PythonFrozenset 109
PythonDictionary 111
CreatingaDictionary 111
Accessing Elements inaDictionary 111
ChangingorAddingElementsinaDictionary 112
DeletingorRemovingElementsfromaDictionary 112
PythonDictionaryMethods 113
PythonDictionaryComprehension 114
OtherDictionaryOperations 114
Built-in FunctionswithDictionary 115
PythonFileHandling 116
PythonFileI/O 117
OpeningaFile 117
ClosingaFile 118
Writing toaFile 119
Reading FromaFile 119
PythonFileMethods 120
Python Directory andFilesManagement 122
GetCurrentDirectory 122
ChangingDirectory 122
List DirectoriesandFiles 122 Page
Making aNewDirectory 123
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 RenamingaDirectoryoraFile 123
Removing DirectoryorFile 123
PythonBuilt-inExceptions 125
PythonExceptionHandling-Try,ExceptandFinally 128
Catching ExceptionsinPython 128
CatchingSpecificExceptionsinPython 129
RaisingExceptions 129
try...finally 130
PythonUser-DefinedException 131
Python ObjectandClass 133
Python NamespaceandScope 134
PythonScope 136
Python ObjectsandClass 138
Defining a ClassinPython 138
Creating an ObjectinPython 138
ConstructorsinPython 139
Deleting AttributesandObjects 140
PythonInheritance 142
Method OverridinginPython 143
PythonMultipleInheritance 145
Multilevel InheritanceinPython 145
Method Resolution OrderinPython 146
PythonOperatorOverloading 149
Special FunctionsinPython 149
Overloading the+Operator 150
OverloadingComparisonOperatorsinPython 151
AdditionalTutorials 153
PythonIterators 154
IteratingThroughanIteratorinPython 154
How for LoopActuallyWorks 155
BuildingYourOwnIteratorinPython 155 Page
PythonInfiniteIterators 156
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 PythonGenerators 158
Creating a GeneratorinPython 158
Python Generators withaLoop 160
PythonClosures 163
WhenDoWeHaveaClosure? 164
When ToUseClosures? 164
PythonDecorators 166
Preliminaries 166
Decorating FunctionswithParameters 168
Chaining DecoratorsinPython 169
Python@property 171
Using GettersandSetters 172
The PowerofProperty 173
Digging DeeperintoProperty 174
PythonProgrammingExamples 176
PythonProgramtoPrintHelloworld! 177
PythonProgramtoAddTwoNumbers 177
PythonProgramtoFindtheSquareRoot 178
PythonProgramtoCalculatetheAreaofaTriangle 179
PythonProgramtoSolveQuadraticEquation 180
PythonProgramtoSwapTwoVariables 181
PythonProgramtoGenerateaRandomNumber 182
PythonProgramtoConvertKilometerstoMiles 182
PythonProgramtoConvertCelsiusToFahrenheit 183
PythonProgramtoCheckifaNumberisPositive,NegativeorZero 184
PythonProgramtoCheckifaNumberisOddorEven 185
PythonProgramtoCheckLeapYear 185
PythonProgramtoFindtheLargestAmongThreeNumbers 186
PythonProgramtoCheckPrimeNumber 187
PythonProgramtoPrintallPrimeNumbersinanInterval 188
PythonProgramtoFindtheFactorialofaNumber 189 Page
PythonProgramtoDisplaythemultiplicationTable 190
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PythonProgramtoPrinttheFibonaccisequence 190
PythonProgramtoCheckArmstrongNumber 191
PythonProgramtoFindArmstrongNumberinanInterval 192
PythonProgramtoFindtheSumofNaturalNumbers 193
PythonProgramToDisplayPowersof2UsingAnonymousFunction 194
PythonProgramtoFindNumbersDivisiblebyAnotherNumber 195
PythonProgramtoConvertDecimaltoBinary,OctalandHexadecimal 195
PythonProgramtoFindASCIIValueofCharacter 196
PythonProgramtoFindHCForGCD 197
Python Program toFindLCM 198
PythonProgramtoFindFactorsofNumber 200
PythonProgramtoMakeaSimpleCalculator 201
PythonProgramtoShuffleDeckofCards 203
Python Programto DisplayCalendar 204
PythonProgramtoDisplayFibonacciSequenceUsingRecursion 204
PythonProgramtoFindSumofNaturalNumbersUsingRecursion 206
PythonProgramtoFindFactorialofNumberUsingRecursion 206
PythonProgramtoConvertDecimaltoBinaryUsingRecursion 207
PythonProgramtoAddTwoMatrices 208
PythonProgramtoTransposeaMatrix 209
PythonProgramtoMultiplyTwoMatrices 211
PythonProgramtoCheckWhetheraStringisPalindromeorNot 212
PythonProgramtoRemovePunctuationsFromaString 213
PythonProgramtoSortWordsinAlphabeticOrder 214
PythonProgramtoIllustrateDifferentSetOperations 215
PythonProgramtoCounttheNumberofEachVowel 216
Python Program toMergeMails 217
PythonProgramtoFindtheSize(Resolution)ofImage 218
PythonProgramtoFindHashofFile 219

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Python Programming Tutorial

Python is a very powerful high-level, object-oriented programming language. Guido vanRossum

is the creator of Python with its first implementation in 1989. Python has a very easy-to-use and
simple syntax, making it the perfect language for someone trying to learn computer
programming for the first time. Python is an interpreted language. Interpreter is a program that
converts the high-level program we write into low-level program that the computer understands.
This tutorial is based on Python 3 and all the examples in this tutorial have been tested and
verified in Python 3.3.2 running on Windows7.

Python is a cross-platform programming language, meaning, it runs on multiple platforms like

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix and has even been ported to the Java and .NET virtual
machines. It is free and open source. Even though most of today’s Linux and Mac have Python
preinstalled in it, the version might be out-of-date. So, it is always a good idea to install the most
current version.

Starting The Interpreter

After installation, the python interpreter lives in the installed directory. By default it is
/usr/local/bin/pythonX.X in Linux/Unix and C:\PythonXX in Windows, where the 'X'
denotes the version number. To invoke it from the shell or the command prompt we need to add
this location in the search path. Search path is a list of directories (locations) where the operating
system searches for executables. For example, in Windows command prompt, we can type set
path=%path%;c:\python33 (python33 means version 3.3, it might be different in your case) to
add the location to path for that particular session. In Mac OS we need not worry about this as
the installer takes care about the search path.

Now there are various ways to start Python.

1. Immediatemode:

Typing pythonin the command line will invoke the interpreter in immediate mode. We can
directly type in Python expressions and press enter to get the output.

>>>

is the Python prompt. It tells us that the interpreter is ready for our input. Try typing in 1 + 1
and press enter. We get 2 as the output. This prompt can be used as a calculator. To exit this
mode type exit()or quit()and press enter.

2. Scriptmode:

This mode is used to execute Python program written in a file. Such a file is called a script. Page
Scripts can be saved to disk for future use. Python scripts have the extension .py, meaning that
the filename ends with .py. 11

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For example: helloWorld.py

To execute this file in script mode we simply write python helloWorld.pyat the command
prompt.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

We can use any text editing software to write a Python script file. We just need to save it with
the .pyextension. But using an IDE can make our life a lot easier. IDE is a piece of software that
provides useful features like code hinting, syntax highlighting and checking, file explorers etc. to
the programmer for application development. Using an IDE can get rid of redundant tasks and
significantly decrease the time required for applicationdevelopment.

IDEL is a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be installed along with the Python
programming language and is available from the official website. We can also use other
commercial or free IDE according to our preference. We have used the PyScripter IDE for our
testing and we recommend the same. It is free and open source.

Hello World Example

Now that we have Python up and running, we can continue on to write our first Python program.
Type the following code in any text editor or an IDE and save it as helloWorld.py

print("Hello world!")

Now at the command window, go to the loaction of this file. You can use the cd command to
change directory. To run the script, type python helloWorld.pyin the command window. We
should be able to see the output as follows

Output:

Hello world!

If you are using PyScripter, there is a green arrow button on top. Press that button or press
Ctrl+F9on your keyboard to run the program.

Explanation:

In this program we have used the built-in function print(), to print out a string to the screen.
String is the value inside the quotation marks, i.e. Hello world! . Now try printing out your
name by modifying this program.

Congratulations! You just wrote your first program in Python. As we can see, it was pretty easy.
This is the beauty of Python programming language. Page

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Python Introduction

 Keywords andIdentifier
 Statements &Comments
 PythonDatatypes
 Python I/O andImport
 PythonOperators
 Precedence &Associativity

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Python Keywords and Identifier

Keywords

Keywords are the reserved words in Python. We cannot use a keyword as variable name,
function name or any other identifier. They are used to define the syntax and structure of the
Python language. In Python, keywords are case sensitive.

There are 33 keywords in Python 3.3. This number can vary slightly in course of time. All the
keywords except True, Falseand Noneare in lowercase and they must be written as it is. The
list of all the keywords are given below.

Keywords in Python programming language

False class finally is return

None continue for lambda try

True def from nonlocal while

And del global not with

As elif if or yield

assert else import pass

break except in raise

Identifiers

Identifier is the name given to entities like class, functions, variables etc. in Python. It helps
differentiating one entity from another.

Rules for writing identifiers in Python

1. Identifierscanbeacombinationoflettersinlowercase(atoz)oruppercase(AtoZ)ordigits
(0to9)oranunderscore(_).NameslikemyClass,var_1andprint_this_to_screen, all
are validexample.
2. Anidentifiercannotstartwithadigit.1variableisinvalid,butvariable1isperfectly Page
fine.
3. Keywordscannotbeusedasidentifiers. 14

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 >>> global =1
File "<interactive input>", line 1
global =1
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

4. Wecannotusespecialsymbolslike!,@,#,$,%etc.inouridentifier.

>>> a@ =0
File "<interactive input>", line 1
a@ =0
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

5. Identifiercanbeofanylength.

Things to care about

Python is a case-sensitive language. This means, Variable and variable are not the same.
Always name identifiers that make sense. While, c = 10is valid. Writing count = 10would
make more sense and it would be easier to figure out what it does even when you look at your
code after a long gap. Multiple words can be separated using an underscore,
this_is_a_long_variable. We can also use camel-case style of writing, i.e., capitalize every
first letter of the word except the initial word without any spaces. For example:
camelCaseExample

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Python Statement, Indentation and Comments

Python Statement

Instructions that a Python interpreter can execute are called statements. For example, a = 1is an
assignment statement. if statement, for statement, while statement etc. are other kinds of
statements which will be discussed later.

Multi-line statement

In Python, end of a statement is marked by a newline character. But we can make a statement
extend over multiple lines with the line continuation character (\). For example:

a = 1 + 2 + 3 +\
4 + 5 + 6 +\
7 + 8 + 9

This is explicit line continuation. In Python, line continuation is implied inside parentheses ( ),
brackets [ ] and braces { }. For instance, we can implement the above multi-line statement as

a = (1 + 2 + 3 +
4 + 5 + 6 +
7 + 8 + 9)

Here, the surrounding parentheses ( ) do the line continuation implicitly. Same is the case with [ ]
and { }. For example:

colors = ['red',
'blue',
'green']

We could also put multiple statements in a single line using semicolons, as follows

a = 1; b = 2; c =3

PythonIndentation

Most of the programming languages like C, C++, Java use braces { } to define a block of code.
Python uses indentation. A code block (body of a function, loop etc.) starts with indentation and
ends with the first unindented line. The amount of indentation is up to you, but it must be
consistent throughout that block. Generally four whitespaces are used for indentation and is
preferred over tabs. Here is an example.

for i in range(1,11):
print(i)
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if i == 5:
break
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The enforcement of indentation in Python makes the code look neat and clean. This results into
Python programs that look similar and consistent. Indentation can be ignored in line
continuation. But it's a good idea to always indent. It makes the code more readable. For
example:

if True:
print('Hello')
a = 5

and

if True: print('Hello'); a = 5

both are valid and do the same thing. But the former style is clearer.

Incorrect indentation will result into IndentationError.

Python Comments

Comments are very important while writing a program. It describes what's going on inside a
program so that a person looking at the source code does not have a hard time figuring it out.
You might forget the key details of the program you just wrote in a month's time. So taking time
to explain these concepts in form of comments is always fruitful.

In Python, we use the hash (#) symbol to start writing a comment. It extends up to the newline
character. Comments are for programmers for better understanding of a program. Python
Interpreter ignores comment.

#This is a comment
#print out Hello
print('Hello')

Multi-line comments

If we have comments that extend multiple lines, one way of doing it is to use hash (#) in the
beginning of each line. For example:

#This is a long comment

#and it extends
#to multiple lines

Another way of doing this is to use triple quotes, either ''' or """. These triple quotes are
generally used for multi-line strings. But they can be used as multi-line comment as well. Unless
they are not docstrings, they do not generate any extra code.

"""This is also a Page

perfect example of
multi-line comments""" 17

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Docstring

Docstring is short for documentation string. It is a string that occurs as the first statement in a
module, function, class, or method definition. We must write what a function/class does in the
docstring. Triple quotes are used while writing docstrings. For example:

defdouble(num):
"""Function to double the value"""
return2*num

Docstring is available to us as the attributedocof thefunction.

>>> print(double.doc)
Function to double the value

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Python Variables and Datatypes

Python Variables

A variable is a location in memory used to store some data (value). They are given unique names
to differentiate between different memory locations. The rules for writing a variable name is
same as the rules for writing identifiers in Python.

We don't need to declare a variable before using it. In Python, we simply assign a value to a
variable and it will exist. We don't even have to declare the type of the variable. This is handled
internally according to the type of value we assign to the variable.

Variable assignment

We use the assignment operator (=) to assign values to a variable. Any type of value can be
assigned to any valid variable.

a = 5
b = 3.2
c = "Hello"

Here, we have three assignment statements. 5is an integer assigned to the variable a. Similarly,
3.2 is a floating point number and "Hello"is a string (sequence of characters) assigned to the
variables b and crespectively.

Multiple assignments

In Python, multiple assignments can be made in a single statement as follows:

a, b, c = 5, 3.2, "Hello"

If we want to assign the same value to multiple variables at once, we can do this as

x = y = z = "same"

This assigns the "same" string to all the three variables.

Datatypes in Python

Every value in Python has a datatype. Since everything is an object in Python programming,
datatypes are actually classes and variables are instance (object) of these classes. There are
various datatypes in Python. Some of the important types are listed below. Page

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Python Numbers

Integers, floating point numbers and complex numbers falls under Python numbers category.
They are defined as int, floatand complexclass in Python. We can use the type()function to
know which class a variable or a value belongs to and the isinstance() function to check if an
object belongs to a particular class.

>>> a = 5
>>> type(a)
<class'int'>
>>>type(2.0)
<class 'float'>
>>> isinstance(1+2j,complex)
True

Integers can be of any length, it is only limited by the memory available. A floating point
number is accurate up to 15 decimal places. Integer and floating points are separated by decimal
points. 1is integer, 1.0is floating point number. Complex numbers are written in the form, x +
yj, where x is the real part and y is the imaginary part. Here are some examples.

>>> a = 1234567890123456789
>>> a
1234567890123456789
>>> b = 0.1234567890123456789
>>> b
0.12345678901234568
>>> c = 1+2j
>>> c
(1+2j)

Notice that the floatvariable b got truncated.

Python List

List is an ordered sequence of items. It is one of the most used datatype in Python and is very
flexible. All the items in a list do not need to be of the same type. Declaring a list is pretty
straight forward. Items separated by commas are enclosed within brackets [ ].

>>> a = [1, 2.2, 'python']

>>> type(a)
<class'list'>

We can use the slicing operator [ ] to extract an item or a range of items from a list. Index starts
form 0 inPython.

>>> a = [5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40]
>>> a[2]
15 Page
>>>
[5,
a[0:3]
10, 15] 20

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>>> a[5:]
[30, 35, 40]

Lists are mutable, meaning, value of elements of a list can be altered.

>>> a = [1,2,3]
>>> a[2]=4
>>> a
[1, 2, 4]

Python Tuple

Tuple is an ordered sequence of items same as list. The only difference is that tuples are
immutable. Tuples once created cannot be modified. They are used to write-protect data and are
usually faster than list as it cannot change dynamically. Tuple is defined within parentheses ()
where items are separated by commas.

>>> t = (5,'program', 1+3j)

>>> type(t)
<class 'tuple'>

We can use the slicing operator [] to extract items but we cannot change its value.

>>> t[1]
'program'
>>> t[0:3]
(5, 'program', (1+3j))
>>> t[0] = 10
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Python Strings

String is sequence of Unicode characters. We can use single quotes or double quotes to represent
strings. Multi-line strings can be denoted using triple quotes, '''or """.

>>> s = "This is a string"

>>> type(s)
<class 'str'>
>>> s = '''a multiline
... string'''

Like list and tuple, slicing operator [ ] can be used with string. Strings are immutable.

>>> s = 'Hello world!'

>>> s[4] Page
'o'
>>> s[6:11]
'world'
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>>> s[5] ='d'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

Python Set

Set is an unordered collection of unique items. Set is defined by values separated by comma
inside braces { }. Items in a set are not ordered.

>>> a = {5,2,3,1,4}
>>> a
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
>>> type(a)
<class 'set'>

We can perform set operations like union, intersection on two sets. Set have unique values. They
eliminate duplicates.

>>> a = {1,2,2,3,3,3}
>>> a
{1, 2, 3}

Since, set are unordered collection, indexing has no meaning. Hence the slicing operator [] does
not work.

>>> a = {1,2,3}
>>> a[1]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'set' object does not support indexing

Python Dictionary

Dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs. It is generally used when we have a

huge amount of data. Dictionaries are optimized for retrieving data. We must know the key to
retrieve the value. In Python, dictionaries are defined within braces {} with each item being a
pair in the form key:value. Key and value can be of any type.

>>> d = {1:'value','key':2}
>>> type(d)
<class 'dict'>

We use key to retrieve the respective value. But not the other way around.

>>> d[1] Page

'value'
>>> d['key'] 22
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>>> d[2]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 2

Conversion between datatypes

We can convert between different datatypes by using different type conversion functions like
int(), float(), str() etc.

>>> float(5)
5.0

Conversion from float to int will truncate the value (make it closer to zero).

>>> int(10.6)
10
>>> int(-10.6)
-10

Conversion to and from string must contain compatible values.

>>> float('2.5')
2.5
>>> str(25)
'25'
>>> int('1p')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "
<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '1p'

We can even convert one sequence to another.

>>> set([1,2,3])
{1, 2,3}
>>> tuple({5,6,7})
(5, 6,7)
>>> list('hello')
['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

To convert to dictionary, each element must be a pair

>>> dict([[1,2],[3,4]])
{1: 2, 3: 4}
>>> dict([(3,26),(4,44)])
{3: 26, 4: 44}
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Python Input, Output and Import

Python language provides numerous built-in functions that are readily available to us at the
Python prompt. Some of the functions like input()and print()are widely used for standard
input and output operations respectively. Let us see the output section first.

Output

We use the print()function to output data to the standard output device (screen). We can also
output data to a file, but this will be discussed later. An example use is given below.

>>> print('This sentence is output to the screen')

This sentence is output to the screen
>>> a = 5
>>> print('The value of a is',a)
The value of a is 5

In the second example, we can notice that a space was added between the string and the value of
variable a. This is by default, but we can change it. The actual syntax of the print()function is

print(*objects, sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)

Here, objects is the value(s) to be printed. sep is the separator used between the values. It
defaults into a space character. end is printed after printing all the values. It defaults into a new
line. fileis the object where the values are printed and its default value is sys.stdout(screen).
Here are an example to illustrate this.

print(1,2,3,4)
print(1,2,3,4,sep='*')
print(1,2,3,4,sep='#',end='&')

Output

1 2 34
1*2*3*4
1#2#3#4&

Output formatting

Sometimes we would like to format our output to make it look attractive. This can be done by
using the str.format()method. This method is visible to any string object.

>>> x = 5; y = 10
>>> print('The value of x is {} and y is {}'.format(x,y))
The value of x is 5 and y is 10
Page
Here the curly braces {} are used as placeholders. We can specify the order in which it is printed
by using numbers (tuple index). 24

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>>> print('I love {0} and {1}'.format('bread','butter'))
I love bread andbutter
>>> print('I love {1} and {0}'.format('bread','butter'))
I love butter andbread

We can even use keyword arguments to format the string.

>>> print('Hello {name},

{greeting}'.format(greeting='Goodmorning',name='John'))
Hello John, Goodmorning

We can even format strings like the old sprintf()style used in C programming language. We
use the %operator to accomplish this.

>>> x = 12.3456789
>>> print('The value of x is %3.2f' %x)
The value of x is 12.35
>>> print('The value of x is %3.4f' %x)
The value of x is 12.3457

Input

Up till now, our programs were static. The value of variables were defined or hard coded into the
source code. To allow flexibility we might want to take the input from the user. In Python, we
have the input()function to allow this. The syntax for input()is

input([prompt])

where promptis the string we wish to display on the screen. It is optional.

>>> num = input('Enter a number: ')

Enter a number: 10
>>> num
'10'

Here, we can see that the entered value 10is a string, not a number. To convert this into a
number we can use int()or float()functions.

>>> int('10')
10
>>> float('10')
10.0

This same operation can be performed using the eval()function. But it takes it further. It can
evaluate even expressions, provided the input is a string

>>> int('2+3')
Traceback (most recent call last): Page
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module> 25
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '2+3'

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>>> eval('2+3')
5

Import

When our program grows bigger, it is a good idea to break it into different modules. A moduleis
a file containing Python definitions and statements. Python modules have a filename and end
with the extension.py.

Definitions inside a module can be imported to another module or the interactive interpreter in
Python.Weusetheimportkeywordto dothis. Forexample, wecan importthemathmoduleby typing
in importmath.

>>> import math

>>> math.pi
3.141592653589793

Now all the definitions inside mathmodule are available in our scope. We can also import some
specific attributes and functions only, using the fromkeyword. For example:

>>> from math import pi

>>> pi
3.141592653589793

While importing a module, Python looks at several places defined in sys.path. It is a list of
directory locations.

>>> import sys

>>> sys.path
['',
'C:\\Python33\\Lib\\idlelib',
'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python33.zip',
'C:\\Python33\\DLLs',
'C:\\Python33\\lib',
'C:\\Python33',
'C:\\Python33\\lib\\site-packages']

We can add our own location to this list as well.

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Python Operators

Operators are special symbols in Python that carry out arithmetic or logical computation. The
value that the operator operates on is called the operand. For example:

>>> 2+3
5

Here, +is the operator that performs addition. 2and 3are the operands and 5is the output of the
operation. Python has a number of operators which are classified below.

Type of operators in Python

Arithmetic operators

Comparison (Relational)
operators
Logical (Boolean) operators

Bitwise operators

Assignment operators

Special operators

Arithmetic operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform mathematical operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplication etc.

Arithmetic operators in Python

Operator Meaning Example

x+y
+ Add two operands or unary plus
+2

x-y
- Subtract right operand from the left or unary minus
-2

* Multiply two operands x*y

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/ Divide left operand by the right one (always results into float) x/y

x%y(remainderof
% Modulus - remainder of the division of left operand by the right
x/y)

Floordivision-divisionthatresultsintowholenumberadjustedtothe
// x // y
leftinthenumberline

x**y (x to the
** Exponent - left operand raised to the power of right
power y)

Here is an example.

x = 15
y = 4
print('x + y = ',x+y)
print('x - y = ',x-y)
print('x * y = ',x*y)
print('x / y = ',x/y)
print('x // y = ',x//y)
print('x ** y = ',x**y)

Output

x + y = 19
x - y = 11
x * y =60
x /y= 3.75
x //y = 3
x **y = 50625

Comparison operators

Comparison operators are used to compare values. It either returns Trueor Falseaccording to
the condition.

Comparision operators in Python

Operato Meaning Example

r
> Greater that - True if left operand is greater than the right x>y

< Less that - True if left operand is less than the right x<y

== Equal to - True if both operands are equal x == y Page

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!= Not equal to - True if operands are not equal x != y

Greaterthanorequalto-Trueifleftoperandisgreaterthanor
>= x >= y
equal to theright

Lessthanorequalto-Trueifleftoperandislessthanorequal to
<= x <= y
theright

Here is an example.

x =10
y =12
print('x>y is',x>y)
print('x<y is',x<y)
print('x == y is',x==y)
print('x != y is',x!=y)
print('x >= y is',x>=y)
print('x <= yis',x<=y)

Output

x> y is False
x< y is True
x == y is False
x != y is True
x >= y is False
x <= y isTrue

Logical operators

Logical operators are the and, or, notoperators.

Logical operators in Python

Operator Meaning Example

and True if both the operands are true x and y

or True if either of the operands is true x or y

not Trueifoperandisfalse(complementstheoperand) not x

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Here is an example.

x = True
y =False
print('x and y is',x and y)
print('x or y is',x or y)
print('not x is',not x)

Output

x and y is False
x or y is True
not x is False

Bitwise operators

Bitwise operators act on operands as if they were string of binary digits. It operates bit by bit,
hence the name. For example, 2 is 10in binary and 7 is 111.

Let x = 10 (0000 1010in binary) and y = 4 (0000 0100in binary)

Bitwise operators in Python

Operator Meaning Example

& Bitwise AND x& y = 0 (00000000)

| Bitwise OR x |y = 14 (0000 1110)

~ Bitwise NOT ~x = -11 (11110101)

^ Bitwise XOR x ^ y = 14 (0000 1110)

>> Bitwise right shift x>> 2 = 2 (00000010)

<< Bitwise left shift x<< 2 = 42 (0010 1000)

Assignment operators

Assignment operators are used in Python to assign values to variables. a = 5 is a simple

assignment operator that assigns the value 5 on the right to the variable a on the left. There are
various compound operators in Python like a += 5that adds to the variable and later assigns the
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 Assignment operators in Python

Operator Example Equivatent to

= x=5 x=5

+= x += 5 x=x+5

-= x -= 5 x=x-5

*= x *= 5 x=x*5

/= x /= 5 x=x/5

%= x %= 5 x=x%5

//= x //= 5 x = x // 5

**= x **= 5 x = x ** 5

&= x &= 5 x=x&5

|= x|=5 x=x|5

^= x ^= 5 x=x^5

>>= x >>= 5 x = x >> 5

<<= x <<= 5 x = x << 5

Special operators

Python language offers some special type of operators like the identity operator or the
membership operator. They are described below with examples.

Identity operators

isand is notare the identity operators in Python. They are used to check if two values (or
variables) are located on the same part of the memory. Two variables that are equal does not
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 Identity operators in Python

Operato Meaning Example

r
Trueiftheoperandsareidentical(refertothe
is x is True
sameobject)

Trueiftheoperandsarenotidentical(donot
is not x is not True
refertothesameobject)

Here is an example.

x1 =5
y1 =5
x2 = 'Hello'
y2 = 'Hello'
x3 =[1,2,3]
y3 =[1,2,3]
print(x1 is not y1)
print(x2 is y2)
print(x3 is y3)

Output

False
True
False

Here, we see that x1 and y1 are integers of same values, so they are equal as well as identical.
Same is the case with x2 and y2 (strings). But x3 and y3 are list. They are equal but not identical.
Since list are mutable (can be changed), interpreter locates them separately in memory although
they are equal.

Membership operators
inand not inare the membership operators in Python. They are used to test whether a value or
variable is found in a sequence (string, list, tuple, set and dictionary). In a dictionary we can only
test for presence of key, not the value.

Operato Meaning Example

r
in Trueifvalue/variableisfoundinthesequence 5 in x

Trueifvalue/variableisnotfoundinthe
not in 5 not in x
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Here is an example.

x = 'Hello world'
y = {1:'a',2:'b'}
print('H' in x)
print('hello' not in x)
print(1 in y)
print('a' in y)

Output

True
True
True
False

Here, 'H'is in x but 'hello'is not present in x (remember, Python is case sensitive). Similary,
1is key and 'a'is the value in dictionary y. Hence, 'a' in yreturns False.

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Python Flow Control

 Pythonif...else
 Python forLoop
 Python whileLoop
 Python break andcontinue
 PythonPass
 LoopingTechnique

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Python if...elif...else and Nested if

Decision making is required when we want to execute a code only if a certain condition is
satisfied. The if…elif…elsestatement is used in Python for decision making.

Python if StatementSyntax
if test expression:
statement(s)

Here, the program evaluates the test expressionand will execute statement(s) only if the text
expression is True. If the text expression is False, the statement(s) is not executed. In Python,
the body of the ifstatement is indicated by the indentation. Body starts with an indentation and
the first unindented line marks the end. Python interprets non-zero values as True. None and 0
are interpreted as False.

Python if Statement Flowchart

Example: Python if Statement

# In this program, user inputs a number.

# If the number is positive, we print an appropriate message

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num > 0:
print("Positive number")
print("This is always printed")

Output 1
Page
Enter a number: 3
Positive number
This is always printed
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Output 2

Enter a number: -1
This is alwaysprinted

In the above example, num > 0is the test expression. The body of ifis executed only if this
evaluates to True. When user enters 3, test expression is true and body inside body of if is
executed. When user enters -1, test expression is false and body inside body of ifis skipped.
The print() statement falls outside of the if block (unindented). Hence, it is executed
regardless of the test expression. We can see this in our two outputs above.

Python if...else

Syntax of if...else

if test expression:
Body of if
else:
Body ofelse

The if..else statement evaluates test expression and will execute body of if only when
test condition is True. If the condition is False, body of elseis executed. Indentation is used to
separate theblocks.

Python if..else Flowchart

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Example of if...else

# In this program, user input a number

# Program check if the number is positive or negative and display an
appropriate message

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num >= 0:
print("Positive or Zero")
else:
print("Negative number")

Output 1

Enter a number: 2
Positive or Zero

Output 2

Enter a number: -3
Negative number

In the above example, when user enters 2, the test epression is true and body of if is executed
and bodyof else is skipped. When user enters -3, the test expression is false and body of elseis
executed and body of ifis skipped.

Python if...elif...else

Syntax of if...elif...else

if test expression:
Body of if
elif test expression:
Body of elif
else:
Body of else

The elif is short for else if. It allows us to check for multiple expressions. If the condition for
if is False, it checks the condition of the next elif block and so on. If all the conditions are
False, body of else is executed. Only one block among the several if...elif...elseblocks is
executed according to the condition. A if block can have only one else block. But it can have
multiple elifblocks.

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Flowchart of if...elif...else

Example of if...elif...else

# In this program, we input a number

# check if the number is positive or
# negative or zero and display
# an appropriate message

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num > 0:
print("Positive number")
elif num == 0:
print("Zero")
else:
print("Negative number")

Output 1

Enter a number: 2
Positive number

Output 2 Page
Enter a number: 0
Zero
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Output 3

Enter a number: -2
Negative number

Python Nested if statements

We can have a if...elif...elsestatement inside another if...elif...elsestatement. This

is called nesting in computer programming. In fact, any number of these statements can be
nested inside one another. Indentation is the only way to figure out the level of nesting. This can
get confusing, so must be avoided if we can.

Python Nested if Example

# In this program, we input a number

# check if the number is positive or
# negative or zero and display
# an appropriate message
# This time we use nested if

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num >= 0:
if num == 0:
print("Zero")
else:
print("Positive number")
else:
print("Negative number")

Output 1

Enter a number: 5
Positive number

Output 2

Enter a number: -1
Negative number

Output 3

Enter a number: 0
Zero

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Python for Loop

The forloop in Python is used to iterate over a sequence (list, tuple, string) or other iterable
objects. Iterating over a sequence is called traversal.

Syntax of for Loop

for val in sequence:

Body of for

Here, valis the variable that takes the value of the item inside the sequence on each iteration.
Loop continues until we reach the last item in the sequence. The body of forloop is separated
from the rest of the code using indentation.

Flowchart of for Loop

Example: Python for Loop

# Program to find
# the sum of all numbers
# stored in a list

# List of numbers
numbers = [6,5,3,8,4,2,5,4,11] Page
# variable to store the sum
sum = 0
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# iterate over the list
for val in numbers:
sum = sum+val

# print the sum

print("The sum is",sum)

Output

The sum is 48

The range() function

We can generate a sequence of numbers using range() function. range(10) will generate
numbers from 0 to 9 (10 numbers). We can also define the start, stop and step size as
range(start,stop,step size). step sizedefaults to 1 if not provided. This function does
not store all the values in memory, it would be inefficient. So it remembers the start, stop,
step size and generates the next number on the go. To force this function to output all the
items, we can use the functionlist().

The following example will clarifythis.

>>> range(10)
range(0, 10)
>>> list(range(10))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>> list(range(2,8))
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
>>> list(range(2,20,3))
[2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17]

We can use the range()function in forloops to iterate through a sequence of numbers. It can
be combined with the len() function to iterate though a sequence using indexing. Here is an
example.

# Program to iterate
# through alist
# usingindexing

# List of genre
genre = ['pop','rock','jazz']

# iterate over the list using index

for i in range(len(genre)):
print("I like",genre[i])

Output
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I like pop
I like rock
I likejazz
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for loop with else

A forloop can have an optional elseblock as well. The elsepart is executed if the items in the
sequence used in for loop exhausts. break statement can be used to stop a for loop. In such
case, the elsepart is ignored. Hence, a forloop's elsepart runs if no break occurs.

Here is an example to illustrate this.

# Program to show
# the controlflow
# when using else block
# in a for loop

# a list of digit
list_of_digits = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6]

# take input from user

input_digit = int(input("Enter a digit: "))

# search the input digit in ourlist

for i inlist_of_digits:
if input_digit ==i:
print("Digit is in the list")
break
else:
print("Digit not found in list")

Output 1

Enter a digit: 3
Digit is in the list

Output 2

Enter a digit: 9
Digit not found in list

Here, we have a list of digits from 0 to 6. We ask the user to enter a digit and check if the digit is
in our list or not. If the digit is present, for loop breaks prematurely. So, the else part does not
run. But if the items in our list exhausts (digit not found in our list), the program enters the else
part.

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Python while Loop

The whileloop in Python is used to iterate over a block of code as long as the test expression
(condition) is true. We generally use this loop when we don't know beforehand, the numberof
times toiterate.

Syntax of while Loop

while test_expression:
Body of while

In while loop, test expression is checked first. The body of the loop is entered only if the
test_expressionevaluates to True. After one iteration, the test expression is checked again.
This process continues untill the test_expressionevaluates to False.

In Python, the body of the while loop is determined through indentation. Body starts with
indentation and the first unindented line marks the end. Python interprets any non-zero value as
True. Noneand 0are interpreted as False.

Flowchart of whileLoop

Example: Python while Loop Page

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# numbers upto n where
# n is provided by the user
# sum = 1+2+3+...+n

# take input from the user

n = int(input("Enter n:"))

# initialize sum and counter

sum = 0
i = 1

while i <= n:
sum = sum + i
i=i+1 # update counter

# print the sum

print("The sum is",sum)

Output

Enter n: 10
The sum is 55

In the above program, we asked the user to enter a number, n. whileloop is used to sum from 1
to that number. The condition will be Trueas long as our counter variable i is less than or equal
to n. We need to increase the value of counter variable in the body of the loop. This is very
important (and mostly forgotten). Failing to do so will result in an infinite loop (never ending
loop). Finally the result is displayed.

while loop with else

Same as that of forloop, we can have an optional elseblock with whileloop as well. The else
part is executed if the condition in the while loop evaluates to False. while loop can be
terminated with a breakstatement. In such case, the elsepart is ignored. Hence, a whileloop's
elsepart runs if no break occurs and the condition is false.

Here is an example to illustrate this.

# Example to illustrate
# the use of else statement
# with the while loop

counter = 0

while counter < 3:

print("Inside loop")
counter = counter + 1
else:
print("Inside else") Page

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Output

Inside loop
Inside loop
Inside loop
Inside else

Here, we use a counter variable to print the string Inside loopthree times. On the forth
iteration, the condition in whilebecomes False. Hence, the elsepart is executed.

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Python break and continue Statement

In Python, break and continue statements can alter the flow of a normal loop. Loops iterate
over a block of code until test expression is false, but sometimes we wish to terminate the current
iteration or even the whole loop without cheking test expression. The break and continue
statements are used in these cases.

break statement

The break statement terminates the loop containing it. Control of the program flows to the
statement immediately after the body of the loop. If it is inside a nested loop (loop inside another
loop), breakwill terminate the innermost loop.

Syntax of break
break
Flowchart of break

The working of breakstatement in for loopand while loopis shown below.

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Example: Python break
# Program to show the use of break statement inside loop

for val in "string":

if val == "i":
break
print(val)

print("The end")

Output

s
t
r
The end

In this program, we iterate through the "string"sequence. We check if the letter is "i", upon
which we break from the loop. Hence, we see in our output that all the letters up till "i" gets
printed. After that, the loop terminates.

continue statement

The continuestatement is used to skip the rest of the code inside a loop for the current iteration
only. Loop does not terminate but continues on with the next iteration.

Syntax of Continue

continue

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Flowchart of continue

The working of continuestatement in for and while loop is shown below.

Example: Python continue

# Program to show
# the use of continue
# statement inside loops

for val in "string":

if val == "i":
continue Page
print(val)
48
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Output

s
t
r
n
g
The end

This program is same as the above example except the breakstatement has been replaced with
continue. We continue with the loop, if the string is "i", not executing the rest of the block.
Hence, we see in our output that all the letters except "i"gets printed.

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Python pass Statement

In Python programming, pass is a null statement. The difference between a comment and pass
statement in Python is that, while the interpreter ignores a comment entirely, passis not ignored.
But nothing happens when it is executed. It results into no operation (NOP).

Syntax of pass

pass

We generally use it as a placeholder. Suppose we have a loop or a function that is not

implemented yet, but we want to implement it in the future. They cannot have an empty body.
The interpreter would complain. So, we use the pass statement to construct a body that does
nothing.

Example: pass Statement

for val in sequence:

pass

We can do the same thing in an empty function or class as well.

def function(args):
pass

class example:
pass

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Python Looping Techniques

Python programming offers two kinds of loop, the for loop and the while loop. Using these loops
along with loop control statements like break and continue, we can create various forms of
loop.

The infinite loop

We can create an infinite loop using whilestatement. If the condition of whileloop is always
True, we get an infinite loop.

Example of infinite loop

# An example of infinite loop

# press Ctrl + c to exit from the loop

while True:
num = int(input("Enter an integer: "))
print("The double of",num,"is",2 * num)

Output

Enter an integer: 3
The double of 3 is 6
Enter an integer: 5
The double of 5 is 10
Enter an integer: 6
The double of 6 is 12
Enter an integer:
Traceback (most recent call last):

Loop with condition at the top

This is a normal whileloop without breakstatements. The condition of the whileloop is at the
top and the loop terminates when this condition is False.

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Flowchart of Loop With Condition at Top

Example

# Program to illustrate a loop with condition at the top

n = int(input("Enter n: "))

# initialize sum and counter

sum = 0
i = 1

while i <= n:
sum = sum +i
i=i+1 # update counter

# print the sum

print("The sum is",sum)

Output

Enter n: 10
The sum is 55

Loop with condition in the middle

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Flowchart of Loop with Condition in Middle

Example

# Program to illustrate a loop with condition in the middle.

# Take input from the user untill a vowel is entered

vowels = "aeiouAEIOU"

# infinite loop
while True:
v = input("Enter a vowel: ")
# condition in the middle
if v in vowels:
break
print("That is not a vowel. Try again!")

print("Thank you!")

Output

Enter a vowel:r
That is not a vowel. Try again!
Enter a vowel:6
That is not a vowel. Try again!
Enter a vowel:,
That is not a vowel. Try again! Page
Enter a vowel:u
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Loop with condition at the bottom

This kind of loop ensures that the body of the loop is executed at least once. It can be
implemented using an infinite loop along with a conditional break at the end. This is similar to
the do...whileloop in C.

Flowchart of Loop with Condition at Bottom

Example

# Python program to illustrate a loop with condition at the bottom

# Roll a dice untill user chooses to exit

# import random module

import random

while True:
input("Press enter to roll the dice")

# get a number between 1 to 6

num = random.randint(1,6)
print("You got",num)
option = input("Roll again?(y/n) ")

#contion Page
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Output

Press enter to roll the dice

You got 1
Roll again?(y/n) y
Press enter to roll the dice
You got 5
Roll again?(y/n) n

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Python Functions

 PythonFunction
 FunctionArgument
 PythonRecursion
 AnonymousFunction
 PythonModules
 PythonPackage

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Python Functions

In Python, function is a group of related statements that perform a specific task. Functions help
break our program into smaller and modular chucks. As our program grows larger and larger,
functions make it more organized and manageable. Furthermore, it avoids repetition and makes
code reusable.

Syntax of Function

def function_name(parameters):
"""docstring"""
statement(s)

Above shown is a function definition which consists of following components.

1. Keyworddefmarksthestartoffunctionheader.
2. Afunctionnametouniquelyidentifyit.Functionnamingfollowsthesamerulesofwriting
identifiers inPython.
3. Parameters(arguments)throughwhichwepassvaluestoafunction.Theyareoptional.
4. Acolon(:)tomarktheendoffunctionheader.
5. Optionaldocumentationstring(docstring)todescribewhatthefunctiondoes.
6. Oneormorevalidpythonstatementsthatmakeupthefunctionbody.Statementsmusthave
sameindentationlevel(usually4spaces).
7. Anoptionalreturnstatementtoreturnavaluefromthefunction.

Example of a function

def greet(name):
"""This function greets to
the person passed in as
parameter"""
print("Hello, " + name + ". Good morning!")

Function Call

Once we have defined a function, we can call it from another function, program or even the
Python prompt. To call a function we simply type the function name with appropriate
parameters.

>>> greet('Paul')
Hello, Paul. Good morning!

Docstring

The first string after the function header is called the docstring and is short for documentation Page
string. It is used to explain in brief, what a function does. Although optional, documentation is a
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good programming practice. Unless you can remember what you had for dinner last week,
always document your code.

In the above example, we have a docstring immediately below the function header. We generally
use triple quotes so that docstring can extend up to multiple lines. This string is available to us as
docattribute of the function. Forexample:

>>> print(greet.doc)
This function greets to
the person passed into the
name parameter

The return statement

The returnstatement is used to exit a function and go back to the place from where it was
called.

Syntax of return

return [expression_list]

This statement can contain expression which gets evaluated and the value is returned. If there is
no expression in the statement or the returnstatement itself is not present inside a function, then
the function will return the Noneobject. For example:

>>> print(greet("May"))
Hello, May. Good morning!
None

Here, Noneis the returned value.

Example of return

def absolute_value(num):
"""This function returns the absolute
value of the entered number"""

if num >= 0:
return num
else:
return -num

print(absolute_value(2))
print(absolute_value(-4))

Output

2 Page
4
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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 is not visible from outside. Hence, they have a local scope.

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.

Here is an example to illustrate the scope of a variable inside a function.

def my_func():
x = 10
print("Value inside function:",x)

x = 20
my_func()
print("Value outside function:",x)

Output

Value inside function: 10

Value outside function: 20

Here, we can see that the value of x is 20 initially. Even though the function my_func()changed
the value of x to 10, it did not effect the value outside the function. This is because the variable x
inside the function is different (local to the function) from the one outside. Although they have
same names, they are two different variables with different scope.

On the other hand, variables outside of the function are visible from inside. They have a global
scope. We can read these values from inside the function but cannot change (write) them. In
order to modify the value of variables outside the function, they must be declared as global
variables using the keyword global.

Types of Functions

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

1. Built-infunctions-FunctionsthatarebuiltintoPython.
2. User-definedfunctions-Functionsdefinedbytheusersthemselves.

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Python Programming Built-in Functions

FunctionsthatcomebuiltintothePythonlanguageitselfarecalledbuilt-infunctionsandarereadily
availabletous.Functionslikeprint(),input(),eval()etc.thatwehavebeenusing,aresomeexamplesof
thebuilt-infunction.Thereare68built-infunctions(maychangewithversion)inPython.Theyarelisted
belowalphabeticallyalongwithabriefdescription.

Python built-in functions

Built-in Description
Function
abs() Return the absolute value of a number.

all() ReturnTrueifallelementsoftheiterablearetrue(oriftheiterableisempty).

ReturnTrueifanyelementoftheiterableistrue.Iftheiterableisempty,return
any()
False.

Returnastringcontainingaprintablerepresentationofanobject,butescape
ascii()
the non-ASCIIcharacters.

bin() Convert an integer number to a binary string.

bool() Convert a value to a Boolean.

bytearray() Return a new array of bytes.

bytes() Return a new "bytes" object.

callable() Return Trueif the object argument appears callable, Falseif not.

chr() Return the string representing a character.

classmethod() Return a class method for the function.

compile() Compile the source into a code or AST object.

complex() Createacomplexnumberorconvertastringornumbertoacomplexnumber.

delattr() Deletes the named attribute of an object.

dict() Create a new dictionary.

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dir() Return the list of names in the current local scope.

Returnapairofnumbersconsistingofquotientandremainderwhenusing
divmod()
integerdivision.

enumerate() Return an enumerate object.

eval() The argument is parsed and evaluated as a Python expression.

exec() Dynamic execution of Python code.

filter() Constructaniteratorfromelementsofiterableforwhichfunctionreturnstrue.

float() Convert a string or a number to floating point.

format() Convert a value to a "formatted" representation.

frozenset() Return a new frozensetobject.

getattr() Return the value of the named attribute of an object.

globals() Return a dictionary representing the current global symbol table.

hasattr() Return Trueif the name is one of the object's attributes.

hash() Return the hash value of the object.

help() Invoke the built-in help system.

hex() Convert an integer number to a hexadecimal string.

id() Return the "identity" of an object.

Readsalinefrominput,convertsittoastring(strippingatrailingnewline),and
input()
returnsthat.

int() Convert a number or string to an integer.

isinstance() Return Trueif the object argument is an instance.

issubclass() Return Trueif class is a subclass.

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iter() Return an iterator object.

len() Return the length (the number of items) of an object.

list() Return a list.

locals() Update and return a dictionary representing the current local symbol table.

Returnaniteratorthatappliesfunctiontoeveryitemofiterable,yieldingthe
map()
results.

max() Return the largest item in an iterable.

memoryview() Return a "memory view" object created from the given argument.

min() Return the smallest item in an iterable.

next() Retrieve the next item from the iterator.

object() Return a new featureless object.

oct() Convert an integer number to an octal string.

open() Open file and return a corresponding file object.

ord() Return an integer representing the Unicode.

pow() Return power raised to a number.

print() Print objects to the stream.

property() Return a property attribute.

range() Return an iterable sequence.

repr() Return a string containing a printable representation of an object.

reversed() Return a reverse iterator.

round() Return the rounded floating point value.

set() Return a new set object.

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setattr() Assigns the value to the attribute.

slice() Return a slice object.

sorted() Return a new sorted list.

staticmethod() Return a static method for function.

str() Return a str version of object.

sum() Sums the items of an iterable from left to right and returns the total.

super() Returnaproxyobjectthatdelegatesmethodcallstoaparentorsiblingclass.

tuple() Return a tuple

type() Return the type of an object.

Returnthedictattributeforamodule,class,instance,oranyother object.
vars()

zip() Make an iterator that aggregates elements from each of the iterables.

import() This function is invoked by the importstatement.

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Python Programming User-defined Functions

Functions that we define ourselves to do certain specific task are referred as user-defined
functions. The way in which we define and call functions in Python are already discussed.
Functions that readily come with Python are called built-in functions. If we use functions written
by others in the form of library, it can be termed as library functions. All the other functions that
we write on our own fall under user-defined functions. So, our user-defined function could be a
library function to someone else.

Advantages of user-defined functions

1. User-
definedfunctionshelptodecomposealargeprogramintosmallsegmentswhichmakes
programeasytounderstand,maintainanddebug.
2. Ifrepeatedcodeoccursinaprogram.Functioncanbeusedtoincludethosecodesandexecute
whenneededbycallingthatfunction.
3. Programmarsworkingonlargeprojectcandividetheworkloadbymakingdifferentfunctions.

Example of a user-defined function

# Program to illustrate
# the use of user-defined functions

def my_addition(x,y):
"""This function addstwo
numbers and return the result"""
sum = x + y
return sum

num1 = float(input("Enter a number: "))

num2 = float(input("Enter another number: "))
print("The sum is", my_addition(num1,num2))

Output

Enter a number: 2.4

Enter another number: 6.5
The sum is 8.9

Explanation

Here, we have defined the function my_addition() which adds two numbers and returns the
result. This is our user-defined function. We could have multiplied the two numbers inside our
function (it's all up to us). But this operation would not be consistent with the name of the
function. It would create ambiguity. It is always a good idea to name functions according to the
task they perform.
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Python Function Arguments

In user-defined function topic, we learned about defining a function and calling it. Otherwise, the
function call will result into an error. Here is an example.

def greet(name,msg):
"""This function greets to
the person with the provided message"""
print("Hello",name + ', ' + msg)

greet("Monica","Good morning!")

Output

Hello Monica, Good morning!

Here, the function greet() has two parameters. Since, we have called this function with two
arguments, it runs smoothly and we do not get any error. But if we call it with different number
of arguments, the interpreter will complain. Below is a call to this function with one and no
arguments along with their respective error messages.

>>>greet("Monica") # only one argument

TypeError: greet() missing 1 required positional argument: 'msg'
>>>greet() # no arguments
TypeError: greet() missing 2 required positional arguments: 'name' and 'msg'

Variable Function Arguments

Up until now functions had fixed number of arguments. In Python there are other ways to define
a function which can take variable number of arguments. Three different forms of this type are
described below.

Default Arguments

Function arguments can have default values in Python. We can provide a default value to an
argument by using the assignment operator (=). Here is an example.

def greet(name, msg = "Good morning!"):

"""This function greets to
the person with the provided message.
If message is not provided, itdefaults
to "Good morning!""""

print("Hello",name + ', ' + msg)

In this function, the parameter name does not have a default value and is required (mandatory) Page
during a call. On the other hand, the parameter msg has a default value of "Goodmorning!". So,
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it is optional during a call. If a value is provided, it will overwrite the default value. Here are
some valid calls to this function.

>>> greet("Kate")
Hello Kate, Good morning!

>>> greet("Bruce","How do you do?")

Hello Bruce, How do you do?

Any number of arguments in a function can have a default value. But once we have a default
argument, all the arguments to its right must also have default values. This means to say, non-
default arguments cannot follow default arguments. For example, if we had defined the function
header above as:

def greet(msg = "Good morning!", name):

We would get an error as:

SyntaxError: non-default argument follows default argument

Keyword Arguments

When we call a function with some values, these values get assigned to the arguments according
to their position. For example, in the above function greet(), when we called it as
greet("Bruce","How do you do?"), the value "Bruce" gets assigned to the argument name
and similarly "How do you do?"to msg.

Python allows functions to be called using keyword arguments. When we call functions in this
way, the order (position) of the arguments can be changed. Following calls to the above function
are all valid and produce the same result.

greet(name = "Bruce",msg = "How doyoudo?") # 2 keyword arguments

greet(msg = "How do you do?",name="Bruce") # 2 keyword arguments (out of
order)
greet("Bruce",msg = "How doyoudo?") # 1 positional, 1 keyword
argument

As we can see, we can mix positional arguments with keyword arguments during a function call.
But we must keep in mind that keyword arguments must follow positional arguments. Having a
positional argument after keyword arguments will result into errors. For example the function
call as follows:

greet(name="Bruce","How do you do?")

Will result into error as:

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Arbitrary Arguments

Sometimes, we do not know in advance the number of arguments that will be passed into a
function. Python allows us to handle this kind of situation through function calls with arbitrary
number of arguments. In the function definition we use an asterisk (*) before the parameter name
to denote this kind of argument. Here is an example.

def greet(*names):
"""This function greets all
the person in the names tuple."""

# names is a tuple with arguments

for name in names:
print("Hello",name)

greet("Monica","Luke","Steve","John")

Output

Hello Monica
Hello Luke
Hello Steve
Hello John

Here, we have called the function with multiple arguments. These arguments get wrapped up into
a tuple before being passed into the function. Inside the function, we use a for loop to retrieve
all the arguments back.

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Python Recursion

Recursion is the process of defining something in terms of itself. A physical world example
would be to place two parallel mirrors facing each other. Any object in between them would be
reflected recursively.

Python Recursive Function

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

Following is an example of recursive function to find the factorial of an integer. Factorial of a

number is the product of all the integers from 1 to that number. For example, the factorial of6
(denoted as 6!) is 1*2*3*4*5*6 =720.

Example of recursive function

# An example of a recursive function to

# find the factorial of a number

def recur_fact(x):
"""This is a recursive function
to find the factorial of an integer"""

if x == 1:
return 1
else:
return (x * recur_fact(x-1))

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

if num >= 1:
print("The factorial of", num, "is", recur_fact(num))

Output

Enter a number: 4
The factorial of 4 is 24

Explanation

In the above example, recur_fact()is a recursive functions as it calls itself. When we call this
function with a positive integer, it will recursively call itself by decreasing the number. Each
function call multiples the number with the factorial of number-1 until the number is equal to
one. This recursive call can be explained in the following steps.

recur_fact(4) # 1st call with4 Page

4*recur_fact(3) # 2nd call with3
4 * 3*recur_fact(2)
4 * 3 * 2*recur_fact(1)
#
#
3rd
4th
call
call
with2
with1
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4 * 3 * 2* 1 # retrun from 4th call asnumber=1
4 * 3* 2 # return from 3rdcall
4* 6 # return from 2ndcall
24 # return from 1stcall

Our recursion ends when the number reduces to 1. This is called the base condition. Every
recursive function must have a base condition that stops the recursion or else the function calls
itself infinitely. We must avoid infinite recursion.

Advantages of recursion

1. Recursivefunctionsmakethecodelookcleanandelegant.
2. Acomplextaskcanbebrokendownintosimplersub-problemsusingrecursion.
3. Sequencegenerationiseasierwithrecursionthanusingsomenestediteration.

Disadvantages of recursion

1. Sometimesthelogicbehindrecursionishardtofollowthrough.
2. Recursivecallsareexpensive(inefficient)astheytakeupalotofmemoryandtime.
3. Recursivefunctionsarehardtodebug.

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Python Anonymous/Lambda Function

In Python, anonymous function is a function that is defined without a name. While normal
functions are defined using the defkeyword, in Python anonymous functions are defined using
the lambdakeyword. Hence, anonymous functions are also called lambda functions.

Lambda Functions

A lambda function has the following syntax.

Syntax of Lambda Function

lambda arguments: expression

Lambda functions can have any number of arguments but only one expression. The expression is
evaluated and returned. Lambda functions can be used wherever function objects are required.

Example of Lambda Function

Here is an example of lambda function that doubles the input value.

# Program to show the

# use of lambda functions

double = lambda x: x * 2

print(double(5))

Output

10

Explanation

In the above program, lambda x: x * 2 is the lambda function. Here x is the argument and x*
2 is the expression that gets evaluated and returned. This function has no name. It returns a
function object which is assigned to the identifier double. We can now call it as a normal
function. The statement

double = lambda x: x * 2

is nearly the same as

def double(x):
return x * 2
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Use of Lambda Function

We use lambda functions when we require a nameless function for a short period of time. In
Python, we generally use it as an argument to a higher-order function (a function that takes in
other functions as arguments). Lambda functions are used along with built-in functions like
filter(), map()etc.

Example use with filter()

The filter() function in Python takes in a function and a list as arguments. The function is
called with all the items in the list and a new list is returned which contains items for which the
function evaluats to True.

Here is an example use of filter()function to filter out only even numbers from a list.

# Program to filter out

# only the even items from
# a list using filter() and
# lambdafunctions

my_list = [1, 5, 4, 6, 8, 11, 3, 12]

new_list = list(filter(lambda x: (x%2 == 0) , my_list))

print(new_list)

Output

[4, 6, 8, 12]
Example use with map()

The map() function in Python takes in a function and a list. The function is called with all the
items in the list and a new list is returned which contains items returned by that function for each
item.

Here is an example use of map()function to double all the items in a list.

# Program to double each

# item in a list using map() and
# lambda functions

my_list = [1, 5, 4, 6, 8, 11, 3, 12]

new_list = list(map(lambda x: x * 2 , my_list))

print(new_list)

Output
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[2, 10, 8, 12, 16, 22, 6, 24]
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Python Modules

Modules refer to a file containing Python statements and definitions. A file containing Python
code, for e.g.: example.py, is called a module and its module name would be example. We use
modules to break down large programs into small manageable and organized files. Furthermore,
modules provide reusability of code. We can define our most used functions in a module and
import it, instead of copying their definitions into different programs.

Let us create a module. Type the following and save it as example.py.

# Python Module example

def add(a, b):

"""This program adds two
numbers and return the result"""

result = a + b
return result

Here, we have defined a function add()inside a module named example. The function takes in
two numbers and returns their sum.

Importing modules

We can import the definitions inside a module to another module or the interactive interpreter in
Python. We use the import keyword to do this. To import our previously defined module
examplewe type the following in the Python prompt.

>>> import example

This does not enter the names of the functions defined in exampledirectly in the current symbol
table. It only enters the module name example there. Using the module name we can access the
function using dot (.) operation. For example:

>>> example.add(4,5.5)
9.5

Python has a ton of standard modules available.. These files are in the Lib directory inside the
location where you installed Python. Standard modules can be imported the same way as we
import our user-defined modules.

There are various ways to import modules. They are listed as follows.

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The import statement

We can import a module using importstatement and access the definitions inside it using the dot
operator as described above. Here is an example.

# import statement example

# to import standard module math

import math

print("The value of pi is", math.pi)

Output

The value of pi is 3.141592653589793

Import with renaming

We can import a module by renaming it as follows.

# import module by renaming it

import math as m

print("The value of pi is", m.pi)

The output of this is same as above. We have renamed the mathmodule as m. This can save us
typing time in some cases. Note that the name math is not recognized in our scope. Hence,
math.piis invalid, m.piis the correct implementation.

The from...import statement

We can import specific names form a module without importing the module as a whole. Here is
an example.

# import only pi from math module

from math import pi

print("The value of pi is", pi)

The output of this is same as above. We imported only the attribute pi form the module. In such
case we don't use the dot operator. We could have imported multiple attributes as follows.

>>> from math import pi, e

>>> pi
3.141592653589793 Page
>>> e
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Import all names

We can import all names(definitions) form a module using the following construct.

# import all names form

# the standard module math

from math import *

print("The value of pi is", pi)

The output of this is same as above. We imported all the definitions from the math module. This
makes all names except those beginnig with an underscore, visible in our scope.

Importing everything with the asterisk (*) symbol is not a good programming practice. This can
lead to duplicate definitions for an identifier. It also hampers the readability of our code.

Python Module Search Path

While importing a module, Python looks at several places. Interpreter first looks for a built-in
module then (if not found) into a list of directories defined in sys.path. The search is in this
order.
 The currentdirectory.
 PYTHONPATH(anenvironmentvariablewithalistofdirectory).
 The installation-dependent defaultdirectory.

>>> import sys

>>> sys.path
['',
'C:\\Python33\\Lib\\idlelib',
'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python33.zip',
'C:\\Python33\\DLLs',
'C:\\Python33\\lib',
'C:\\Python33',
'C:\\Python33\\lib\\site-packages']

We can add modify this list to add our own path.

Reloading a module

The Python interpreter imports a module only once during a session. This makes things more
efficient. Here is an example to show how this works.

Suppose we have the following code in a module named my_module.

# This module shows the effect of

# multiple imports and reload Page

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Now we see the effect of multiple imports.

>>> import my_module

This code got executed
>>> importmy_module
>>> importmy_module

We can see that our code got executed only once. This goes to say that our module was imported
only once.

Now if our module changed during the course of the program, we would have to reload it. One
way to do this is to restart the interpreter. But this does not help much. Python provides a neat
way of doing this. We can use the reload()function inside the impmodule to reload a module.
This is how its done.

>>> import imp

>>> import my_module
This code got executed
>>> import my_module
>>> imp.reload(my_module)
This code got executed
<module 'my_module' from '.\\my_module.py'>

The dir() built-in function

We can use the dir()function to find out names that are defined inside a module. For example,
we have defined a function add()in the module examplethat we had in the beginning.

>>> dir(example)
['builtins',
'cached',
'doc',
' file',
' initializing ', '
loader',
' name',
' package ',
'add']

Here, we can see a sorted list of names (along with add). All other names that begin with an
underscore are default Python attributes associated with the module (we did not definethem
ourself). For example, thenameattribute contains the name of themodule.

>>> import example

>>>example.name
'example'

All the names defined in our current namespace can be found out using the dir()function Page
without any arguments.
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>>> a = 1
>>> b ="hello"
>>> importmath
>>> dir()
['builtins', 'doc', 'name', 'a', 'b', 'math', 'pyscripter']

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Python Package

We don't usually store all of our files in our computer in the same location. We use a well-
organized hierarchy of directories for easier access. Similar files are kept in the same directory,
for example, we may keep all the songs in the "music" directory. Analogous to this, Python has
packages for directories and modules for files.

As our application program grows larger in size with a lot of modules, we place similar modules
in one package and different modules in different packages. This makes a project (program) easy
to manage and conceptually clear. Similar, as a directory can contain sub-directories and files, a
Python package can have sub-packages and modules.

A directory must contain a file namedinit.pyin order for Python to consider it as a

package. This file can be left empty but we generally place the initialization code for that
package in this file. Here is an example. Suppose we are developing a game, one possible
organization of packages and modules could be as shown in the figure below.

Importing module from a package

We can import modules from packages using the dot (.) operator. For example, if want to import
the startmodule in the above example, it is done as follows.

import Game.Level.start
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Game.Level.start.select_difficulty(2)

If this construct seems lengthy, we can import the module without the package prefix as follows.

from Game.Level import start

We can now call the function simply as follows.

start.select_difficulty(2)

Yet another way of importing just the required function (or class or variable) form a module
within a package would be as follows.

from Game.Level.start import select_difficulty

Now we can directly call this function.

select_difficulty(2)

Although easier, this method is not recommended. Using the full namespace avoids confusion
and prevents two same identifier names from colliding. While importing packages, Python looks
in the list of directories defined in sys.path, similar as for module search path.

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Python NativeDatatypes

 PythonNumbers
 PythonList
 PythonTuple
 PythonString
 PythonSet
 PythonDictionary

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Python Numbers, Type Conversion and Mathematics

Python supports integers, floating point numbers and complex numbers. They are defined as int,
floatandcomplexclassinPython.Integers andfloatingpointsareseparatedbythepresenceor absence
of a decimal point. 5 is integer whereas 5.0 is a floating point number. Complex numbers are
written in the form, x + yj, where x is the real part and y is the imaginary part. We can use the
type() function to know which class a variable or a value belongs to and
isinstance()function to check if it belongs to a particular class.

>>> a = 5
>>> type(a)
<class'int'>
>>>type(5.0)
<class 'float'>
>>> c = 5 + 3j
>>> c + 3
(8+3j)
>>> isinstance(c, complex)
True
>>> 1.1234567890123456789
1.1234567890123457

While integers can be of any length, a floating point number is accurate only up to 15 decimal
places (the 16th place is inaccurate).

Numbers we deal with everyday are decimal (base 10) number system. But computer
programmers (generally embedded programmer) need to work with binary (base 2), hexadecimal
(base 16) and octal (base 8) number systems. In Python we can represent these numbers by
appropriately placing a prefix before that number. Following table lists these prefix.

Number system prefix for

Python numbers

Number System Prefix

Binary '0b' or '0B'

Octal '0o' or '0O'

Hexadecimal '0x' or '0X'

Here are some examples

>>>0b1101011 # 107 Page

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>>> 0xFB+0b10 # 251 +2 80
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>>>0o15 # 13
13

Type Conversion

We can convert one type of number into another. This is also known as coercion. Operations like
addition, subtraction coerce integer to float implicitly (automatically), if one of the operand is
float.

>>> 1 + 2.0
3.0

We can see above that 1 (integer) is coerced into 1.0 (float) for addition and the result is also a
floating point number.

We can use built-in functions like int(), float()and complex()to convert between types
explicitly. These function can even convert from strings.

>>> int(2.3)
2
>>> int(-2.8)
-2
>>> float(5)
5.0
>>> complex('3+5j')
(3+5j)

When converting from float to integer, the number gets truncated (integer that is closer to zero).

Python Decimal

Python built-in class floatperforms some calculations that might amaze us. We all know that
the sum of 1.1 and 2.2 is 3.3, but Python seems to disagree.

>>> (1.1 + 2.2) == 3.3

False

What is going on? It turns out that floating-point numbers are implemented in computer
hardware as binary fractions, as computer only understands binary (0 and 1). Due to this reason,
most of the decimal fractions we know, cannot be accurately stored in our computer. Let's take
an example. We cannot represent the fraction 1/3 as a decimal number. This will give
0.33333333... which is infinitely long, and we can only approximate it. Turns out decimal
fraction 0.1 will result into an infinitely long binary fraction of 0.000110011001100110011...
and our computer only stores a finite number of it. This will only approximate 0.1 but never be
equal. Hence, it is the limitation of our computer hardware and not an error in Python.
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To overcome this issue, we can use decimalmodule that comes with Python. While floating
point numbers have precision up to 15 decimal places, the decimal module has user settable
precision.

>>> import decimal

>>> 0.1
0.1
>>> decimal.Decimal(0.1)
Decimal('0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625')

This module is used when we want to carry out decimal calculations like we learned in school. It
also preserves significance. We know 25.50 kg is more accurate than 25.5 kg as it has two
significant decimal places compared to one.

>>> from decimal import Decimal as D

>>> D('1.1') + D('2.2')
Decimal('3.3')
>>> D('1.2') * D('2.50')
Decimal('3.000')

Notice the trailing zeroes in the above example. We might ask, why not implement Decimal
every time, instead of float? The main reason is efficiency. Floating point operations are carried
out must faster than Decimal operations. We generally use Decimal in the following cases.

 Whenwearemakingfinancialapplicationsthatneedexactdecimalrepresentation.
 Whenwewanttocontrolthelevelofprecisionrequired.
 Whenwewanttoimplementthenotionofsignificantdecimalplaces.
 Whenwewanttheoperationstobecarriedoutlikewedidatschool

Python Fractions

Python provides operations involving fractional numbers through its fractions module. A
fraction has a numerator and a denominator, both of which are integers. This module has support
for rational number arithmetic.

We can create Fraction objects in various ways.

>>> import fractions

>>> fractions.Fraction(1.5)
Fraction(3,2)
>>> fractions.Fraction(5)
Fraction(5,1)
>>> fractions.Fraction(1,3)
Fraction(1,3)

While creating Fraction from float, we might get some unusual results. This is due to the
imperfect binary floating point number representation as discussed in the previous section. Page
Fortunately, this class allows us to instantiate with string as well. This is the preferred options
when using decimal numbers. 82

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>>>fractions.Fraction(1.1) # as float
Fraction(2476979795053773,2251799813685248)
>>> fractions.Fraction('1.1') # as string
Fraction(11, 10)

This datatype supports all basic operations. Here are few examples.

>>> from fractions import Fraction as F

>>> F(1,3) + F(1,3)
Fraction(2,3)
>>> 1 /F(5,6)
Fraction(6,5)
>>> F(-3,10) > 0
False
>>> F(-3,10) < 0
True

Python Mathematics

Python offers modules like mathand randomto carry out different mathematics like
trigonometry, logarithms, probability and statistics, etc.

>>> import math

>>> math.pi
3.141592653589793
>>> math.cos(math.pi)
-1.0
>>> math.exp(10)
22026.465794806718
>>> math.log10(1000)
3.0
>>> math.sinh(1)
1.1752011936438014
>>> math.factorial(6)
720

Full list functions and attributes available in Python math module.

>>> import random

>>> random.randrange(10,20)
16
>>> x = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
>>> random.choice(x)
'd'
>>> random.shuffle(x)
>>> x
['a', 'b', 'd', 'c', 'e']
>>> random.random()
0.8025729372178537

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Python List

Python offers a range of compound datatypes often referred to as sequences. List is one of the
most frequently used and very versatile datatype used in Python.

Creating a List

In Python programming, a list is created by placing all the items (elements) inside a square
bracket [ ], separated by commas. It can have any number of items and they may be of different
types (integer, float, string etc.). A list can even have another list as an item. These are called
nested list.

# empty list
my_list = []

# list of integers
my_list = [1, 2, 3]

# list with mixed datatypes

my_list = [1, "Hello", 3.4]

# nested list
my_list = ["mouse", [8, 4, 6]]

Accessing Elements in a List

There are various ways in which we can access the elements of a list.

Indexing

We can use the index operator [] to access an item in a list. Index starts from 0. So, a list having
5 elements will have index from 0 to 4. Trying to access an element other that this will raise an
IndexError. The index must be an integer. We can't use float or other types, this will result into
TypeError. Nested list are accessed using nested indexing.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','e']

>>>my_list[0]
'p'
>>>my_list[2]
'o'
>>>my_list[4]
'e'
>>> my_list[4.0]
...
TypeError: list indices must be integers, not float
>>> my_list[5]
... Page
IndexError: list index out of range
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>>> n_list = ["Happy", [2,0,1,5]]
>>>n_list[0][1] # nested indexing
'a'
>>>n_list[1][3] # nested indexing
5

Negative indexing

Python allows negative indexing for its sequences. The index of -1 refers to the last item, -2 to
the second last item and so on.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','e']

>>>my_list[-1]
'e'
>>>my_list[-5]
'p'

Slicing

We can access a range of items in a list by using the slicing operator (colon).

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','g','r','a','m','i','z']

>>>my_list[2:5] # elements 3rd to 5th
['o', 'g','r']
>>>my_list[:-5] # elements beginning to 4th
['p', 'r', 'o','g']
>>>my_list[5:] # elements 6th to end
['a', 'm', 'i','z']
>>>my_list[:] # elements beginning to end
['p', 'r', 'o', 'g', 'r', 'a', 'm', 'i','z']

Slicing can be best visualized by considering the index to be between the elements as shown
below. So if we want to access a range, we need two index that will slice that portion from the
list.

Changing or Adding Elements to a List

List are mutable, meaning, their elements can be changed unlike string or tuple. We can use
assignment operator (=) to change an item or a range of items.
Page
>>> odd = [2, 4,6,8]
>>> odd[0]=1
# mistakevalues
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>>> odd
[1, 4, 6, 8]
>>> odd[1:4] = [3,5, 7] # change 2nd to 4thitems
>>>odd # changed values
[1, 3, 5,7]

We can add one item to a list using append()method or add several items using extend()
method.

>>> odd
[1, 3, 5]
>>> odd.append(7)
>>> odd
[1, 3, 5, 7]
>>> odd.extend([9, 11, 13])
>>> odd
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13]

We can also use + operator to combine two lists. This is also called concatenation. The *
operator repeats a list for the given number of times.

>>> odd
[1, 3, 5]
>>> odd + [9, 7, 5]
[1, 3, 5, 9, 7, 5]
>>> ["re"] * 3
['re', 're', 're']

Furthermore, we can insert one item at a desired location by using the method insert()or insert
multiple items by squeezing it into an empty slice of a list.

>>> odd
[1, 9]
>>> odd.insert(1,3)
>>> odd
[1, 3, 9]
>>> odd[2:2] = [5, 7]
>>> odd
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

Deleting or Removing Elements from a List

We can delete one or more items from a list using the keyword del. It can even delete the list
entirely.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','l','e','m']

>>>delmy_list[2] # delete one item
>>> my_list
['p', 'r', 'b', 'l', 'e', 'm']
>>>delmy_list[1:5] # delete multipltitems Page
>>> my_list
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>>>delmy_list # delete entire list
>>> my_list
...
NameError: name 'my_list' is not defined

We can use remove()method to remove the given item or pop()method to remove an item at
the given index. The pop() method removes and returns the last item if index is not provided.
This helps us implement lists as stacks (first in, last out data structure). We can also use the
clear()method to empty a list.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','l','e','m']

>>> my_list.remove('p')
>>> my_list
['r', 'o', 'b', 'l', 'e', 'm']
>>> my_list.pop(1)
'o'
>>> my_list
['r', 'b', 'l', 'e', 'm']
>>> my_list.pop()
'm'
>>> my_list
['r', 'b', 'l', 'e']
>>> my_list.clear()
>>> my_list
[]

Finally, we can also delete items in a list by assigning an empty list to a slice of elements.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','l','e','m']

>>> my_list[2:3] = []
>>> my_list
['p', 'r', 'b', 'l', 'e', 'm']
>>> my_list[2:5] = []
>>> my_list
['p', 'r', 'm']

Python List Methods

Methods that are available with list object in Python programming are tabulated below. They are
accessed as list.method(). Some of the methods have already been used above.

Python List Methods

Method Description

append(x) Add item x at the end of the list

extend(L) Add all items in given list L to the end

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insert(i, x) Insert item x at position i

remove(x) Remove first item that is equal to x, from the list

Removeandreturnitematpositioni(lastitemifiisnot
pop([i])
provided)

clear() Remove all items and empty the list

index(x) Return index of first item that is equal to x

count(x) Return the number of items that is equal to x

sort() Sort items in a list in ascending order

reverse() Reverse the order of items in a list

copy() Return a shallow copy of the list

>>> my_list = [3, 8, 1, 6, 0, 8, 4]

>>>my_list.index(8)
1
>>>my_list.count(8)
2
>>> my_list.sort()
>>> my_list
[0, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8,8]
>>>my_list.reverse()
>>> my_list
[8, 8, 6, 4, 3, 1, 0]

Python List Comprehension

List comprehension is an elegant and concise way to create new list from an existing list in
Python. List comprehension consists of an expression followed by forstatement inside square
brackets. Here is an example to make a list with each item being increasing power of 2.

>>> pow2 = [2 ** x for x in range(10)]

>>> pow2
[1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512]

This code is equivalent to

Page
pow2 = []
for x in range(10):
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 pow2.append(2 ** x)

A list comprehension can optionally contain more foror ifstatements. An optional if

statement can filter out items for the new list. Here are some examples.

>>> pow2 = [2 ** x for x in range(10) if x > 5]

>>> pow2
[64, 128, 256, 512]
>>> odd = [x for x in range(20) if x % 2 == 1]
>>> odd
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19]
>>> [x+y for x in ['Python ','C '] for y in ['Language','Programming']]
['Python Language', 'Python Programming', 'C Language', 'C Programming']

Other List Operations

List Membership Test

We can test if an item exists in a list or not, using the keyword in.

>>> my_list = ['p','r','o','b','l','e','m']

>>> 'p' in my_list
True
>>> 'a' in my_list
False
>>> 'c' not in my_list
True

Iterating Through a List

Using a forloop we can iterate though each item in a list.

>>> for fruit in ['apple','banana','mango']:

... print("Ilike",fruit)
...
I like apple
I like banana
I likemango

Built-in Functions with List

Built-in functions like all(), any(), enumerate(), len(), max(), min(), list(), sorted()
etc. are commonly used with list to perform different tasks.

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 Built-in Functions with List

Function Description

all() Return Trueif all elements of the list are true (or if the list is empty).

ReturnTrueifanyelementofthelististrue.Ifthelistisempty,return
any()
False.

Returnanenumerateobject.Itcontainstheindexandvalueofallthe
enumerate()
itemsoflistasatuple.

len() Return the length (the number of items) in the list.

list() Convert an iterable (tuple, string, set, dictionary) to a list.

max() Return the largest item in the list.

min() Return the smallest item in the list

sorted() Return a new sorted list (does not sort the list itself).

sum() Retrun the sum of all elements in the list.

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Python Tuple

In Python programming, tuple is similar to a list. The difference between the two is that we
cannot change the elements of a tuple once it is assigned whereas in a list, elements can be
changed.

Creating a Tuple

A tuple is created by placing all the items (elements) inside a parentheses (), separated by
comma. The parentheses are optional but is a good practice to write it. A tuple can have any
number of items and they may be of different types (integer, float, list, string etc.).

# empty tuple
my_tuple = ()

# tuple having integers

my_tuple = (1, 2, 3)

# tuple with mixed datatypes

my_tuple = (1, "Hello", 3.4)

# nested tuple
my_tuple = ("mouse", [8, 4, 6], (1, 2, 3))

# tuple can be created without parentheses

# also called tuple packing
my_tuple = 3, 4.6, "dog"
# tuple unpacking is also possible
a, b, c = my_tuple

Creating a tuple with one element is a bit tricky. Having one element within parentheses is not
enough. We will need a trailing comma to indicate that it is in fact a tuple.

>>> my_tuple=("hello") # only parentheses is notenough

>>> type(my_tuple)
<class 'str'>
>>> my_tuple=("hello",) # need a comma at theend
>>> type(my_tuple)
<class 'tuple'>
>>> my_tuple="hello", # parentheses isoptional
>>> type(my_tuple)
<class 'tuple'>

Accessing Elements in a Tuple

There are various ways in which we can access the elements of a tuple.

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Indexing

We can use the index operator [] to access an item in a tuple. Index starts from 0. So, a tuple
having 6 elements will have index from 0 to 5. Trying to access an element other that this will
raise an IndexError. The index must be an integer. We can't use float or other types, this will
result into TypeError. Nested tuple are accessed using nested indexing.

>>> my_tuple = ['p','e','r','m','i','t']

>>>my_tuple[0]
'p'
>>>my_tuple[5]
't'
>>>my_tuple[6] # index must be inrange
...
IndexError: list index out of range
>>> my_tuple[2.0] # index must be an integer
...
TypeError: list indices must be integers, not float
>>> n_tuple = ("mouse", [8, 4, 6], (1, 2, 3))
>>>n_tuple[0][3] # nested index
's'
>>>n_tuple[1][1] # nested index
4
>>>n_tuple[2][0] # nested index
1

Negative Indexing

Python allows negative indexing for its sequences. The index of -1 refers to the last item, -2 to
the second last item and so on.

>>> my_tuple = ['p','e','r','m','i','t']

>>>my_tuple[-1]
't'
>>>my_tuple[-6]
'p'

Slicing

We can access a range of items in a tuple by using the slicing operator (colon).

>>> my_tuple = ('p','r','o','g','r','a','m','i','z')

>>>my_tuple[1:4] # elements 2nd to 4th
('r', 'o','g')
>>>my_tuple[:-7] # elements beginning to 2nd
('p','r')
>>>my_tuple[7:] # elements 8th to end
('i','z')
>>>my_tuple[:] # elements beginning to end Page
('p', 'r', 'o', 'g', 'r', 'a', 'm', 'i','z')
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Slicing can be best visualized by considering the index to be between the elements as shown
below. So if we want to access a range, we need the index that will slice the portion from the
tuple.

Changing or Deleting a Tuple

Unlike lists, tuples are immutable. This means that elements of a tuple cannot be changed onceit
has been assigned. But if the element is itself a mutable datatype like list, its nested items can be
changed. We can also assign a tuple to different values(reassignment).

>>> my_tuple = (4, 2, 3, [6, 5])

>>> my_tuple[1] = 9 # we cannot change an element
...
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
>>> my_tuple[3] = 9 # we cannot change an element
...
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
>>> my_tuple[3][0] = 9 # but item of mutable element can be changed
>>> my_tuple
(4, 2, 3, [9, 5])
>>> my_tuple = ('p','r','o','g','r','a','m','i','z') # tuples can be
reassigned
>>> my_tuple
('p', 'r', 'o', 'g', 'r', 'a', 'm', 'i', 'z')

We can use + operator to combine two tuples. This is also called concatenation. The * operator
repeats a tuple for the given number of times. These operations result into a new tuple.

>>> (1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
>>> ("Repeat",) * 3
('Repeat', 'Repeat', 'Repeat')

We cannot delete or remove items from a tuple. But deleting the tuple entirely is possible using
the keyword del.

>>> my_tuple = ('p','r','o','g','r','a','m','i','z')

>>> del my_tuple[3] # can't delete items
...
TypeError: 'tuple' object doesn't support item deletion
>>> del my_tuple # can delete entire tuple
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>>> my_tuple
...
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NameError: name 'my_tuple' is not defined

Python Tuple Methods

Methods that add items or remove items are not available with tuple. Only the following two
methods are available.

Python Tuple Method

Method Description

count(x) Return the number of items that is equal to x

index(x) Return index of first item that is equal to x

>>> my_tuple = ('a','p','p','l','e',)

>>> my_tuple.count('p')
2
>>> my_tuple.index('l')
3

Other Tuple Operations

Tuple Membership Test

We can test if an item exists in a tuple or not, using the keyword in.

>>> my_tuple = ('a','p','p','l','e',)

>>> 'a' in my_tuple
True
>>> 'b' in my_tuple
False
>>> 'g' not in my_tuple
True

Iterating Through a Tuple

Using a forloop we can iterate though each item in a tuple.

>>> for name in ('John','Kate'):

... print("Hello",name)
...
Hello John
Hello Kate

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Built-in Functions with Tuple

Built-in functions like all(), any(), enumerate(), len(), max(), min(), sorted(), tuple()
etc. are commonly used with tuple to perform different tasks.

Built-in Functions with Tuple

Function Description

all() ReturnTrueifallelementsofthetuplearetrue(orifthetupleisempty).

ReturnTrueifanyelementofthetupleistrue.Ifthetupleisempty,
any()
returnFalse.

Returnanenumerateobject.Itcontainstheindexandvalueofallthe
enumerate()
itemsoftupleaspairs.

len() Return the length (the number of items) in the tuple.

max() Return the largest item in the tuple.

min() Return the smallest item in the tuple

Takeelementsinthetupleandreturnanewsortedlist(doesnotsortthe
sorted()
tupleitself).

sum() Retrun the sum of all elements in the tuple.

tuple() Convert an iterable (list, string, set, dictionary) to a tuple.

Advantage of Tuple over List

Tuples and list look quite similar except the fact that one is immutable and the other is mutable.
We generally use tuple for heterogeneous (different) datatypes and list for homogeneous
(similar) datatypes. There are some advantages of implementing a tuple than a list. Here are a
few of them.

 Sincetupleareimmutable,iteratingthroughtupleisfasterthanwithlist.Sothereisaslight
performanceboost.
 Tuplesthatcontainimmutableelementscanbeusedaskeyforadictionary.Withlist,thisisnot
possible. Page
 Ifyouhavedatathatdoesn'tchange,implementingitastuplewillguaranteethatitremains
write-protected.
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Python Strings

String is a sequence of characters. A character is simply a symbol. For example, the English
language has 26 characters. Computers do not deal with characters, they deal with numbers
(binary). Even though you may see characters on your screen, internally it is stored and
manipulated as a combination of 0's and 1's. This conversion of character to a number is called
encoding, and the reverse process is decoding. ASCII and Unicode are some of the popular
encoding used.

In Python, string is a sequence of Unicode character. Unicode was introduced to include every
character in all languages and bring uniformity in encoding.

Creating a String

Strings can be created by enclosing characters inside a single quote or double quotes. Even triple
quotes can be used in Python but generally used to represent multiline strings and docstrings.

# all of the following are equivalent

my_string = 'Hello'
my_string = "Hello"
my_string = '''Hello'''
my_string = """Hello"""

# triple quotes string can extend multiple lines

my_string = """Hello, welcome to
the exciting world
of string in Python"""

Accessing Characters in a String

We can access individual characters using indexing and a range of characters using slicing.Index
starts from 0. Trying to access a character out of index range will raise an IndexError. The
index must be an integer. We can't use float or other types, this will result intoTypeError.

Python allows negative indexing for its sequences. The index of -1 refers to the last item, -2 to
the second last item and so on. We can access a range of items in a string by using the slicing
operator (colon).

>>> my_string = 'programiz'

>>>my_string[0] # 1st character
'p'
>>>my_string[-1] # last character
'z'
>>>my_string[15] # index must be inrange
...
IndexError: string index out of range Page
>>> my_string[1.5] # index must be an integer
... 96
TypeError: string indices must be integers

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>>>my_string[1:5] # slicing 2nd to 5th character
'rogr'
>>> my_string[5:-2] # slicing 6th to 7th character
'am'

Slicing can be best visualized by considering the index to be between the elements as shown
below. So if we want to access a range, we need the index that will slice the portion from the
string.

Changing or Deleting a String

Strings are immutable. This means that elements of a string cannot be changed once it has been
assigned. We can simply reassign different strings to the same name.

>>> my_string = 'programiz'

>>> my_string[5] = 'a'
...
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment
>>> my_string = 'Python'
>>> my_string
'Python'

We cannot delete or remove characters from a string. But deleting the string entirely is possible
using the keyword del.

>>> del my_string[1]

...
TypeError: 'str' object doesn't support item deletion
>>> del my_string
>>> my_string
...
NameError: name 'my_string' is not defined

Python String Operations

There are many operations that can be performed with string which makes it one of the most
used datatypes in Pyhon.

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Concatenation

Joining of two or more strings into a single one is called concatenation. The +operator does this
in Python. Simply writing two string literals together also concatenates them. The *operator can
be used to repeat the string for a given number of times. Finally, if we want to concatenate
strings in different lines, we can use parentheses.

>>> # using +
>>> 'Hello ' + 'World!'
'Hello World!'

>>> # two string literals together

>>> 'Hello ''World!'
'Hello World!'

>>> # using *
>>> 'Hello ' * 3
'Hello Hello Hello '

>>> # using parentheses

>>> s = ('Hello'
... 'World')
>>> s
'Hello World'

Iterating Through String

Using forloop we can iterate through a string. Here is an example to count the number of 'l' in a
string.

>>> count = 0
>>> for letter in 'Hello World':
... if(letter == 'l'):
... count += 1
...
>>> print(count,'letters found')
3 letters found

String Membership Test

We can test if a sub string exists within a string or not, using the keyword in.

>>> 'a' in 'program'

True
>>> 'at' not in 'battle'
False

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Built-in functions

Various built-in functions that work with sequence, works with string as well. Some of the
commonly used ones are enumerate() and len(). The enumerate() function returns an
enumerate object. It contains the index and value of all the items in the string as pairs. This can
be useful for iteration. Similarly, len()returns the length (number of characters) of the string.

>>> list(enumerate('cold'))
[(0, 'c'), (1, 'o'), (2, 'l'), (3, 'd')]
>>> long_word = 'Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'
>>> len(long_word)
45

Python String Formatting

Escape Sequence

If we want to print a text like -He said, "What's there?"- we can neither use single quote or
double quotes. This will result into SyntaxErroras the text itself contains both single and
double quotes.

>>> print("He said, "What's there?"")

...
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> print('He said, "What's there?"')
...
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

One way to get around this problem is to use triple quotes. Alternatively, we can use escape
sequences.

An escape sequence starts with a backslash and is interpreted differently. If we use single quote
to represent a string, all the single quotes inside the string must be escaped. Similar is the case
with double quotes. Here is how it can be done to represent the above text.

>>> # using triple quotes

>>> print('''He said, "What's there?"''')
He said, "What's there?"

>>> # escaping single quotes

>>> print('He said, "What\'s there?"')
He said, "What's there?"

>>> # escaping double quotes

>>> print("He said, \"What's there?\"")
He said, "What's there?"

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Here is a list of all the escape sequence supported by Python.

Escape Sequence in Python

Escape Sequence Description

\newline Backslash and newline ignored

\\ Backslash

\' Single quote

\" Double quote

\a
ASCII Bell
\b ASCII Backspace

\f ASCII Formfeed

\n ASCII Linefeed

\r ASCII Carriage Return

\t ASCII Horizontal Tab

\v ASCII Vertical Tab

\ooo Character with octal value ooo

\xHH Character with hexadecimal value HH

Here are some examples

>>> print("C:\\Python32\\Lib")
C:\Python32\Lib

>>> print("This is printed\nin two lines")

This is printed
in two lines
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>>> print("This is \x48\x45\x58 representation")
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Raw String

Sometimes we may wish to ignore the escape sequences inside a string. To do this we can place
rorRin front of thestring. This will implythatit is a raw stringandanyescapesequenceinside it will
beignored.

>>> print("This is \x61 \ngood example")

This is a
good example
>>> print(r"This is \x61 \ngood example")
This is \x61 \ngood example

The format() Method

The format() method that is available with the string object is very versatile and powerful in
formatting strings. Format strings contains curly braces {} as placeholders or replacement fields
which gets replaced. We can use positional arguments or keyword arguments to specify the
order.

>>> # default(implicit) order

>>> "{}, {} and {}".format('John','Bill','Sean')
'John, Bill and Sean'

>>> # order using positional argument

>>> "{1}, {0} and {2}".format('John','Bill','Sean')
'Bill, John and Sean'

>>> # order using keyword argument

>>> "{s}, {b} and {j}".format(j='John',b='Bill',s='Sean')
'Sean, Bill and John'

The format() method can have optional format specifications. They are separated from field
name using colon. For example, we can left-justify <, right-justify >or center ^ a string in the
given space. We can also format integers as binary, hexadecimal etc. and floats can be rounded
or displayed in the exponent format. There are a ton of formatting you can use. Visit here for all
the string formatting available with the format()method.

>>> # formatting integers

>>> "Binary representation of {0} is {0:b}".format(12)
'Binary representation of 12 is 1100'

>>> # formatting floats

>>> "Exponent representation: {0:e}".format(1566.345)
'Exponent representation: 1.566345e+03'

>>> # round off

>>> "One third is: {0:.3f}".format(1/3)
'One third is: 0.333' Page

>>> # string alignment 10

>>>"|{:<10}|{:^10}|{:>10}|".format('butter','bread','ham')
'|butter | bread | ham|' 1
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Old style formatting

We can even format strings like the old sprintf()style used in C programming language. We
use the %operator to accomplish this.

>>> x = 12.3456789
>>> print('The value of x is %3.2f' %x)
The value of x is 12.35
>>> print('The value of x is %3.4f' %x)
The value of x is 12.3457

Python String Methods

There are numerous methods available with the string object. The format() method that we
mentioned above is one of them. Some of the commonly used methods are lower(), upper(),
join(), split(), find(), replace()etc.

>>>"PrOgRaMiZ".lower()
'programiz'
>>>"PrOgRaMiZ".upper()
'PROGRAMIZ'
>>> "This will split all words into a list".split()
['This', 'will', 'split', 'all', 'words', 'into', 'a', 'list']
>>> ' '.join(['This', 'will', 'join', 'all', 'words', 'into', 'a', 'string'])
'This will join all words into a string'
>>> 'Happy New Year'.find('ew')
7
>>> 'Happy New Year'.replace('Happy','Brilliant')
'Brilliant New Year'

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Python Sets

Set is an unordered collection of items. Every element is unique (no duplicates) and must be
immutable. However, the set itself is mutable (we can add or remove items). Sets can be used to
perform mathematical set operations like union, intersection, symmetric difference etc.

Creating a Set in Python

A set is created by placing all the items (elements) inside curly braces {}, separated by commaor
by using the built-in function set(). It can have any number of items and they may be of
different types (integer, float, tuple, string etc.). But a set cannot have a mutable element, like
list, set or dictionary, as itselement.

>>> # set of integers

>>> my_set = {1, 2, 3}

>>> # set of mixed datatypes

>>> my_set = {1.0, "Hello", (1, 2, 3)}

>>> # set donot have duplicates

>>> {1,2,3,4,3,2}
{1, 2, 3, 4}

>>> # set cannot have mutable items

>>> my_set = {1, 2, [3, 4]}
...
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'

>>> # but we can make set from a list

>>> set([1,2,3,2])
{1, 2, 3}

Creating an empty set is a bit tricky. Empty curly braces {} will make an empty dictionary in
Python. To make a set without any elements we use the set()function without any argument.

>>> a = {}
>>> type(a)
<class 'dict'>
>>> a = set()
>>> type(a)
<class 'set'>

Changing a Set in Python

Sets are mutable. But since they are unordered, indexing have no meaning. We cannot access or
change an element of set using indexing or slicing. Set does not support it. We can add single
elements using the method add(). Multiple elements can be added using update()method. The Page
update() method can take tuples, lists, strings or other sets as its argument. In all cases,
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>>> my_set = {1,3}
>>> my_set[0]
...
TypeError: 'set' object does not support indexing
>>> my_set.add(2)
>>> my_set
{1, 2, 3}
>>> my_set.update([2,3,4])
>>> my_set
{1, 2, 3, 4}
>>> my_set.update([4,5], {1,6,8})
>>> my_set
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8}

Removing Elements from a Set

A particular item can be removed from set using methods like discard() and remove(). The
only difference between the two is that, while using discard()if the item does not exist in the
set, it remains unchanged. But remove() will raise an error in such condition. The following
example will illustrate this.

>>> my_set = {1, 3, 4, 5, 6}

>>> my_set.discard(4)
>>> my_set
{1, 3, 5, 6}
>>> my_set.remove(6)
>>> my_set
{1, 3, 5}
>>> my_set.discard(2)
>>> my_set
{1, 3, 5}
>>> my_set.remove(2)
...
KeyError: 2

Similarly, we can remove and return an item using the pop()method. Set being unordered, there
is no way of determining which item will be popped. It is completely arbitrary. We can also
remove all items from a set using clear().

>>> my_set = set("HelloWorld")

>>> my_set.pop()
'r'
>>> my_set.pop()
'W'
>>> my_set
{'d', 'e', 'H', 'o', 'l'}
>>> my_set.clear()
>>> my_set
set()
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Python Set Operation

Sets can be used to carry out mathematical set operations like union, intersection, difference and
symmetric difference. We can do this with operators or methods. Let us consider the following
two sets for the following operations.

>>> A = {1, 2, 3, 4,5}

>>> B = {4, 5, 6, 7,8}

Set Union

Union of A and B is a set of all elements from both sets. Union is performed using |operator.
Same can be accomplished using the method union().

>>> A | B
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
>>> A.union(B)
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
>>> B.union(A)
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

Set Intersection

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Intersection of A and B is a set of elements that are common in both sets. Intersection is
performed using &operator. Same can be accomplished using the method intersection().

>>> A & B
{4, 5}
>>> A.intersection(B)
{4, 5}
>>> B.intersection(A)
{4, 5}

Set Difference

Difference of A and B (A - B) is a set of elements that are only in A but not in B. Similarly, B - A
is a set of element in B but not in A. Difference is performed using - operator. Same can be
accomplished using the method difference().

>>> A -B
{1, 2,3}
>>> A.difference(B)
{1, 2,3}
>>> B -A
{8, 6,7}
>>> B.difference(A)
{8, 6, 7}

Set Symmetric Difference

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Symmetric Difference of A and B is a set of element in both A and B except those common in
both. Symmetric difference is performed using ^operator. Same can be accomplished using the
method symmetric_difference().

>>> A ^ B
{1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8}
>>> A.symmetric_difference(B)
{1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8}
>>> B.symmetric_difference(A)
{1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8}

Python Set Methods

There are many set methods, some of which we have already used above. Here is a list of all the
methods that are available with set objects.

Python Set Methods

Method Description

add() Add an element to a set

clear() Remove all elemets form a set

copy() Return a shallow copy of a set

Returnthedifferenceoftwoormoresetsasa
difference()
newset

Removeallelementsofanothersetfromthis
difference_update()
set

Removeanelementfromsetifitisamember.
discard()
(Donothingiftheelementisnotinset)

intersection() Returntheintersectionoftwosetsasanewset

Updatethesetwiththeintersectionofitself
intersection_update()
andanother

isdisjoint() ReturnTrueiftwosetshaveanullintersection

issubset() Return Trueif another set contains this set

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issuperset() Return Trueif this set contains another set

Removeandreturnanarbitarysetelement.
pop()
RaiseKeyErrorifthesetisempty

Removeanelementfromaset.Ittheelement
remove()
isnotamember,raiseaKeyError

Returnthesymmetricdifferenceoftwosetsas
symmetric_difference()
a newset

Updateasetwiththesymmetricdifferenceof
symmetric_difference_update
() itself andanother

union() Return the union of sets in a new set

update() Updateasetwiththeunionofitselfandothers

Other Set Operations

Set Membership Test

We can test if an item exists in a set or not, using the keyword in.

>>> my_set = set("apple")

>>> 'a' in my_set
True
>>> 'p' not in my_set
False

Iterating Through a Set

Using a for loop we can iterate though each item in a set.

>>> for letter in set("apple"):

...print(letter)
...
a
p
e
l Page

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Built-in Functions with Set

Built-in functions like all(), any(), enumerate(), len(), max(), min(), sorted(), sum()etc.
are commonly used with set to perform different tasks.

Built-in Functions with Set

Function Description

all() Return Trueif all elements of the set are true (or if the set is empty).

Return Trueif any element of the set is true. If the set is empty, return
any()
False.

Returnanenumerateobject.Itcontainstheindexandvalueofalltheitemsof
enumerate(
) set as apair.

len() Return the length (the number of items) in the set.

max() Return the largest item in the set.

min() Return the smallest item in the set.

sorted() Returnanewsortedlistfromelementsintheset(doesnotsortthesetitself).

sum() Retrun the sum of all elements in the set.

Python Frozenset

Frozenset is a new class that has the characteristics of a set, but its elements cannot be changed
once assigned. While tuples are immutable lists, frozensets are immutable sets. Sets being
mutable are unhashable, so they can't be used as dictionary keys. On the other hand, frozensets
are hashable and can be used as keys to a dictionary.

Frozensets can be created using the function frozenset(). This datatype supports methods like
copy(), difference(), intersection(), isdisjoint(), issubset(), issuperset(),
symmetric_difference()and union(). Being immutable it does not have method that add or
remove elements.

>>> A = frozenset([1, 2, 3,4]) Page

>>> B = frozenset([3, 4, 5,6])
>>> A.isdisjoint(B)
False
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>>> A.difference(B)
frozenset({1, 2})
>>> A | B
frozenset({1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6})
>>> A.add(3)
...
AttributeError: 'frozenset' object has no attribute 'add'

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Python Dictionary

Python dictionary is an unordered collection of items. While other compound datatypes have
only value as an element, a dictionary has a key: value pair. Dictionaries are optimized to
retrieve values when the key is known.

Creating a Dictionary

Creating a dictionary is as simple as placing items inside curly braces {} separated by comma.
An item has a key and the corresponding value expressed as a pair, key: value. While values can
be of any datatype and can repeat, keys must be of immutable type (string, number or tuple with
immutable elements) and must be unique. We can also create a dictionary using the built-in
function dict().

# empty dictionary
my_dict = {}

# dictionary with integer keys

my_dict = {1: 'apple', 2: 'ball'}

# dictionary with mixed keys

my_dict = {'name': 'John', 1: [2, 4, 3]}

# using dict()
my_dict = dict({1:'apple', 2:'ball'})

# from sequence having each item as a pair

my_dict = dict([(1,'apple'), (2,'ball')])

Accessing Elements in a Dictionary

While indexing is used with other container types to access values, dictionary uses keys. Key can
be used either inside square brackets or with the get() method. The difference while using
get()is that it returns Noneinstead of KeyError, if the key is not found.

>>> my_dict = {'name':'Ranjit', 'age': 26}

>>> my_dict['name']
'Ranjit'

>>> my_dict.get('age')
26

>>> my_dict.get('address')

>>> my_dict['address']
...
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Changing or Adding Elements in a Dictionary

Dictionary are mutable. We can add new items or change the value of existing items using
assignment operator. If the key is already present, value gets updated, else a new key: value pair
is added to the dictionary.

>>> my_dict
{'age': 26, 'name': 'Ranjit'}

>>> my_dict['age']=27 # update value

>>> my_dict
{'age': 27, 'name': 'Ranjit'}

>>> my_dict['address']='Downtown' # additem

>>> my_dict
{'address': 'Downtown', 'age': 27, 'name': 'Ranjit'}

Deleting or Removing Elements from a Dictionary

We can remove a particular item in a dictionary by using the method pop(). This method
removes as item with the provided key and returns the value. The method, popitem() can be
used to remove and return an arbitrary item (key, value) form the dictionary. All the items can be
removed at once using the clear() method. We can also use the del keyword to remove
individual items or the entire dictionary itself.

>>> squares = {1:1, 2:4, 3:9,4:16,5:25} # create adictionary

>>>squares.pop(4) # remove a particular item

16
>>> squares
{1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 5: 25}

>>>squares.popitem() # remove an arbitrary item

(1,1)
>>> squares
{2: 4, 3: 9, 5: 25}

>>>delsquares[5] # delete a particular item

>>> squares
{2: 4, 3: 9}

>>>squares.clear() # remove all items

>>> squares
{}

>>>delsquares # delete the dictionaryitself

>>> squares
...
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Python Dictionary Methods

Methods that are available with dictionary are tabulated below. Some of them have already been
used in the above examples.

Python Dictionary Methods

Method Description

clear() Remove all items form the dictionary.

copy() Return a shallow copy of the dictionary.

Return a new dictionary with keys from seq and value equal to v
fromkeys(seq[,
v]) (defaults to None).

Return the value of key. If key doesnot exit, return d (defaults to

get(key[,d])
None).

items() Return a new view of the dictionary's items (key, value).

keys() Return a new view of the dictionary's keys.

Removetheitemwithkeyandreturnitsvalueordifkeyisnotfound.
pop(key[,d])
Ifdisnotprovidedandkeyisnotfound,raisesKeyError.

Removeandreturnanarbitaryitem(key,value).RaisesKeyErrorif
popitem()
the dictionary isempty.

Ifkeyisinthedictionary,returnitsvalue.Ifnot,insertkeywitha
setdefault(key[,d]
) valueofdandreturnd(defaultstoNone).

Update the dictionary with the key/value pairs from

update([other])
other, overwriting existing keys.

values() Return a new view of the dictionary's values

Here are a few example use of these methods.

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>>> marks = {}.fromkeys(['Math','English','Science'], 0)
>>> marks
{'English': 0, 'Math': 0, 'Science': 0}
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>>> for item in marks.items():
... print(item)
...
('English', 0)
('Math', 0)
('Science', 0)

>>> list(sorted(marks.keys()))
['English', 'Math', 'Science']

Python Dictionary Comprehension

Dictionary comprehension is an elegant and concise way to create new dictionary from an
iterable in Python. Dictionary comprehension consists of an expression pair (key: value)
followed by forstatement inside curly braces {}. Here is an example to make a dictionary with
each item being a pair of a number and itssquare.

>>> squares = {x: x*x for x inrange(6)}

>>> squares
{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25}

This code is equivalent to

squares = {}
for x in range(6):
squares[x] = x*x

A dictionary comprehension can optionally contain more foror ifstatements. An optional if

statement can filter out items to form the new dictionary. Here are some examples to make
dictionary with only odd items.

>>> odd_squares = {x: x*x for x in range(11) if x%2 == 1}

>>> odd_squares
{1: 1, 3: 9, 5: 25, 7: 49, 9: 81}

Other Dictionary Operations

Dictionary Membership Test

We can test if a key is in a dictionary or not using the keyword in. Notice that membership test
is for keys only, not for values.

>>> squares
{1: 1, 3: 9, 5: 25, 7: 49, 9: 81}
>>> 1 in squares
True
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>>> 2 not in squares
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>>> 49 in squares
False

Iterating Through a Dictionary

Using a forloop we can iterate though each key in a dictionary.

>>> squares
{1: 1, 3: 9, 5: 25, 7: 49, 9: 81}
>>> for i in squares:
... print(squares[i])
...
1
9
81
25
49

Built-in Functions with Dictionary

Built-in functions like all(), any(), len(), cmp(), sorted()etc. are commonly used with
dictionary to perform different tasks.

Built-in Functions with Dictionary

Functio Description
n
all() ReturnTrueifallkeysofthedictionaryaretrue(orifthedictionaryisempty).

ReturnTrueifanykeyofthedictionaryistrue.Ifthedictionaryisempty,return
any()
False.

len() Return the length (the number of items) in the dictionary.

cmp() Compares items of two dictionaries.

sorted() Return a new sorted list of keys in the dictionary.

Here is a couple of example.

>>> squares
{1: 1, 3: 9, 5: 25, 7: 49, 9: 81}
>>> len(squares)
5 Page
>>>
[1,
sorted(squares)
3, 5, 7, 9] 11
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Python File Handling

 Python File Operation

 PythonDirectory
 PythonException
 ExceptionHandling
 User-definedException

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Python File I/O

File is a named location on disk to store related information. It is used to permanently store data
in a non-volatile memory (e.g. hard disk). Since, random access memory (RAM) is volatile
which loses its data when computer is turned off, we use files for future use of the data.

When we want to read from or write to a file we need to open it first. When we are done, it needs
to be closed, so that resources that are tied with the file are freed. Hence, in Python, a file
operation takes place in the following order.

1. Open afile
2. Readorwrite(performoperation)
3. Close thefile

Opening a File

Python has a built-in function open()to open a file. This function returns a file object, also
called a handle, as it is used to read or modify the file accordingly.

>>> f=open("test.txt") # open file in currentdirectory

>>> f=open("C:/Python33/README.txt") # specifying full path

We can specify the mode while opening a file. In mode, we specify whether we want to read 'r',
write 'w' or append 'a' to the file. We also specify if we want to open the file in text mode or
binary mode. The default is reading in text mode. In this mode, we get strings when reading from
the file. On the other hand, binary mode returns bytes and this is the mode to be used when
dealing with non-text files like image or exe files.

Python File Modes

Mode Description

'r' Open a file for reading. (default)

Openafileforwriting.Createsanewfileifitdoesnotexistortruncatesthefileif
'w'
itexists.

'x' Openafileforexclusivecreation.Ifthefilealreadyexists,theoperationfails.

Openforappendingattheendofthefilewithouttruncatingit.Createsanewfile
'a'
ifitdoesnotexist.
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't' Open in text mode. (default)
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'b' Open in binary mode.

'+' Open a file for updating (reading and writing)

f=open("test.txt") # equivalent to 'r' or 'rt'

f=open("test.txt",'w') # write in textmode
f = open("img.bmp",'r+b') # read and write in binary mode

Since the version 3.x, Python has made a clear distinction between str(text) and bytes(8-bits).
Unlike other languages, the character 'a' does not imply the number 97 until it is encoded using
ASCII (or other equivalent encodings). Hence, when working with files in text mode, it is
recommended to specify the encoding type. Files are stored in bytes in the disk, we need to
decode them into strwhen we read into Python. Similarly, encoding is performed while writing
texts to the file.

The default encoding is platform dependent. In windows, it is 'cp1252' but 'utf-8' in Linux.
Hence, we must not rely on the default encoding otherwise, our code will behave differently in
different platforms. Thus, this is the preferred way to open a file for reading in text mode.

f = open("test.txt",mode = 'r',encoding = 'utf-8')

Closing a File

When we are done with operations to the file, we need to properly close it. Python has agarbage
collector to clean up unreferenced objects. But we must not rely on it to close the file. Closing a
file will free up the resources that were tied with the file and is done using the close()method.

f = open("test.txt",encoding = 'utf-8')
# perform file operations
f.c lose()

This method is not entirely safe. If an exception occurs when we are performing someoperation
with the file, the code exits without closing the file. A safer way is to use a try...finally
block.

try:
f = open("test.txt",encoding = 'utf-8')
# perform file operations
finally:
f.close()
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The best way to do this is using the withstatement. This ensures that the file is closed when the
block inside with is exited. We don't need to explicitly call the close() method. It is done
internally.

with open("test.txt",encoding = 'utf-8') as f:

# perform file operations

Writing to a File

In order to write into a file we need to open it in write 'w', append 'a' or exclusive creation 'x'
mode. We need to be careful with the 'w' mode as it will overwrite into the file if it already
exists. All previous data are erased.

Writing a string or sequence of bytes (for binary files) is done using write()method. This
method returns the number of characters written to the file.

with open("test.txt",'w',encoding = 'utf-8') as f:

f.write("my first file\n")
f.write("This file\n\n")
f.write("contains three lines\n")

This program will create a new file named 'test.txt' if it does not exist. If it does exist, it is
overwritten. We must include the newline characters ourselves to distinguish different lines.

Reading From a File

To read the content of a file, we must open the file in reading mode. There are various methods
available for this purpose. We can use the read(size)method to read in size number of data. If
size parameter is not specified, it reads and returns up to the end of the file.

>>> f = open("test.txt",'r',encoding = 'utf-8')

>>>f.read(4) # read the first 4 data
'This'

>>>f.read(4) # read the next 4 data

' is'

>>>f.read() # read in the rest till end offile

'my first file\nThis file\ncontains threelines\n'

>>>f.read() # further reading returns emptysting

''

We can see, that read() method returns newline as '\n'. Once the end of file is reached, we get Page
empty string on further reading. We can change our current file cursor (position) using the
seek()method. Similarly, the tell()method returns our current position (in number of bytes).
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>>>f.tell() # get the current file position
56

>>>f.seek(0) # bring file cursor to initialposition

0

>>>print(f.read()) # read the entire file

This is my firstfile
This file
contains three lines

We can read a file line-by-line using a forloop. This is both efficient and fast.

>>> for line in f:

... print(line, end = '')
...
This is my first file
This file
contains three lines

The lines in file itself has a newline character '\n'. Moreover,the print()function also appends a
newline by default. Hence, we specify the end parameter to avoid two newlines when printing.

Alternately, we can use readline()method to read individual lines of a file. This method reads
a file till the newline, including the newline character.

>>> f.readline()
'This is my first file\n'

>>> f.readline()
'This file\n'

>>> f.readline()
'contains three lines\n'

>>> f.readline()
''

Lastly, the readlines()method returns a list of remaining lines of the entire file. All these
reading method return empty values when end of file (EOF) is reached.

>>> f.readlines()
['This is my first file\n', 'This file\n', 'contains three lines\n']

Python File Methods Page

There are various methods available with the file object. Some of them have been used in above 12
examples. Here is the complete list of methods in text mode with a brief description.
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 Python File Methods

Method Description

close() Close an open file. It has no effect if the file is already closed.

SeparatetheunderlyingbinarybufferfromtheTextIOBaseand
detach()
returnit.

fileno() Return an integer number (file descriptor) of the file.

flush() Flush the write buffer of the file stream.

isatty() Return Trueif the file stream is interactive.

Readatmostncharactersformthefile.Readstillendoffileifitis
read(n)
negative orNone.

readable() Returns Trueif the file stream can be read from.

Readandreturnonelinefromthefile.Readsinatmostnbytesif
readline(n=-1)
specified.

Read and return a list of lines from the file. Reads in at most n
readlines(n=-1)
bytes/characters if specified.

Changethefilepositiontooffsetbytes,inreferencetofrom(start,
seek(offset,from=SEEK_SE
T) current,end).

seekable() Returns Trueif the file stream supports random access.

tell() Returns the current file location.

Resizethefilestreamtosizebytes.Ifsizeisnotspecified,resizeto
truncate(size=None)
currentlocation.

writable() Returns Trueif the file stream can be written to.

write(s) Writestringstothefileandreturnthenumberofcharacterswritten.

writelines(lines) Write a list of lines to the file.

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Python Directory and Files Management

If there are large number of files in Python, we can place related files in different directories to
make things more manageable. A directory or folder is a collection of files and sub directories.
Python has the osmodule, which provides us with many useful methods to work with directories
(and files as well).

Get Current Directory

We can get the present working directory using the getcwd()method. This method returns the
current working directory in the form of a string. We can also use the getcwdb()method to get
it as bytes object.

>>> import os

>>> os.getcwd()
'C:\\Program Files\\PyScripter'

>>> os.getcwdb()
b'C:\\Program Files\\PyScripter'

The extra backslash implies escape sequence. The print()function will render this properly.

>>> print(os.getcwd())
C:\Program Files\PyScripter

Changing Directory

We can change the current working directory using the chdir() method. The new path that we
want to change to must be supplied as a string to this method. We can use both forward slash (/)
or the backward slash (\) to separate path elements. It is safer to use escape sequence when using
the backward slash.

>>> os.chdir('C:\\Python33')

>>> print(os.getcwd())
C:\Python33

List Directories and Files

All files and sub directories inside a directory can be known using the listdir()method. This
method takes in a path and returns a list of sub directories and files in that path. If no path is
specified, it returns from the current working directory.
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>>> print(os.getcwd())
C:\Python33 12
>>> os.listdir() 2
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['DLLs',
'Doc',
'include',
'Lib',
'libs',
'LICENSE.txt',
'NEWS.txt',
'python.exe',
'pythonw.exe',
'README.txt',
'Scripts',
'tcl',
'Tools']

>>> os.listdir('G:\\')
['$RECYCLE.BIN',
'Movies',
'Music',
'Photos',
'Series',
'System Volume Information']

Making a New Directory

We can make a new directory using the mkdir() method. This method takes in the path of the
new directory. If the full path is not specified, the new directory is created in the current working
directory.

>>> os.mkdir('test')

>>> os.listdir()
['test']

Renaming a Directory or a File

The rename()method can rename a directory or a file. The first argument is the old name and
the new name must be supplies as the second argument.

>>> os.listdir()
['test']

>>> os.rename('test','new_one')

>>> os.listdir()
['new_one']

Removing Directory or File

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>>> os.listdir()
['new_one', 'old.txt']

>>> os.remove('old.txt')
>>> os.listdir()
['new_one']

>>> os.rmdir('new_one')
>>> os.listdir()
[]

However, note that rmdir()method can only remove empty directories. In order to remove a
non-empty directory we can use the rmtree()method inside the shutilmodule.

>>> os.listdir()
['test']

>>> os.rmdir('test')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
OSError: [WinError 145] The directory is not empty: 'test'

>>> import shutil

>>> shutil.rmtree('test')
>>> os.listdir()
[]

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Python Built-in Exceptions

When writing a program, we, more often than not, will encounter errors. Error caused by not
following the proper structure (syntax) of the language is called syntax error or parsing error.

>>> if a <3
File "<interactive input>", line 1
if a <3
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

We can notice here that a colon is missing in the ifstatement.

Errors can also occur at runtime and these are called exceptions. They occur, for example, when
a file we try to open does not exist (FileNotFoundError), dividing a number by zero
(ZeroDivisionError), module we try to import is not found (ImportError) etc. Whenever
these type of runtime error occur, Python creates an exception object. If not handled properly, it
prints a traceback to that error along with some details about why that error occurred.

>>> 1 / 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 301, inruncode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

>>> open("imaginary.txt")
Traceback (most recent calllast):
File "<string>", line 301, in runcode
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'imaginary.txt'

Illegal operations can raise exceptions. There are plenty of built-in exceptions in Python that are
raised when corresponding errors occur. We can view all the built-in exceptions using the
local()built-in functions as follows.

>>> locals()['builtins']

This will return us a dictionary of built-in exceptions, functions and attributes. Some of the
common built-in exceptions in Python programming along with the error that cause then are
tabulated below.

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 Python Built-in Exceptions

Exception Cause of
Error
AssertionError Raised when assertstatement fails.

AttributeError Raised when attribute assignment or reference fails.

EOFError Raised when the input()functions hits end-of-file condition.

FloatingPointError Raised when a floating point operation fails.

GeneratorExit Raise when a generator's close()method is called.

ImportError Raised when the imported module is not found.

IndexError Raised when index of a sequence is out of range.

KeyError Raised when a key is not found in a dictionary.

KeyboardInterrupt Raised when the user hits interrupt key (Ctrl+c or delete).

MemoryError Raised when an operation runs out of memory.

NameError Raised when a variable is not found in local or global scope.

NotImplementedErro Raised by abstract methods.

r
OSError Raised when system operation causes system related error.

Raisedwhenresultofanarithmeticoperationistoolargetobe
OverflowError
represented.

Raisedwhenaweakreferenceproxyisusedtoaccessagarbagecollected
ReferenceError
referent.

RuntimeError Raised when an error does not fall under any other category.

Raisedbynext()functiontoindicatethatthereisnofurtheritemtobe
StopIteration
returned byiterator.

SyntaxError Raised by parser when syntax error is encountered.

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IndentationError Raised when there is incorrect indentation.

TabError Raised when indentation consists of inconsistent tabs and spaces.

SystemError Raised when interpreter detects internal error.

SystemExit Raised by sys.exit()function.

Raisedwhenafunctionoroperationisappliedtoanobjectofincorrect
TypeError
type.

Raisedwhenareferenceismadetoalocalvariableinafunctionor
UnboundLocalError
method,butnovaluehasbeenboundtothatvariable.

UnicodeError Raised when a Unicode-related encoding or decoding error occurs.

UnicodeEncodeError Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during encoding.

UnicodeDecodeError Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during decoding.

UnicodeTranslateErr Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during translating.

or
ValueError Raisedwhenafunctiongetsargumentofcorrecttypebutimpropervalue.

ZeroDivisionError Raisedwhensecondoperandofdivisionormodulooperationiszero.

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Python Exception Handling - Try, Except and Finally

When an exception occurs in Python, it causes the current process to stop and passes it to the
calling process until it is handled. If not handled, our program will crash. For example, if
functionAcallsfunctionBwhichinturncallsfunction Candanexceptionoccursinfunction C.If it is not
handled in C, the exception passes to B and then to A. If never handled, an error message is spit
out and our program come to a sudden, unexpectedhalt.

Catching Exceptions in Python

In Python, exceptions can be handled using a trystatement. A critical operation which can raise
exception is placed inside the try clause and the code that handles exception is written in
exceptclause. It is up to us, what operations we perform once we have caught the exception.
Here is a simple example.

# import module sys to get the type of exception

import sys

while True:
try:
x = int(input("Enter an integer: "))
r = 1/x
break
except:
print("Oops!",sys.exc_info()[0],"occured.")
print("Please try again.")
print()

print("The reciprocal of",x,"is",r)

Here is a sample run of this program.

Enter an integer: a
Oops! <class 'ValueError'> occured.
Please try again.

Enter an integer: 1.3

Oops! <class 'ValueError'> occured.
Please try again.

Enter an integer: 0
Oops! <class 'ZeroDivisionError'> occured.
Please try again.

Enter an integer: 2
The reciprocal of 2 is 0.5

In this program, we loop until the user enters an integer that has a valid reciprocal. The portion Page
that can cause exception is placed inside try block. If no exception occurs, except block is
skipped and normal flow continues. But if any exception occurs, it is caught by the except
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and ask the user to try again. We can see that the values 'a' and '1.3' causes ValueErrorand '0'
causes ZeroDivisionError.

Catching Specific Exceptions in Python

In the above example, we did not mention any exception in the exceptclause. This is not a good
programming practice as it will catch all exceptions and handle every case in the same way. We
can specify which exceptions an exceptclause will catch. A tryclause can have any number of
except clause to handle them differently but only one will be executed in case an exception
occurs. We can use a tuple of values to specify multiple exceptions in an except clause. Here is
an example pseudo code.

try:
# do something
pass

except ValueError:
# handle ValueError exception
pass

except (TypeError, ZeroDivisionError):

# handle multiple exceptions
# TypeError and ZeroDivisionError
pass

except:
# handle all other exceptions
pass

Raising Exceptions

In Python programming, exceptions are raised when corresponding errors occur at run time, but
we can forcefully raise it using the keyword raise. We can also optionally pass in value to the
exception to clarify why that exception was raised.

>>> raise KeyboardInterrupt

Traceback (most recent call last):
...
KeyboardInterrupt

>>> raise MemoryError("This is an argument")

Traceback (most recent call last):
...
MemoryError: This is an argument

>>> try:
... a = int(input("Enter a positive integer:"))
... if a <=0: Page
... raise ValueError("That is not a positivenumber!")
... except ValueError as ve:
... print(ve)
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Enter a positive integer: -2
That is not a positive number!

try...finally

The try statement in Python can have an optional finally clause. This clause is executed no
matter what, and is generally used to release external resources. For example, we may be
connected to a remote data center through the network or working with a file or working with a
Graphical User Interface (GUI). In all these circumstances, we must clean up the resource once
used, whether it was successful or not. These actions (closing a file, GUI or disconnecting from
network) are performed in the finallyclause to guarantee execution.

Here is an example to illustrate this.

try:
f = open("test.txt",encoding = 'utf-8')
# perform file operations
finally:
f.close()

This type of construct makes sure the file is closed even if an exception occurs.

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Python User-Defined Exception

Users can define their own exception by creating a new class in Python. This exception class has
to be derived, either directly or indirectly, from Exceptionclass. Most of the built-in exceptions
are also derived from this class.

>>> class CustomError(Exception):

... pass
...

>>> raise CustomError

Traceback (most recent call last):
...
main.CustomError

>>> raise CustomError("An error occurred")

Traceback (most recent call last):
...
main.CustomError: An error occurred

Here, we have created a user-defined exception called CustomErrorwhich is derived from the
Exception class. This new exception can be raised, like other exceptions, using the raise
statement with an optional error message.

When we are developing a large Python program, it is a good practice to place all the user-
defined exceptions that our program raises in a separate file. Many standard modules do this.
They define their exceptions separately as exceptions.pyor errors.py(generally but not
always).

User-defined exception class can implement everything a normal class can do, but we generally
make them simple and concise. Most implementations declare a custom base class and derive
others exception classes from this base class. This concept is made clearer in the following
example.

Example of User Defined Exception

In this example, we will illustrate how user-defined exceptions can be used in a program to raise
and catch errors. This program will ask the user to enter a number until they guess a stored
number correctly. To help them figure it out, hint is provided whether their guess is greater than
or less than the stored number.

# define Python user-defined exceptions

class Error(Exception):
"""Base class for other exceptions"""
pass
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class ValueTooSmallError(Error):
"""Raised when the input value is too small""" 13
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class ValueTooLargeError(Error):
"""Raised when the input value is too large"""
pass

# our main program

# user guesses a number until he/she gets it right

# you need to guess this number

number = 10

while True:
try:
i_num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
if i_num < number:
raise ValueTooSmallError
elif i_num > number:
raise ValueTooLargeError
break
except ValueTooSmallError:
print("This value is too small, try again!")
print()
except ValueTooLargeError:
print("This value is too large, try again!")
print()

print("Congratulations! You guessed it correctly.")

Here is a sample run of this program.

Enter a number: 12
This value is too large, try again!

Enter a number: 0
This value is too small, try again!

Enter a number: 8
This value is too small, try again!

Enter a number: 10
Congratulations! You guessed it correctly.

Here, we have defined a base class called Error. The other two exceptions
(ValueTooSmallErrorand ValueTooLargeError) that are actually raised by our program are
derived from this class. This is the standard way to define user-defined exceptions in Python
programming, but you are not limited to this way only.

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Python Object and Class

 PythonNamespace
 PythonClass
 PythonInheritance
 Multiple Inheritance
 Operator Overloading

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Python Namespace and Scope

If you have ever read 'The Zen of Python' (type "import this" in Python interpreter), the last line
states, Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those! So what are these
mysterious namespaces? Let us first look at what name is.

Name (also called identifier) is simply a name given to objects. Everything in Python is an
object. Name is a way to access the underlying object. For example, when we do the assignment
a = 2, here 2 is an object stored in memory and a is the name we associate it with. We can get
the address (in RAM) of some object through the built-in function, id(). Let's check it.

>>> a =2
>>> id(2)
507098816
>>> id(a)
507098816

We can see that both refer to the same object. Let's make things a little more interesting.

>>> a =2
>>> id(a)
507098816

>>> a = a+1
>>> id(a)
507098848
>>> id(3)
507098848

>>> b =2
>>> id(b)
507098816

What is happening in the above sequence of steps? A diagram will help us explain this.

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Initially, an object 2 is created and the name a is associated with it, when we do a =a+1, a new
object 3is created and now a associates with this object. Note that id(a)and id(3)have same
values. Furthermore, when we do b = 2, the new name b gets associated with the previous
object 2. This is efficient as Python doesn't have to create a new duplicate object. This dynamic
nature of name binding makes Python powerful; a name could refer to any type of object.

>>> a = 5
>>> a = 'Hello World!'
>>> a = [1,2,3]

All these are valid and a will refer to three different types of object at different instances.
Functions are objects too, so a name can refer to them as well.

>>> def func():

... print("Hello")
...
>>> a = func
>>> a()
Hello

Our same name a can refer to a function and we can call the function through it, pretty neat.

So now that we understand what names are, we can move on to the concept of namespaces. To
simply put it, namespace is a collection of names. In Python, you can imagine a namespace as a
mapping of every name, you have defined, to corresponding objects. Different namespaces can
co-exist at a given time but are completely isolated. A namespace containing all the built-in
names is created when we start the Python interpreter and exists as long we don't exit. This is the
reason that built-in functions like id(), print() etc. are always available to us from any part of
the program. Each module creates its own global namespace. Since, these different namespaces
are isolated, same name that may exist in different modules do not collide. Modules can have
various functions and classes. A local namespace is created when a functions is called, which has
all the names defined in it. Similar, is the case with class. Following diagram may help to clarify
this concept.

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Python Scope

Although there are various unique namespaces defined, we may not be able to access all of them
from every part of the program. The concept of scope comes into play. Scope is the portion of
the program from where a namespace can be accessed directly without any prefix. At any given
moment, there are at least three nested scopes.

1. Scopeofthecurrentfunctionwhichhaslocalnames
2. Scopeofthemodulewhichhasglobalnames
3. Outermostscopewhichhasbuilt-innames

When a reference is made inside a function, the name is searched in the local namespace, then in
the global namespace and finally in the built-in namespace. If there is a function inside another
function, a new scope is nested inside the local scope.

Example of Scope and Namespace in Python

def outer_function():
b = 20
def inner_func():
c = 30

a = 10

Here, the variable a is in the global namespace. Variable b is in the local namespace of
outer_function()and c is in the nested local namespace of inner_function(). When we are
in inner_function(), c is local to us, b is nonlocal and a is global. We can read as well as
assign new values to c but can only read b and c from inner_function(). If we try to assign as
a value to b, a new variable b is created in the local namespace which is different than the
nonlocal b. Same thing happens when we assign a value to a.

However, if we declare a as global, all the reference and assignment go to the global a.
Similarly, if we want to rebind the variable b, it must be declared as nonlocal. The following
example will further clarify this.

def outer_function():
a = 20
def inner_function():
a = 30
print('a =',a)

inner_function()
print('a =',a)

a = 10 Page
outer_function()
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The output of this program is

a =30
a =20
a =10

In this program, three different variables a are defined in separate namespaces and accessed
accordingly. While in the following program,

def outer_function():
global a
a = 20
def inner_function():
global a
a = 30
print('a =',a)

inner_function()
print('a =',a)

a = 10
outer_function()
print('a =',a)

the output is.

a =30
a =30
a =30

Here, all reference and assignment are to the global a due to the use of keyword global.

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Python Objects and Class

Python is an object oriented programming language. Unlike procedure oriented programming,in

which the main emphasis is on functions, object oriented programming stress on objects. Object
is simply a collection of data (variables) and methods (functions) that act on thosedata.

Class is a blueprint for the object. We can think of class like a sketch (prototype) of a house. It
contains all the details about the floors, doors, windows etc. Based on these descriptions we build
the house. House is the object. As, many houses can be made from a description, we can create
many objects from a class. An object is also called an instance of a class and the process of
creating this object is called instantiation.

Defining a Class in Python

Like function definitions begin with the keyword def, in Python, we define a class using the
keyword class. The first string is called docstring and has a brief description about the class.
Although not mandatory, this is recommended. Here is a simple class definition.

class MyNewClass:
'''This is a docstring. I have created a new class'''
pass

A class creates a new local namespace where all its attributes are defines. Attributes may be data
or functions. There are also special attributes in it that begins with double underscores (). For
example,doc gives us the docstring of that class. As soon as we define a class, a new class
object is created with the same name. This class object allows us to access the different attributes
as well as to instantiate new objects of that class.

>>> class MyClass:

... "This is my secondclass"
... a =10
... deffunc(self):
... print('Hello')
...
>>> MyClass.a
10

>>> MyClass.func
<function MyClass.func at 0x0000000003079BF8>

>>>MyClass.doc 'This
is my secondclass'

Creating an Object in Python

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We saw that the class object could be used to access different attributes. It can also be used to
create new object instances (instantiation) of that class. The procedure to create an object is
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>>> ob = MyClass()

This will create a new instance object named ob. We can access attributes of objects using the
object name prefix. Attributes may be data or method. Method of an object are corresponding
functions of that class. Any function object that is a class attribute defines a method for objects
of that class. This means to say, since MyClass.func is a function object (attribute of class),
ob.funcwill be a method object.

>>> ob = MyClass()
>>> MyClass.func
<function MyClass.func at 0x000000000335B0D0>
>>> ob.func
<bound method MyClass.func of <main.MyClass object at
0x000000000332DEF0>>

>>> ob.func()
Hello

You may have notices the self parameter in function definition inside the class. But we called the
method simply as ob.func() without any arguments. It still worked. This is because, whenever
an object calls its method, the object itself is pass as the first argument. So, ob.func()translates
into MyClass.func(ob). In general, calling a method with a list of n arguments is equivalent to
calling the corresponding function with an argument list that is created by inserting the method's
object before the first argument. For these reasons, the first argument of the function in class
must be the object itself. This is conventionally called self. It can be named otherwise but we
highly recommend to follow the convention.

Now you must be familiar with class object, instance object, function object, method object and
their differences.

Constructors in Python

Class functions that begins with double underscore () are called special functions as they have
special meaning. Of one particular interest is theinit()function. This special function gets
called whenever a new object of that class is instantiated. This type of function is also called
constructors in Object Oriented Programming (OOP). We normally use it to initialize all the
variables.

class ComplexNumber:
definit(self,r = 0,i =0): self.real
=r
self.imag =i

def getData(self):
print("{0}+{1}j".format(self.real,self.imag))
Page
In the above example, we define a new class to represent complex numbers. It has two functions,
init() to initialize the variables (defaults to zero) and getData() to display the number 13
properly. Here, are some sample runs.
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>>> c1 = ComplexNumber(2,3)
>>> c1.getData()
2+3j

>>> c2 = ComplexNumber(5)
>>> c2.attr = 10
>>> (c2.real, c2.imag, c2.attr)
(5, 0, 10)
>>> c1.attr
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'ComplexNumber' object has no attribute 'attr'

An interesting thing to note in the above step is that attributes of an object can be created on the
fly. We created a new attribute attr for object c2 and we read it as well. But this did not create
that attribute for object c1.

Deleting Attributes and Objects

Any attribute of an object can be deleted anytime, using the delstatement.

>>> c1 = ComplexNumber(2,3)
>>> del c1.imag
>>> c1.getData()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'ComplexNumber' object has no attribute 'imag'

>>> del ComplexNumber.getData

>>> c1.getData()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'ComplexNumber' object has no attribute 'getData'

We can even delete the object itself, using the delstatement.

>>> c1 = ComplexNumber(1,3)
>>> del c1
>>> c1
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
NameError: name 'c1' is not defined

Actually, it is more complicated than that. When we do c1 = ComplexNumber(1,3), a new

instance object is created in memory and the name c1 binds with it. On the command del c1,
this binding is removed and the name c1 is deleted from the corresponding namespace. The
object however continues to exist in memory and if no other name is bound to it, it is later
automatically destroyed. This automatic destruction of unreferenced objects in Python is also
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Python Inheritance

Inheritance is a powerful feature in object oriented programming. It refers to defining a new class
with little or no modification to an existing class. The new class is called derived (or child) class
and the one from which it inherits is called the base (or parent) class. Derived class inherits
features from the base class, adding new features to it. This results into re-usability of code.

Python Inheritance Syntax

class DerivedClass(BaseClass):
body_of_derived_class

ExampleofInheritanceinPython

To demonstrate the use of inheritance, let us take an example. A polygon is a closed figure with
3 or more sides. Say, we have a class called Polygondefined as follows.

class Polygon:
definit(self, no_of_sides): self.n
= no_of_sides
self.sides = [0 for i in range(no_of_sides)]

def inputSides(self):
self.sides = [float(input("Enter side "+str(i+1)+" : ")) for i in
range(self.n)]

def dispSides(self):
for i in range(self.n): Page
print("Side",i+1,"is",self.sides[i])
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This class has data attributes to store the number of sides, n and magnitude of each side as a list,
sides. Method inputSides()takes in magnitude of each side and similarly, dispSides()will
display these properly.

A triangle is a polygon with 3 sides. So, we can created a class called Trianglewhich inherits
from Polygon. This makes all the attributes available in class Polygon readily available in
Triangle. We don't need to define them again (code re-usability). Triangle is defined as
follows.

class Triangle(Polygon):
definit(self):
Polygon.init(self,3)

def findArea(self):
a, b, c = self.sides
# calculate the semi-perimeter
s = (a + b + c) / 2
area = (s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c)) ** 0.5
print('The area of the triangle is %0.2f' %area)

However, class Trianglehas a new method findArea()to find and print the area of the
triangle. Here is a sample run.

>>> t = Triangle()

>>> t.inputSides()
Enter side 1 :3
Enter side 2 :5
Enter side 3 :4

>>> t.dispSides()
Side 1 is3.0
Side 2 is5.0
Side 3 is4.0

>>> t.findArea()
The area of the triangle is 6.00

We can see that, even though we did not define methods like inputSides()or dispSides()for
class Triangle, we were able to use them. If an attribute is not found in the class, search
continues to the base class. This repeats recursively, if the base class is itself derived from other
classes.

Method Overriding in Python

In the above example, notice thatinit() method was defined in both classes, Triangle as well
Polygon. When this happens, the method in the derived class overrides that in the base class. Page
This is to say,init() in Triangle gets preference over the same in Polygon.
Generally when overriding a base method, we tend to extend the definition rather than simply 14
replace it. The same is being done by calling the method in base class from the one in derived
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class (calling Polygon.__init() frominit()in Triangle). A better option would be to use
the built-in function super(). So, super().init(3)is equivalent to
Polygon.init(self,3)and is preferred.

Two built-in functions isinstance() and issubclass() are used to check inheritances.
Function isinstance()returns Trueif the object is an instance of the class or other classes
derived from it. Each and every class in Python inherits from the base class object.

>>> isinstance(t,Triangle)
True

>>> isinstance(t,Polygon)
True

>>> isinstance(t,int)
False

>>> isinstance(t,object)
True

Similarly, issubclass()is used to check for class inheritance.

>>> issubclass(Polygon,Triangle)
False

>>> issubclass(Triangle,Polygon)
True

>>> issubclass(bool,int)
True

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Python Multiple Inheritance

Multiple inheritance is possible in Python unlike other programming languages. A class can be
derived from more than one base classes. The syntax for multiple inheritance is similar to single
inheritance.

Python Multiple Inheritance Example

classBase1:
pass

classBase2:
pass

class MultiDerived(Base1,Base2):
pass

The class MultiDerivedinherits from both Base1and Base2.

Multilevel Inheritance in Python

On the other hand, we can inherit form a derived class. This is also called multilevel inheritance.
Multilevel inheritance can be of any depth in Python. An example with corresponding
visualization is given below.

classBase:
pass

class Derived1(Base): Page

pass
14
classDerived2(Derived1):
pass 5

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Method Resolution Order in Python

Every class in Python is derived from the class object. It is the most base type in Python. So
technically, all other class, either built-in or user-defines, are derived classes and all objects are
instances of objectclass.

>>> issubclass(list,object)
True
>>> isinstance(5.5,object)
True
>>> isinstance("Hello",object)
True

In the multiple inheritance scenario, any specified attribute is searched first in the current class.
If not found, the search continues into parent classes in depth-first, left-right fashion without
searching same class twice. So, in the above example of MultiDerived class the search order is
[MultiDerived, Base1, Base2, object]. This order is also called linearization of MultiDerived
class and the set of rules used to find this order is called Method Resolution Order (MRO). MRO
must prevent local precedence ordering and also provide monotonicity. It ensures that a class
always appears before its parents and in case of multiple parents, the order is same as tuple of
baseclasses.
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MRO of a class can be viewed as themroattribute or mro() method. The former returns a
tuple while latter returns a list.
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>>> MultiDerived.mro
(<class 'main.MultiDerived'>,
<class 'main.Base1'>,
<class 'main.Base2'>,
<class 'object'>)

>>> MultiDerived.mro()
[<class 'main.MultiDerived'>,
<class 'main.Base1'>,
<class 'main.Base2'>,
<class 'object'>]

Here is a little more complex multiple inheritance example and its visualization along with the
MRO.

class X: pass
class Y: pass
class Z: pass

class A(X,Y): pass

class B(Y,Z): pass

class M(B,A,Z): pass

print(M.mro())

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Output

[<class 'main.M'>, <class 'main.B'>, <class 'main.A'>, <class

' main .X'>, <class ' main .Y'>, <class ' main .Z'>, <class'object'>]

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Python Operator Overloading

Python operators work for built-in classes. But same operator behaves differently with different
types. For example, the +operator will, perform arithmetic addition on two numbers, merge two
lists and concatenate two strings. This feature in Python, that allows same operator to have
different meaning according to the context is called operatoroverloading.

So what happens when we use them with objects of a user-defined class? Let us consider the
following class, which tries to simulate a point in 2-D coordinatesystem.

class Point:
definit(self,x = 0,y =0):
self.x =x
self.y =y

Now when we try to add two points that we create as follows.

>>> p1 = Point(2,3)
>>> p2 = Point(-1,2)
>>> p1 + p2
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'Point' and 'Point'

Whoa! That's a lot of complains. TypeError was raised since Python didn't know how to add
two Pointobjects together. However, the good news is that we can teach this to Python through
operator overloading. But first, let's get a notion about special functions.

Special Functions in Python

Class functions that begins with double underscore () are called special functions in Python.
This is because, well, they are not ordinary. The __init()function we defined above, is one of
them. It gets called every time we create a new object of that class. There are a ton of special
functions in Python.

Using special functions, we can make our class compatible with built-in functions.

>>> p1 = Point(2,3)
>>> print(p1)
<main.Point object at 0x00000000031F8CC0>

That did not print well. But if we definestr()method in our class, we can control how it
gets printed. So, let's add this to our class.

class Point: Page

# previous definitions...

defstr(self):
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Now let's try the print()function again.

>>> print(p1)
(2,3)

That's better. Turns out, that this same method is invoked when we use the built-in function
str()or format().

>>>str(p1)
'(2,3)'

>>>format(p1)
'(2,3)'

So, when you do str(p1) or format(p1), Python is internally doing p1.__str(). Hence the
name, special functions.

Overloading the + Operator

To overload the + sign, we will need to implementadd() function in the class. With great
power comes great responsibility. We can do whatever we like, inside this function. But it is
sensible to return a Pointobject of the coordinate sum.

class Point:
# previous definitions...

defadd(self,other): x =
self.x +other.x y =
self.y +other.y
returnPoint(x,y)

Now let's try that addition again.

>>> p1 = Point(2,3)
>>> p2 = Point(-1,2)
>>> print(p1 + p2)
(1,5)

What actually happens is that, when you do p1 + p2, Python will call p1.add(p2)which in turn
is Point.add(p1,p2). Similarly, we can overload other operators as well. The special function
that we need to implement is tabulated below.

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 Operator Overloading Special Functions in Python

Operator Expression Internally

Addition p1 + p2 p1.add(p2)

Subtraction p1 - p2 p1.sub(p2)

Multiplication p1 * p2 p1.mul(p2)

Power p1 ** p2 p1.pow(p2)

Division p1 / p2 p1.truediv(p2)

Floor Division p1 // p2 p1.floordiv(p2)

Remainder (modulo) p1 % p2 p1.mod(p2)

Bitwise Left Shift p1 << p2 p1.lshift(p2)

Bitwise Right Shift p1 >> p2 p1.rshift(p2)

Bitwise AND p1 & p2 p1.and(p2)

Bitwise OR p1 |p2 p1.or(p2)

Bitwise XOR p1 ^ p2 p1.xor(p2)

Bitwise NOT ~p1 p1.invert()

Overloading Comparison Operators in Python

Python does not limit operator overloading to arithmetic operators only. We can overload
comparison operators as well. Suppose, we wanted to implement the less than symbol <symbol
in our Pointclass. Let us compare the magnitude of these points from the origin and return the
result for this purpose. It can be implemented as follows.

class Point:
# previous definitions...
Page
deflt(self,other):
self_mag = (self.x ** 2) + (self.y ** 2)
other_mag = (other.x ** 2) + (other.y ** 2)
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return self_mag < other_mag 1

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Some sample runs.

>>> Point(1,1) < Point(-2,-3)

True

>>> Point(1,1) < Point(0.5,-0.2)

False

>>> Point(1,1) < Point(1,1)

False

Similarly, the special functions that we need to implement, to overload other comparison
operators are tabulated below.

Comparision Operator Overloading in Python

Operator Expression Internally

Less than p1 < p2 p1.lt(p2)

Less than or equal to p1 <= p2 p1.le(p2)

p1 == p2 p1.eq(p2)
Equal to
Not equal to p1 != p2 p1.ne(p2)

Greater than p1 > p2 p1.gt(p2)

Greater than or equal to p1 >= p2 p1.ge(p2)

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Additional Tutorials

 PythonIterator
 PythonGenerator
 PythonClosure
 PythonDecorators
 Python Property
 PythonExamples

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Python Iterators

Iterators are everywhere in Python. They are elegantly implemented within for loops,
comprehensions, generators etc. but hidden in plain sight. Iterator in Python is simply an object
that can be iterated upon. An object which will return data, one element at a time.

Technically speaking, Python iterator object must implement two special methods,iter()
andnext(), collectively called the iteratorprotocol.

An object is called iterable if we can get an iterator from it. Most of built-in containers in
Python like: list, tuple, string etc. are iterables. The iter()function (which in turn calls the
iter()method) returns an iterator from them.

Iterating Through an Iterator in Python

We use the next() function to manually iterate through all the items of an iterator. When we
reach the end and there is no more data to be returned, it will raise StopIteration. Following is
an example.

>>> # define a list

>>> my_list = [4, 7, 0, 3]

>>> # get an iterator using iter() on that list

>>> my_iter = iter(my_list)
>>> my_iter
<list_iterator object at 0x00000000031AD9B0>

>>> # iterate through it using next()

>>>next(my_iter)
4
>>>next(my_iter)
7

>>> # next(obj) is same as obj.next()

>>> my_iter.next() 0
>>> my_iter.next() 3

>>> next(my_iter)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
StopIteration
>>> # no more items left

A more elegant way of automatically iterating is by using the forloop. Using this, we can iterate
over any object that can return an iterator, for example list, string, file etc. Page

>>> for element in my_list: 15

... print(element)
... 4

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4
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How for Loop Actually Works

As we see in the above example, the forloop was able to iterate automatically through the list.
In fact the forloop can iterate over any iterable. Let's take a closer look at how the forloop is
actually implemented in Python.

for element in iterable:

# do something with element

Is actually implemented as.

# create an iterator object from that iterable

iter_obj = iter(iterable)

# infinite loop
while True:
try:
# get the next item
element = next(iter_obj)
# do something with element
except StopIteration:
# if StopIteration is raised, break from loop
break

So internally, the forloop creates an iterator object, iter_objby calling iter()on the iterable.
Ironically, this forloop is actually an infinite whileloop. Inside the loop, it calls next()to get
the next element and executes the body of the for loop with this value. After all the items
exhaust, StopIteration is raised which is internally caught and the loop ends. Note that any
other kind of exception will pass through.

Building Your Own Iterator in Python

Building an iterator from scratch is easy in Python. We just have to implement the methods
iter() andnext(). Theiter() method returns the iterator object itself. If required, some
initialization can be performed. Thenext() method must return the next item in the sequence.
On reaching the end, and in subsequent calls, it must raiseStopIteration.

Here, we show an example that will give us next power of 2 in each iteration. Power exponent
starts from zero up to a user set number.

class PowTwo: Page

"""Class to implement an iterator
of powers of two""" 15
definit(self, max = 0): 5
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 self.max = max

defiter(self):
self.n = 0
return self

def next(self):
if self.n <= self.max:
result = 2 ** self.n
self.n += 1
return result
else:
raise StopIteration

Now we can create an iterator and iterate through it as follows.

>>> a = PowTwo(4)
>>> i = iter(a)
>>>next(i)
1
>>>next(i)
2
>>>next(i)
4
>>>next(i)
8
>>> next(i)
16
>>> next(i)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
StopIteration

We can also use a forloop to iterate over our iterator class.

>>> for i in PowTwo(5):

... print(i)
...
1
2
4
8
16
32

Python Infinite Iterators

It is not necessary that the item in an iterator object has to exhaust. There can be infinite iterators
(which never ends). We must be careful when handling such iterator.
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second is the sentinel. The iterator calls this function until the returned value is equal to the
sentinel.

>>> int()
0

>>> inf = iter(int,1)

>>>next(inf)
0
>>>next(inf)
0

We can see that the int()function always returns 0. So passing it as iter(int,1)will return an
iterator that calls int() until the returned value equals 1. This never happens and we get an
infinite iterator.

We can also built our own infinite iterators. The following iterator will, theoretically, return all
the oddnumbers.

classInfIter:
"""Infinite iterator to return all
odd numbers"""

defiter(self):
self.num = 1
return self

defnext(self): num
= self.num
self.num += 2
return num

A sample run would be as follows.

>>> a = iter(InfIter())
>>>next(a)
1
>>>next(a)
3
>>>next(a)
5
>>>next(a)
7

And so on...

Be careful to include a terminating condition, when iterating over these type of infinite iterators.
The advantage of using iterators is that they save resources. Like shown above, we could get all
Page
the odd numbers without storing the entire number system in memory. We can have infinite
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Python Generators

There was a lot of overhead in building an iterator in Python; we had to implement a class with
iter() andnext() method, keep track of internal states, raise StopIteration when there
was no values to be returned etc. This is both lengthy and counter intuitive. Generator comes
into rescue in such situations.

Python generators are a simple way of creating iterators. All the overhead that we mentioned
above are automatically handled by generators in Python. Simply speaking, a generator is a
function that returns an object (iterator) which we can iterate over (one value at a time).

Creating a Generator in Python

It is fairly simple to create a generator in Python. It is as easy as defining a normal function with
yield statement instead of a return statement. If a function contains at least one yield
statement (it may contain other yieldor returnstatements), it becomes a generator function.
Both yieldand returnwill return some value from a function. The difference is that, while a
returnstatement terminates a function entirely, yieldstatement pauses the function saving all
its states and later continues from there on successive calls. Here is how a generator function
differs from a normal function.

 Generatorfunctioncontainsoneormoreyieldstatement.
 Whencalled,itreturnsanobject(iterator)butdoesnotstartexecutionimmediately.
 Methodslikeiter()andnext()areimplementedautomatically.Sowecaniterate
throughtheitemsusingnext().
 Oncethefunctionyields,thefunctionispausedandthecontrolistransferredtothecaller.
 Localvariablesandtheirsstatesarerememberedbetweensuccessivecalls.
 Finally,whenthefunctionterminates,StopIterationisraisedautomaticallyonfurthercalls.

Here is an example to illustrate all of the points stated above. We have a generator function
named my_gen()with several yieldstatements.

def my_gen():
"""a simple generator function"""
n = 1
print("This is printed first")
# Generator function contains yield statements
yield n

n += 1
print("This is printed second")
yield n

n += 1
print("This is printed at last") Page
yield n
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An interactive run in the interpreter is given below.

>>> # It returns an object but does not start execution immediately.

>>> a = my_gen()

>>> # We can iterate through the items using next().

>>> next(a)
This is printed first
1
>>> # Once the function yields, the function is paused and the control is
transferred to the caller.

>>> # Local variables and theirs states are remembered between successive
calls.
>>> next(a)
This is printed second
2
>>> next(a)
This is printed at last
3

>>> # Finally, when the function terminates, StopIteration is raised

automatically on further calls.
>>> next(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
StopIteration
>>> next(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
StopIteration

One interesting thing to note in the above example is that, the value of variable n is remembered
between each call. Unlike normal functions, the local variables are not destroyed when the
function yields. Furthermore, the generator object can be iterated only once. To restart the
process we need to create another generator object using something like a = my_gen().

One final thing to note is that we can use generators with for loops directly. This is because, a
forloop takes an iterator and iterates over it using next()function. It automatically ends when
StopIterationis raised.

>>> for item in my_gen():

... print(item)
...
This is printed first
1
This is printed second
2
This is printed at last
3 Page

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Python Generators with a Loop

The above example is of less use and we studied it just to get an idea of what was happening in
the background. Normally, generator functions are implemented with a loop having a suitable
terminating condition. Let's take an example of a generator that reverses a string.

def rev_str(my_str):
length = len(my_str)
for i in range(length - 1,-1,-1):
yield my_str[i]

In this example, we use range()function to get the index in reverse order. Here is a call to this
function.

>>> for char in rev_str("hello"):

... print(char)
...
o
l
l
e
h

It turns out that this generator function not only works with string, but also with other kind of
iterables like list, tuple etc.

Python Generator Expression

Simple generators can be easily created on the fly using generator expressions. It makes building
generators easy. Same as lambda function creates an anonymous function, generator expression
creates an anonymous generator function. The syntax for generator expression is similar to that
of a list comprehension in Python. But the square brackets are replaced with round parentheses.

The major difference between a list comprehension and a generator expression is that while list
comprehension produces the entire list, generator expression produces one item at a time. They
are kind of lazy, producing items only when asked for. For this reason, a generator expression is
much more memory efficient than an equivalent list comprehension.

>>> my_list = [1, 3, 6, 10]

>>> # square each term using list comprehension

>>> [x**2 for x in my_list]
[1, 9, 36, 100]

>>> # same thing can be done using generator expression

>>> (x**2 for x in my_list)
<generator object <genexpr> at 0x0000000002EBDAF8> Page

We can see above that the generator expression did not produce the required result immediately.
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>>> a = (x**2 for x in my_list)
>>>next(a)
1
>>>next(a)
9
>>> next(a)
36
>>> next(a)
100
>>> next(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
StopIteration

Generator expression can be used inside functions. When used in such a way, the round
parentheses can be dropped.

>>> sum(x**2 for x in my_list)

146

>>> max(x**2 for x in my_list)

100

Why generators are used in Python?

There are several reasons which make generators an attractive implementation to go for.

1. Easy toImplement

Generators can be implemented in a clear and concise way as compared to their iterator
class counterpart. Following is an example to implement a sequence of power of 2's using
iterator class.

class PowTwo:
definit(self, max = 0):
self.max = max

defiter(self):
self.n = 0
return self

defnext(self):
if self.n > self.max:
raise StopIteration

result = 2 ** self.n
self.n += 1
return result
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This was lengthy. Now let’s do the same using a generator function.
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 def PowTwoGen(max = 0):
n = 0
while n < max:
yield 2 ** n
n += 1

Since, generators keep track of details automatically, it was concise and much cleaner in
implementation.

2. MemoryEfficient

A normal function to return a sequence will make the entire sequence in memory before
returning the result. This is an overkill if the number of items in the sequence is very
large. Generator implementation of such sequence is memory friendly and is preferred
since it only produces one item at a time.

3. Represent InfiniteStream

Generators are excellent medium to represent an infinite stream of data. Infinite streams
cannot be stored in memory and since generators produce only one item at a time, it can
represent infinite stream of data. The following example can generate all the even
numbers (at least in theory).

def all_even():
n = 0
while True:
yield n
n += 2

4. PipeliningGenerators

Generators can be used to pipeline a series of operations. This is best illustrated using an
example.

Suppose we have a log file from a famous fast food chain. The log file has a column (4th
column) that keeps track of the number of pizza sold every hour and we want to sum it to
find the total pizzas sold in 5 years. Assume everything is in string and numbers that are
not available are marked as 'N/A'. A generator implementation of this could be as
follows.

with open('sells.log') as file:

pizza_col = (line[3] for line in file)
per_hour = (int(x) for x in pizza_col if x != 'N/A')
print("Total pizzas sold = ",sum(per_hour))

This pipelining is efficient and easy to read (and yes, a lot cooler!). Page

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Python Closures

A function defined inside another function is called a nested function. Nested functions can
access variables of the enclosing scope. In Python, these non-local variables are read only by
default and we must declare them explicitly as non-local (using nonlocalkeyword) in order to
modify them. Following is an example of a nested function accessing a non-local variable.

def print_msg(msg):
"""This is the outer enclosing function"""

defprinter():
"""This is the nested function"""
print(msg)

printer()

We execute the function as follows.

>>> print_msg("Hello")
Hello

We can see that the nested function printer() was able to access the non-local variable msg of
the enclosing function. In the example above, what would happen if the last line of the function
print_msg()returned the printer()function instead of calling it? This means the function was
defined as follows.

def print_msg(msg):
"""This is the outer enclosing function"""

defprinter():
"""This is the nested function"""
print(msg)

returnprinter # this got changed

Now let's try calling this function.

>>> another = print_msg("Hello")

>>> another()
Hello

That's unusual. The print_msg()function was called with the string "Hello"and the returned
function was bound to the name another. On calling another(), the message was still
remembered although we had already finished executing the print_msg() function. This
technique by which some data ("Hello") gets attached to the code is called closure in Python.
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>>> del print_msg
>>> another()
Hello
>>> print_msg("Hello")
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
NameError: name 'print_msg' is not defined

When Do We Have a Closure?

As seen from the above example, we have a closure in Python when a nested function references
a value in its enclosing scope. The criteria that must be met to create closure in Python are
summarized in the following points.

 Wemusthaveanestedfunction(functioninsideafunction).
 Thenestedfunctionmustrefertoavaluedefinedintheenclosingfunction.
 Theenclosingfunctionmustreturnthenestedfunction.

When To Use Closures?

So what are closures good for? Closures can avoid the use of global values and provides some
form of data hiding. It can also provide an object oriented solution to the problem. When there
are few methods (one method in most cases) to be implemented in a class, closures can provide
an alternate and more elegant solutions. But when the number of attributes and methods get
larger, better implement a class.

Here is a simple example where a closure might be more preferable than defining a class and
making objects. But the preference is all yours.

def make_multiplier_of(n):
def multiplier(x):
return x * n
returnmultiplier

Here is how we can useit.

>>> times3 =make_multiplier_of(3)

>>> times5 =make_multiplier_of(5)

>>>times3(9)
27
>>>times5(3)
15
>>> times5(times3(2))
30
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Decorators in Python make an extensive use of closures as well.
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On a concluding note, it is good to point out that the values that get enclosed in the closure
function can be found out. All function objects have aclosureattribute that returns a tuple of
cell objects if it is a closure function. Referring to the example above, we know times3 and
times5are closure functions.

>>> make_multiplier_of.closure
>>> times3.closure
(<cell at 0x0000000002D155B8: int object at 0x000000001E39B6E0>,)

The cell object has the attribute cell_contents which stores the closed value.

>>> times3.closure[0].cell_contents 3
>>> times5.closure[0].cell_contents 5

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PythonDecorators

Python has an interesting feature called decorators to add functionality to an existing code.This
is also called metaprogramming as a part of the program tries to modify another part of the
program at compiletime.

Preliminaries

In order to understand about decorators, we must first know a few basic things in Python. We
must be comfortable with the fact that, everything in Python (Yes! Even classes), are objects.
Names that we define are simply identifiers bound to these objects. Functions are no exceptions,
they are objects too (with attributes). Various different names can be bound to the same function
object. Here is an example.

>>> def first(msg):

... print(msg)
...

>>> first("Hello")
Hello

>>> second = first

>>> second("Hello")
Hello

Here, the names firstand secondrefer to the same function object.

Now things start getting weirder. Functions can be passed as arguments to another function. If
you have used functions like map, filterand reducein Python, then you already know about
this. Such function that take other functions as arguments are also called higher order
functions. Here is an example of such a function.

def inc(x):
"""Function to increase value by 1"""
return x + 1

def dec(x):
"""Function to decrease value by 1"""
return x - 1

def operate(func, x):

"""A higer order function to increase or decrease"""
result = func(x)
return result

We invoke the function as follows.

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>>> operate(inc,3)
4 16
>>> operate(dec,3)
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2

Furthermore, a function can return another function.

>>> def is_called():

... defis_returned():
... print("Hello")
... returnis_returned
...

>>> new = is_called()

>>> new()
Hello

Here, is_returned()is a nested function which is defined and returned, each time we call
is_called().

Finally, we must know about closures in Python.

Back To Decorators

Functions and methods are called callable as they can be called. In fact, any object which
implements the special methodcall()is termed callable. So, in the most basic sense, a
decorator is a callable that returns a callable. Basically, a decorator takes in a function, adds
some functionality and returns it.

def make_pretty(func):
def inner():
print("I got decorated")
func()
return inner

def ordinary():
print("I am ordinary")
>>> ordinary()
I am ordinary

>>> # let's decorate this ordinary function

>>> pretty = make_pretty(ordinary)
>>> pretty()
I got decorated
I am ordinary

In the example shown above, make_pretty()is a decorator. In the assignment step.

pretty = make_pretty(ordinary)

The function ordinary()got decorated and the returned function was given the name pretty. Page
We can see that the decorator function added some new functionality to the original function.
This is similar to packing a gift. The decorator acts as a wrapper. The nature of the object that
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got decorated (actual gift inside) does not alter. But now, it looks pretty (since it got decorated). 7
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Generally, we decorate a function and reassign it as,

ordinary = make_pretty(ordinary).

This is a common construct and for this reason, Python has a syntax to simplify this. We can use
the @ symbol along with the name of the decorator function and place it above the definition of
the function to be decorated. For example,

@make_pretty
defordinary():
print("I am ordinary")

is equivalent to

def ordinary():
print("I am ordinary")
ordinary = make_pretty(ordinary)

This is just a syntactic sugar to implement decorators.

Decorating Functions with Parameters

The above decorator was simple and it only worked with functions that did not have any
parameters. What if we had functions that took in parameters like below?

def divide(a, b):

return a/b

This function has two parameters, a and b. We know, it will give error if we pass in b as 0.

>>> divide(2,5)
0.4
>>> divide(2,0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

Now let's make a decorator to check for this case that will cause the error.

def smart_divide(func):
def inner(a,b):
print("I am going to divide",a,"and",b)
if b ==0:
print("Whoops! cannot divide")
return

return func(a,b) Page

returninner

@smart_divide
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defdivide(a,b):
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 return a/b

This new implementation will return Noneif the error condition arises.

>>> divide(2,5)
I am going to divide 2 and 5
0.4

>>> divide(2,0)
I am going to divide 2 and 0
Whoops! cannot divide

In this manner we can decorate functions that take parameters. A keen observer will notice that
parameters of the nested inner() function inside the decorator is same as the parameters of
functions it decorates. Taking this into account, now we can make general decorators that work
with any number of parameter. In Python, this magic is done as function(*args, **kwargs).
In this way, argswill be the tuple of positional arguments and kwargswill be the dictionary of
keyword arguments. An example of such decorator will be.

def works_for_all(func):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
print("I can decorate any function")
return func(*args, **kwargs)
return inner

Chaining Decorators in Python

Multiple decorators can be chained in Python. This is to say, a function can be decorated
multiple times with different (or same) decorators. We simply place the decorators above the
desired function.

def star(func):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
print("*" * 30)
func(*args, **kwargs)
print("*" * 30)
return inner

def percent(func):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
print("%" * 30)
func(*args, **kwargs)
print("%" * 30)
return inner

@star
@percent
def printer(msg):
print(msg)
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This will give theoutput.

>>>printer("Hello")

******************************
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Hello
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
******************************

The above syntax of,

@star
@percent
def printer(msg):
print(msg)

is equivalent to

def printer(msg):
print(msg)
printer = star(percent(printer))

The order in which we chain decorators matter. If we had reversed the order as,

@percent
@star
def printer(msg):
print(msg)

The execution would take place as,

>>> printer("Hello")

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
******************************
Hello
******************************
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

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Python @property

Python has a great concept called property, which makes the life of an object oriented
programmer much simpler. Before defining and going into details of what a property in Python
is, let us first build an intuition on why it would be needed in the first place.

An Example To Begin With

Let us assume that one day you decide to make a class that could store the temperature in degree
Celsius. It would also implement a method to convert the temperature into degree Fahrenheit.
One way of doing this is as follows.

class Celsius:
definit(self, temperature = 0):
self.temperature = temperature

def to_fahrenheit(self):
return (self.temperature * 1.8) + 32

We could make objects out of this class and manipulate the attribute temperature, as we
wished.

>>> # create new object

>>> man = Celsius()

>>> # set temperature

>>> man.temperature = 37

>>> # get temperature

>>> man.temperature
37

>>> # get degrees Fahrenheit

>>> man.to_fahrenheit()
98.60000000000001

The extra decimal places when converting into Fahrenheit is due to the floating point arithmetic
error (try 1.1 + 2.2 in the Python interpreter). Whenever we assign or retrieve any object attribute
like temperature, as show above, Python searches it in the object'sdictdictionary.

>>> man.dict
{'temperature': 37}

Therefore, man.temperature internally becomes man.dict['temperature'].

Now, let's further assume that our class got popular among clients and they started using it in
Page
their programs. They did all kinds of assignments to the object. One faithful day, a trusted client
came to us and suggested that temperatures cannot go below -273 degree Celsius (students of 17
thermodynamics might argue that it's actually -273.15), also called the absolute zero. He further
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asked us to implement this value constraint. Being a company that strive for customer
satisfaction, we happily heeded the suggestion and released version 1.01, an upgrade of our
existing class.

Using Getters and Setters

An obvious solution to the above constraint will be to hide the attribute temperature (make it
private) and define new getter and setter interfaces to manipulate it. This can be done as follows.

class Celsius:
definit(self, temperature = 0):
self.set_temperature(temperature)

def to_fahrenheit(self):
return (self.get_temperature() * 1.8) + 32

# new update
def get_temperature(self):
return self._temperature

def set_temperature(self, value):

if value < -273:
raise ValueError("Temperature below -273 is not possible")
self._temperature = value

We can see above that new methods get_temperature() and set_temperature() were
defined and furthermore, temperaturewas replaced with _temperature. An underscore (_) at
the beginning is used to denote private variables in Python.

>>> c = Celsius(-277)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Temperature below -273 is not possible

>>> c = Celsius(37)
>>> c.get_temperature()
37
>>> c.set_temperature(10)

>>> c.set_temperature(-300)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Temperature below -273 is not possible

This update successfully implemented the new restriction. We are no longer allowed to set
temperature below -273.
Please note that private variables don't exist in Python. There are simply norms to be followed.
The language itself don't apply any restrictions. Page
>>> c._temperature = -300
>>> c.get_temperature()
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But this is not of great concern. The big problem with the above update is that, all the clients
who implemented our previous class in their program have to modify their code from
obj.temperatureto obj.get_temperature()and all assignments like obj.temperature =
val to obj.set_temperature(val). This refactoring can cause headaches to the clients with
hundreds of thousands of lines of codes.

All in all, our new update was not backward compatible. This is where property comes to rescue.

The Power of Property

The pythonic way to deal with the above problem is to use property. Here is how we could have
achieved it.

class Celsius:
definit(self, temperature = 0):
self.temperature = temperature

def to_fahrenheit(self):
return (self.temperature * 1.8) + 32

def get_temperature(self):
print("Getting value")
return self._temperature

def set_temperature(self, value):

if value < -273:
raise ValueError("Temperature below -273 is not possible")
print("Setting value")
self._temperature = value

temperature = property(get_temperature,set_temperature)
We added a print() function inside get_temperature() and set_temperature() to clearly
observe that they are being executed. The last line of the code, makes a property object
temperature. Simply put, property attaches some code (get_temperature and
set_temperature) to the member attribute accesses (temperature). Any code that retrieves the
value of temperaturewill automatically call get_temperature()instead of a dictionary
(dict) look-up. Similarly, any code that assigns a value to temperaturewill automatically
call set_temperature(). This is one cool feature in Python. Let's see it inaction.

>>> c = Celsius()
Setting value

We can see above that set_temperature()was called even when we created an object. Can you
guess why? The reason is that when an object is created,init() method gets called. This
method has the line self.temperature = temperature. This assignment automatically called
set_temperature().
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>>> c.temperature
Getting value
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Similarly, any access like c.temperatureautomatically calls get_temperature(). This is what
property does. Here are a few more examples.

>>> c.temperature = 37
Setting value

>>> c.to_fahrenheit()
Getting value
98.60000000000001

By using property, we can see that, we modified our class and implemented the value constraint
without any change required to the client code. Thus our implementation was backward
compatible and everybody is happy.

Finally note that, the actual temperature value is stored in the private variable _temperature.
The attribute temperatureis a property object which provides interface to this private variable.

Digging Deeper into Property

In Python, property()is a built-in function that creates and returns a property object. The
signature of this function is

property(fget=None, fset=None, fdel=None, doc=None)

where, fgetis function to get value of the attribute, fsetis function to set value of the attribute,
fdel is function to delete the attribute and doc is a string (like a comment). As seen from the
implementation, these function arguments are optional. So, a property object can simply be
created as follows.

>>> property()
<property object at 0x0000000003239B38>

A property object has three methods, getter(), setter(), and delete()to specify fget, fset
and fdelat a later point. This means, the line

temperature = property(get_temperature,set_temperature)

could have been broken down as

# make empty property

temperature =property()
# assignfget
temperature = temperature.getter(get_temperature)
# assignfset
temperature = temperature.setter(set_temperature)
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Programmers familiar with decorators in Python can recognize that the above construct can be
implemented as decorators. We can further go on and not define names get_temperature and
set_temperature as they are unnecessary and pollute the class namespace. For this, we reuse
the name temperaturewhile defining our getter and setter functions. This is how it can be done.

class Celsius:
definit(self, temperature = 0):
self._temperature = temperature

def to_fahrenheit(self):
return (self.temperature * 1.8) + 32

@property
def temperature(self):
print("Getting value")
return self._temperature

@temperature.setter
def temperature(self, value):
if value < -273:
raise ValueError("Temperature below -273 is not possible")
print("Setting value")
self._temperature = value

The above implementation is both, simple and recommended way to make properties. You will
most likely encounter these types of constructs when looking for property in Python.

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Python Programming Examples
Python Program to Print Hello world!
Python Program to Add Two Numbers
Python Program to Find the Square Root
Python Program to Calculate the Area of a Triangle
Python Program to Solve Quadratic Equation
Python Program to Swap Two Variables
Python Program to Generate a Random Number
Python Program to Convert Kilometers to Miles
Python Program to Convert Celsius To Fahrenheit
Python Program to Check if a Number is Positive, Negative or Zero
Python Program to Check if a Number is Odd or Even
Python Program to Check Leap Year
Python Program to Find the Largest Among Three Numbers
Python Program to Check Prime Number
Python Program to Print all Prime Numbers in an Interval
Python Program to Find the Factorial of a Number
Python Program to Display the multiplication Table
Python Program to Print the Fibonacci sequence
Python Program to Check Armstrong Number
Python Program to Find Armstrong Number in an Interval
Python Program to Find the Sum of Natural Numbers
Python Program To Display Powers of 2 Using Anonymous Function
Python Program to Find Numbers Divisible by Another Number
Python Program to Convert Decimal to Binary, Octal and Hexadecimal
Python Program to Find ASCII Value of Character
Python Program to Find HCF or GCD
Python Program to Find LCM
Python Program to Find Factors of Number
Python Program to Make a Simple Calculator
Python Program to Shuffle Deck of Cards
Python Program to Display Calendar
Python Program to Display Fibonacci Sequence Using Recursion
Python Program to Find Sum of Natural Numbers Using Recursion
Python Program to Find Factorial of Number Using Recursion Page
Python Program to Convert Decimal to Binary Using Recursion
Python Program to Add Two Matrices 17
Python Program to Transpose a Matrix 6
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Python Program to Multiply Two Matrices
Python Program to Check Whether a String is Palindrome or Not
Python Program to Remove Punctuations From a String
Python Program to Sort Words in Alphabetic Order
Python Program to Illustrate Different Set Operations
Python Program to Count the Number of Each Vowel
Python Program to Merge Mails
Python Program to Find the Size (Resolution) of Image
Python Program to Find Hash of File

Python Program to Print Hello world!

To understand this example, you should have knowledge of following Python programming
topics:

 Getting Started inPython

 PythonInput,OutputandImport

Source Code

# This program prints Hello, world!

print('Hello, world!')

Output

Hello, world!

In this program, we have used the built-in print() function to print the string Hello,world!
on our screen. String is a sequence of characters. In Python, strings are enclosed inside single
quotes, double quotes or triple quotes (''', """).

Python Program to Add Two Numbers

 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# This program adds two numbers provided by the user Page

# Store input numbers 17

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

Output

Enter first number: 1.5

Enter second number: 6.3
The sum of 1.5 and 6.3 is 7.8

Explanation

In this program, we asked user to enter two numbers and this program displays the sum of tow
numbers entered by user. We use the built-in function input() to take the input. input()
returns a string, so we convert it into number using the float()function.

We add the two numbers using the +arithmetic operator. Changing this operator, we can subtract
(-), multiply (*), divide (/), floor divide (//) or find the remainder (%) of two numbers. Find out
more about arithmetic operatorsand input in Python.

Alternative to this, we can perform this addition in a single statement without using any variables
as follows.

print('The sum is %.1f' %(float(input('Enter first number:

'))+float(input('Enter second number: '))))

Although this program uses no variable (memory efficient), it is not quite readable. Some people
will have difficulty understanding it. It is better to write clear codes. So, there is always a
compromise between clarity and efficiency. We need to strike a balance.

Python Program to Find the Square Root

 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# Python Program to calculate the square root

num = float(input('Enter a number: '))

num_sqrt = num ** 0.5 Page
print('The square root of %0.3f is %0.3f'%(num ,num_sqrt))
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Output

Enter a number: 8
The square root of 8.000 is 2.828

In this program, we ask the user for a number and find the square root using the **exponent
operator. This program works for all positive real numbers. But for negative or complex
numbers, it can be done as follows.

# Find square root of real or complex numbers

# Import the complex math module
import cmath

num = eval(input('Enter a number: '))

num_sqrt = cmath.sqrt(num)
print('The square root of {0} is {1:0.3f}+{2:0.3f}j'.format(num
,num_sqrt.real,num_sqrt.imag))

Output

Enter a number: 1+2j

The square root of (1+2j) is 1.272+0.786j

In this program, we use the sqrt() function in the cmath (complex math) module. Notice that
we have used the eval()function instead of float()to convert complex number as well. Also
notice the way in which the output is formatted.

Python Program to Calculate the Area of a Triangle

 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# Python Program to find the area of triangle

# Three sides of the triangle a, b and c are provided by the user

a = float(input('Enter first side: '))

b = float(input('Enter second side:'))
c = float(input('Enter third side:'))

# calculate the semi-perimeter

s = (a + b + c) / 2

# calculate the area

area = (s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c)) ** 0.5 Page
print('The area of the triangle is %0.2f' %area)
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Output

Enter first side: 5

Enter second side: 6
Enter third side: 7
The area of the triangle is 14.70

In this program, we asked users to enter the length of three sides of a triangle. We used the
Heron's Formula to calculate the semi-perimeter and hence the area of the triangle.

Python Program to Solve Quadratic Equation

 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# Solve the quadratic equation ax**2 + bx + c = 0

# Coeffients a, b and c are provided by the user

# import complex math module

import cmath

a = float(input('Enter a: '))
b = float(input('Enter b: '))
c = float(input('Enter c: '))

# calculate the discriminant

d = (b**2) -(4*a*c)

# find twosolutions
sol1 = (-b-cmath.sqrt(d))/(2*a)
sol2 = (-b+cmath.sqrt(d))/(2*a)

print('The solution are {0} and {1}'.format(sol1,sol2))

Output

Enter a:1
Enter b:5
Enter c:6
The solutions are (-3+0j) and (-2+0j)

In this program, we ask the user for the coefficients of the quadratic equation. We have imported
the cmath module to perform complex square root. First we calculate the discriminant and then
find the two solutions of the quadratic equation.
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Python Program to Swap Two Variables
 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# Python program to swap two variables provided by theuser

x = input('Enter value of x:')

y = input('Enter value of y:')

# create a temporary variable and swap the values

temp = x
x = y
y = temp

print('The value of x after swapping: {}'.format(x))

print('The value of y after swapping: {}'.format(y))

Output

Enter value of x: 5
Enter value of y: 10
The value of x after swapping: 10
The value of y after swapping: 5

In this program, we use the temp variable to temporarily hold the value of x. We then put the
value of y in x and later temp in y. In this way, the values get exchanged.

Python Program to Swap Variables Without Temporary Variable

In python programming, there is a simple construct to swap variables. The following code does
the same as above but without the use of any temporary variable.

x,y = y,x

If the variables are both numbers, we can use arithmetic operations to do the same. It might not
look intuitive at the first sight. But if you think about it, its pretty easy to figure it out.Here are a
few example

Addition and Subtraction

Page
x = x + y
y = x - y
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x = x - y
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Multiplication and Division

x = x *y
y = x /y
x = x /y

XOR swap

This algorithm works for integers only

x = x ^ y
y = x ^ y
x = x ^ y

Python Program to Generate a Random Number

 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 Python RandomModule

Source Code

# Program to generate a random number between 0 and9

# import the randommodule

import random

print(random.randint(0,9))

Output

In this program, we use the randint() function inside the random module. Note that, we may
get different output because this program generates random number in range 0 and 9. The syntax
of this function is:

random.randint(a,b)

This returns a number N in the inclusive range [a,b], meaning a <= N <= b, where the
endpoints are included in the range.

Python Program to Convert Kilometers to Miles

 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 PythonOperators Page

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Source Code

# Program to convert kilometers into miles

# Input is provided by the user in kilometers

# take input from the user

kilometers = float(input('How many kilometers?: '))

# conversion factor
conv_fac = 0.621371

# calculate miles
miles = kilometers * conv_fac
print('%0.3f kilometers is equal to %0.3f miles' %(kilometers,miles))

Output

How many kilometers?: 5.5

5.500 kilometers is equal to 3.418 miles

Explanation

In this program, we use the ask the user for kilometers and convert it to miles by multiplyingit
with the conversion factor. With a slight modification, we can convert miles to kilometers. We
ask for miles and use the following formula to convert it intokilometers.

kilometers = miles / conv_fac

Python Program to Convert Celsius To Fahrenheit

 Python Variables andDatatypes
 PythonInput,OutputandImport
 PythonOperators

Source Code

# Python Program to convert temperature in celsius to fahrenheit

# Input is provided by the user in degree celsius

# take input from the user

celsius = float(input('Enter degree Celsius: '))

# calculate fahrenheit
fahrenheit = (celsius * 1.8) + 32
print('%0.1f degree Celsius is equal to %0.1f degree Fahrenheit' Page
%(celsius,fahrenheit))
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Output

Enter degree Celsius: 37.5

37.5 degree Celsius is equal to 99.5 degreeFahrenheit

In this program, we ask the user for temperature in degree Celsius and convert it into degree
Fahrenheit. They are related by the formula celsius * 1.8 = fahrenheit - 32. With a
simple modification to this program, we can convert Fahrenheit into Celsius. We ask the user for
temperature in Fahrenheit and use the following formula to convert it into Celsius.

celsius = (fahrenheit - 32) / 1.8

Python Program to Check if a Number is Positive, Negative or Zero

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif

Source Code

# In this python program, user enters a number and checked if the number is
positive or negative or zero

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num > 0:
print("Positive number")
elif num == 0:
print("Zero")
else:
print("Negative number")

Here, we have used the if...elif...elsestatement. We can do the same thing using nested if
statements as follows.

# This time use nested if to solve the problem

num = float(input("Enter a number: "))

if num >= 0:
if num == 0:
print("Zero")
else:
print("Positive number")
else:
print("Negative number")

Output 1
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Enter a number: 2
Positive number 18
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Output 2

Enter a number: 0
Zero

A number is positive if it is greater than zero. We check this in the expression of if. If it is
False, the number will either be zero or negative. This is also tested in subsequent expression.

Python Program to Check if a Number is Odd or Even

 PythonOperators
 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif

Source Code

# Python program to check if the input number is odd or even.

# A number is even if division by 2 give a remainder of 0.
# If remainder is 1, it is odd number.

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

if (num % 2) == 0:
print("{0} is Even".format(num))
else:
print("{0} is Odd".format(num))

Output 1

Enter a number: 43
43 is Odd

Output 2

Enter a number: 18
18 is Even

In this program, we ask the user for the input and check if the number is odd or even. A number
is even if it is perfectly divisible by 2. When the number is divided by 2, we use the remainder
operator %to compute the remainder. If the remainder is not zero, the number is odd.

Python Program to Check Leap Year

 PythonOperators
 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif

Source Code
Page
# Python program to check if the input year is a leap year or not 18
year = int(input("Enter a year: "))
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if (year % 4) == 0:
if (year % 100) == 0:
if (year % 400) == 0:
print("{0} is a leap year".format(year))
else:
print("{0} is not a leap year".format(year))
else:
print("{0} is a leap year".format(year))
else:
print("{0} is not a leap year".format(year))

Output 1

Enter a year: 2000

2000 is a leap year

Output 2

Enter a year: 1775

1775 is not a leap year

In this program, we ask the user to input a year and check if it is a leap year or not. Leap years
are those divisible by 4. Except those that are divisible by 100 but not by 400. Thus 1900 is not a
leap year as it is divisible by 100. But 2000 is a leap year because it if divisible by 400 as well.

Python Program to Find the Largest Among Three Numbers

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif

Source Code
# Python program to find the largest number among the three input numbers

# take three numbers from user

num1 = float(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = float(input("Enter second number: "))
num3 = float(input("Enter third number: "))

if (num1 > num2) and (num1 >num3):

largest =num1
elif (num2 > num1) and (num2 >num3):
largest =num2
else:
largest = num3

print("The largest number is",largest)

Output 1
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Enter first number: 10
Enter second number: 12
Enter third number: 14
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The largest number is 14.0
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Output 2

Enter first number: -1

Enter second number: 0
Enter third number: -3
The largest number is0.0

In this program, we ask the user to input three numbers. We use the if...elif...elseladder
to find the largest among the three and display it.

Python Program to Check Prime Number

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python forLoop
 PythonbreakandcontinueStatement

A positive integer greater than 1 which has no other factors except 1 and the number itself is
called a prime number. 2, 3, 5, 7 etc. are prime numbers as they do not have any otherfactors.
But 6 is not prime (it is composite) since, 2 x 3 =6.

Source Code

# Python program to check if the input number is prime or not

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

# prime numbers are greater than 1

if num > 1:
# check for factors
for i inrange(2,num):
if (num % i) ==0:
print(num,"is not a prime number")
print(i,"times",num//i,"is",num)
break
else:
print(num,"is a prime number")

# if input number is less than

# or equal to 1, it is not prime
else:
print(num,"is not a prime number")

Output 1

Enter a number: 407

407 is not a prime number Page
11 times 37 is 407
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Output 2

Enter a number: 853

853 is a prime number

In this program, user is asked to enter a number and this program check whether that number is
prime or not. Numbers less than or equal to 1 are not prime numbers. Hence, we only proceed if
the num is greater than 1. We check if num is exactly divisible by any number from 2 to num - 1.
If we find a factor in that range, the number is not prime. Else the number is prime.

We can decrease the range of numbers where we look for factors. In the above program, our
search range is from 2 to num - 1. We could have used the range, [2, num / 2] or [2, num ** 0.5].
The later range is based on the fact that a composite number must have a factor less than square
root of that number. Otherwise the number is prime.

Python Program to Print all Prime Numbers in an Interval

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python forLoop
 PythonbreakandcontinueStatement

A positive integer greater than 1 which has no other factors except 1 and the number itself is
called a prime number. 2, 3, 5, 7 etc. are prime numbers as they do not have any other factors.
But 6 is not prime (it is composite) since, 2 x 3 = 6. We ask the user for a range and display all
the primes in that interval.

Source Code

# Python program to ask the user for a range and display all the prime
numbers in that interval

# take input from the user

lower = int(input("Enter lower range: "))
upper = int(input("Enter upper range: "))

for num in range(lower,upper + 1):

# prime numbers are greater than 1
if num > 1:
for i in range(2,num):
if (num % i) == 0:
break
else:
print(num)
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Output

Enter lower range: 900

Enter upper range: 1000
907
911
919
929
937
941
947
953
967
971
977
983
991
997

Here, we take an interval from the user and find prime numbers in that range.

Python Program to Find the Factorial of a Number

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python forLoop

The factorial of a number is the product of all the integers from 1 to that number. For example,
the factorial of 6 (denoted as 6!) is 1*2*3*4*5*6 = 720. Factorial is not defined for negative
numbers and the factorial of zero is one, 0! = 1.

Source Code

# Python program to find the factorial of a number provided by the user.

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
factorial = 1

# check if the number is negative, positive or zero

if num < 0:
print("Sorry, factorial does not exist for negative numbers")
elif num == 0:
print("The factorial of 0 is 1")
else:
for i in range(1,num + 1):
factorial = factorial*i
print("The factorial of",num,"is",factorial)
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Output 1

Enter a number: -2
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Output 2

Enter a number: 7
The factorial of 7 is 5040

Here, we take input from the user and check if the number is negative, zero or positive using
if...elif...elsestatement. If the number is positive, we use forloop and range()function
to calculate the factorial.

Python Program to Display the multiplication Table

 Python forLoop

Source Code

# Python program to find the multiplication table (from 1 to 10) of a number

input by the user

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Display multiplication table of? "))

# use for loop to iterate 10 times

for i in range(1,11):
print(num,'x',i,'=',num*i)

Output

Display multiplication table of? 12

12 x 1 = 12
12 x 2 = 24
12 x 3 = 36
12 x 4 = 48
12 x 5 = 60
12 x 6 = 72
12 x 7 = 84
12 x 8 = 96
12 x 9 = 108
12 x 10 = 120

Here, we ask the user for a number and display the multiplication table upto 10. We use forloop
along with the range()function to iterate 10 times.

Python Program to Print the Fibonacci sequence

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python whileLoop

Page
A Fibonacci sequence is the integer sequence of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.... The first two terms are 0 and
1. All other terms are obtained by adding the preceding two terms. This means to say thenth 19
term is the sum of (n-1)th and (n-2)thterm.
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Source Code

# Program to display the Fibonacci sequence up to n-th term where n is

provided by the user

# take input from the user

nterms = int(input("How many terms? "))

# first two terms

n1 =0
n2 =1
count = 2

# check if the number of terms is valid

if nterms <= 0:
print("Plese enter a positive integer")
elif nterms == 1:
print("Fibonacci sequence:")
print(n1)
else:
print("Fibonacci sequence:")
print(n1,",",n2,end=', ')
while count < nterms:
nth = n1 + n2
print(nth,end=' , ')
# update values
n1 = n2
n2 = nth
count +=1

Output

How many terms? 10

Fibonacci sequence:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,

Here, we ask the user for the number of terms in the sequence. We initialize the first term to 0
and the second term to 1. If the number of terms is more than 2, we use a whileloop to find the
next term in the sequence by adding the preceding two terms. We then interchange the variables
(update it) and continue on with the process.

Python Program to Check Armstrong Number

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python whileLoop

An Armstrong number, also known as narcissistic number, is a number that is equal to the sum
of the cubes of its own digits. For example, 370 is an Armstrong number since 370 = 3*3*3 + Page
7*7*7 + 0*0*0.
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Source Code

# Python program to check if the number provided by the user is an Armstrong

number or not

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

# initialise sum
sum = 0

# find the sum of the cube of each digit

temp = num
while temp > 0:
digit = temp % 10
sum += digit ** 3
temp //=10

# display the result

if num ==sum:
print(num,"is an Armstrong number")
else:
print(num,"is not an Armstrong number")

Output 1

Enter a number: 663

663 is not an Armstrong number

Output 2

Enter a number: 407

407 is an Armstrong number

Here, we ask the user for a number and check if it is an Armstrong number. We need to calculate
the sum of cube of each digit. So, we initialize the sum to 0 and obtain each digit number by
using the modulus operator %. Remainder of a number when it is divide by 10 is the last digit of
that number. We take the cubes using exponent operator. Finally, we compare the sum with the
original number and conclude that it is Armstrong number if they are equal.

Python Program to Find Armstrong Number in an Interval

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python whileLoop

An Armstrong number, also known as narcissistic number, is a number that is equal to the sum
Page
of the cubes of its own digits. For example, 371 is an Armstrong number since 371 = 3*3*3 +
7*7*7 + 1*1*1. 19
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Source Code

# Program to ask the user for a range and display all Armstrong numbers in
that interval

# take input from the user

lower = int(input("Enter lower range: "))
upper = int(input("Enter upper range: "))

for num in range(lower,upper + 1):

# initialize sum
sum = 0

# find the sum of the cube of each digit

temp = num
while temp >0:
digit = temp %10
sum += digit **3
temp //=10

if num == sum:
print(num)

Output

Enter lower range: 100

Enter upper range: 1000
153
370
371
407

Here, we ask the user for the interval in which we want to search for Armstrong numbers.We
scan through the interval and display all the numbers that meet the condition. We can see that
there are 4 three digit Armstrongnumbers.

Python Program to Find the Sum of Natural Numbers

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python whileLoop

Source Code

# Python program to find the sum of natural numbers up to n where n is

provided by user

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: ")) Page

if num < 0: 19
print("Enter a positive number")
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 sum = 0
# use while loop to iterate un till zero
while(num > 0):
sum += num
num -= 1
print("The sum is",sum)

Output

Enter a number: 16
The sum is 136

Here, we ask the user for a number and display the sum of natural numbers up to that number.
We use whileloop to iterate until the number becomes zero.

We could have solved the above problem without using any loops. From mathematics, we know
that sum of natural numbers is given by n*(n+1)/2. We could have used this formula directly.
For example, if n = 16, the sum would be (16*17)/2 = 136.

Python Program To Display Powers of 2 Using Anonymous Function

 Python forLoop
 Python Anonymous/LambdaFunction

Source Code

# Python Program to display the powers of 2 using anonymous function

# Take number of terms from user

terms = int(input("How many terms? "))

# use anonymous function

result = list(map(lambda x: 2 ** x, range(terms)))

# display the result

for i in range(terms):
print("2 raised to power",i,"is",result[i])

Output

How many terms? 10

2 raised to power 0 is 1
2 raised to power 1 is 2
2 raised to power 2 is 4
2 raised to power 3 is 8
2 raised to power 4 is 16
2 raised to power 5 is 32
2 raised to power 6 is 64 Page
2 raised to power 7 is 128
2 raised to power 8 is 256 19
2 raised to power 9 is 512
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In this program, we have used anonymous (lambda) function inside the map()built-in function
to find the powers of 2.

Python Program to Find Numbers Divisible by Another Number

 Python Anonymous/LambdaFunction
 PythonList

Source Code

# Python Program to find numbers divisible by thirteen from a list using

anonymous function

# Take a list of numbers

my_list = [12, 65, 54, 39, 102, 339, 221,]

# use anonymous function to filter

result = list(filter(lambda x: (x % 13 == 0), my_list))

# display the result

print("Numbers divisible by 13 are",result)

Output

Numbers divisible by 13 are [65, 39, 221]

In this program, we have used anonymous (lambda) function inside the filter()built-in
function to find all the numbers divisible by 13 in the list.

Python Program to Convert Decimal to Binary, Octal and Hexadecimal

 Python Programming Built-inFunctions

Decimal system is the most widely used number system. But computer only understands binary.
Binary, octal and hexadecimal number systems are closely related and we may require to convert
decimal into these systems. Decimal system is base 10 (ten symbols, 0-9, are used to represent a
number) and similarly, binary is base 2, octal is base 8 and hexadecimal is base 16.

A number with the prefix '0b' is considered binary, '0o' is considered octal and '0x' as
hexadecimal. For example:

60 = 0b11100 = 0o74 = 0x3c

Source Code

# Python program to convert decimal number into binary, octal and hexadecimal
number system Page
# Take decimal number from user
dec = int(input("Enter an integer: "))
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print("The decimal value of",dec,"is:")
print(bin(dec),"in binary.")
print(oct(dec),"in octal.")
print(hex(dec),"in hexadecimal.")

Output

Enter an integer: 344

The decimal value of 344 is:
0b101011000 in binary.
0o530 in octal.
0x158 in hexadecimal.

In this program, we have used built-in functions bin(), oct()and hex()to convert the given
decimal number into respective number systems. These functions take an integer (in decimal)
and return a string.

Python Program to Find ASCII Value of Character

 Python Programming Built-inFunctions

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a numeric value
given to different characters and symbols, for computers to store and manipulate. For example:
ASCII value of the letter 'A' is 65.

Source Code

# Program to find the ASCII value of the given character

# Take character from user

c = input("Enter a character: ")

print("The ASCII value of '" + c + "' is",ord(c))

Output 1

Enter a character: p
The ASCII value of 'p' is 112

Here we have used ord() function to convert a character to an integer (ASCII value). This
function actually returns the Unicode code point of that character. Unicode is also an encoding
technique that provides a unique number to a character. While ASCII only encodes 128
characters, current Unicode has more than 100,000 characters from hundreds of scripts.

We can use chr()function to inverse this process, meaning, return a character for the input
integer. Page

>>> chr(65) 19
'A'
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>>> chr(120)
'x'
>>> chr(ord('S') + 1)
'T'

Here, ord()and chr()are built-in functions.

Python Program to Find HCF or GCD

 Python whileLoop
 Python forLoop
 PythonFunctions
 Python FunctionArguments
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions

The highest common factor (H.C.F) or greatest common divisor (G.C.D) of two numbers is the
largest positive integer that perfectly divides the two given numbers. For example, the H.C.F of
12 and 14 is 2.

Source Code

# Python program to find the H.C.F of two input number

# define a function
def hcf(x, y):
"""This function takes two
integers and returns the H.C.F"""

# choose the smaller number

if x > y:
smaller = y
else:
smaller = x

for i in range(1,smaller + 1):

if((x % i == 0) and (y % i == 0)):
hcf = i

return

# take input from the user

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = int(input("Enter second number: "))

print("The H.C.F. of", num1,"and", num2,"is", hcf(num1, num2))

Output Page
Enter first number: 54
Enter second number: 24
19
The H.C.F. of 54 and 24 is 6
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This program asks for two integers and passes them to a function which returns the H.C.F. In the
function, we first determine the smaller of the two number since the H.C.F can only be less than
or equal to the smallest number. We then use a for loop to go from 1 to that number. In each
iteration we check if our number perfectly divides both the input numbers. If so, we store the
number as H.C.F. At the completion of the loop we end up with the largest number that perfectly
divides both the numbers.

The above method is easy to understand and implement but not efficient. A much more efficient
method to find the H.C.F. is the Euclidean algorithm.

Euclidean algorithm

This algorithm is based on the fact that H.C.F. of two numbers divides their difference as well. In
this algorithm, we divide the greater by smaller and take the remainder. Now, divide the smaller
by this remainder. Repeat until the remainder is 0.

For example, if we want to find the H.C.F. of 54 and 24, we divide 54 by 24. The remainder is 6.
Now, we divide 24 by 6 and the remainder is 0. Hence, 6 is the required H.C.F. We can do thisin
Python asfollows.

Source Code

def hcf(x, y):

"""This function implements the Euclidian algorithm
to find H.C.F. of two numbers"""

while(y):
x, y = y, x % y

return x

Here we loop until y becomes zero. The statement x, y = y, x % ydoes swapping of values in
Python. Click here to learn more about swapping variables in Python. In each iteration we place
the value of y in x and the remainder (x % y) in y, simultaneously. When y becomes zero, we
have H.C.F. in x.

Python Program to Find LCM

 Python whileLoop
 PythonFunctions
 Python FunctionArguments
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions

Page
The least common multiple (L.C.M.) of two numbers is the smallest positive integer that is
perfectly divisible by the two given numbers. For example, the L.C.M. of 12 and 14 is 84. 19
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Source Code to find LCM

# Python Program to find the L.C.M. of two input number

# define a function
def lcm(x, y):
"""This function takes two
integers and returns theL.C.M."""

# choose the greater number

if x > y:
greater = x
else:
greater = y

while(True):
if((greater % x == 0) and (greater % y == 0)):
lcm = greater
break
greater += 1

return lcm

# take input from the user

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = int(input("Enter second number: "))

print("The L.C.M. of", num1,"and", num2,"is", lcm(num1, num2))

Output

Enter first number: 54

Enter second number: 24
The L.C.M. of 54 and 24 is 216

This program asks for two integers and passes them to a function which returns the L.C.M. In the
function, we first determine the greater of the two number since the L.C.M. can only be greater
than or equal to the largest number. We then use an infinite while loop to go from that number
and beyond. In each iteration, we check if both the input numbers perfectly divides our number.
If so, we store the number as L.C.M. and break from the loop. Otherwise, the number is
incremented by 1 and the loop continues.

The above program is slower to run. We can make it more efficient by using the fact that the
product of two numbers is equal to the product of least common multiple and greatest common
divisor of those two numbers.

Page
Number1 * Number2 = L.C.M. * G.C.D.
19
Here is a Python program to implement this.
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Source Code

# Python program to find the L.C.M. of two input number

# define gcd function

def gcd(x, y):
"""This function implements the Euclidian algorithm
to find G.C.D. of two numbers"""

while(y):
x, y = y, x % y

return x

# define lcm function

def lcm(x, y):
"""This function takes two
integers and returns theL.C.M."""

lcm = (x*y)//gcd(x,y)
return lcm

# take input from the user

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = int(input("Enter second number: "))

print("The L.C.M. of", num1,"and", num2,"is", lcm(num1, num2))

The output of this program is same as before. We have two functions gcd()and lcm(). We
require G.C.D. of the numbers to calculate its L.C.M. So, lcm()calls the function gcd()to
accomplish this. G.C.D. of two numbers can be calculated efficiently using the Euclidean
algorithm.

Python Program to Find Factors of Number

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 Python whileLoop
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions

Source Code

# Python Program to find the factors of a number

# define a function
def print_factors(x):
"""This function takes a
number and prints the factors"""
Page
print("The factors of",x,"are:")
for i in range(1, x + 1): 20
if x % i == 0:
print(i) 0
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# take input from the user
num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

print_factors(num)

Output

Enter a number: 320

The factors of 320 are:
1
2
4
5
8
10
16
20
32
40
64
80
160
320
In this program we take a number from the user and display its factors using the function
print_factors(). In the function, we use a forloop to iterate from 1 to that number and only
print it if, it perfectly divides our number. Here, print_factors()is a user-defined function.

Python Program to Make a Simple Calculator

 PythonFunctions
 Python FunctionArguments
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions

Source Code

# Program make a simple calculator that can add, subtract, multiply and
divide using functions

# define functions
def add(x, y):
"""This function adds two numbers"""

return x + y
Page
def subtract(x, y):
"""This function subtracts two numbers""" 20
return x - y
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def multiply(x, y):
"""This function multiplies two numbers"""

return x * y

def divide(x, y):

"""This function divides two numbers"""

return x / y

# take input from the user

print("Select operation.")
print("1.Add")
print("2.Subtract")
print("3.Multiply")
print("4.Divide")

choice = input("Enter choice(1/2/3/4):")

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))

num2 = int(input("Enter second number: "))

if choice == '1':
print(num1,"+",num2,"=", add(num1,num2))

elif choice == '2':

print(num1,"-",num2,"=", subtract(num1,num2))

elif choice == '3':

print(num1,"*",num2,"=", multiply(num1,num2))

elif choice == '4':

print(num1,"/",num2,"=", divide(num1,num2))
else:
print("Invalid input")

Output

Select operation.
1.Add
2.Subtract
3.Multiply
4.Divide
Enter choice(1/2/3/4): 3
Enter first number: 15
Enter second number: 14
15 * 14 = 210

In this program, we ask the user to choose the desired operation. Options 1,2,3 and 4 are valid.
Two numbers are taken and an if...elif...else branching is used to execute a particular
Page
section. User-defined functions add(), subtract(), multiply() and divide() evaluate
respective operations. 20
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Python Program to Shuffle Deck of Cards
 Python forLoop
 PythonModules
 Python RandomModule
 Python Programming Built-inFunctions

Source Code

# Python program to shuffle a deck of card using the module random and draw 5
cards

# import modules
import itertools, random

# make a deck of cards

deck =
list(itertools.product(range(1,14),['Spade','Heart','Diamond','Club']))

# shuffle the cards

random.shuffle(deck)

# draw five cards

print("You got:")
for i in range(5):
print(deck[i][0], "of", deck[i][1])

Output 1

Yougot:
5 ofHeart
1 ofHeart
8 ofSpade
12 of Spade
4 of Spade

Output 2

Yougot:
10 ofClub
1 ofHeart
3 of Diamond
2 ofClub
3 ofClub

In program, we used the product() function in itertools module to create a deck of cards.
This function performs the Cartesian product of the two sequence. The two sequence are,
numbers from 1 to 13 and the four suits. So, altogether we have 13 * 4 = 52 items in the deck Page
with each card as a tuple. For e.g. deck[0] = (1, 'Spade'). Our deck is ordered, so we shuffle
it using the function shuffle()in randommodule. Finally, we draw the first five cards and 20
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display it to the user. We will get different output each time you run this program as shown in
our two outputs.

Here we have used the standard modules itertoolsand randomthat comes with Python.

Python Program to Display Calendar

 PythonModules
 Python Programming Built-inFunctions

Source Code

# Python program to display calendar of given month of theyear

# importmodule
importcalendar

# ask of month and year

yy = int(input("Enter year: "))
mm = int(input("Enter month: "))

# display the calendar

print(calendar.month(yy,mm))

Output

Enter year: 2014

Enter month:11
November2014
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 1516
17 18 19 20 21 2223
24 25 26 27 28 2930

In this program we import the calendar module. We ask the user for a year and month. The
month()function inside the module takes in the year and the month and displays the calendar for
that month of the year.

Here we have used the standard module calendarthat comes with Python.

Python Program to Display Fibonacci Sequence Using Recursion

 Python forLoop
 PythonFunctions
 PythonRecursion Page

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A Fibonacci sequence is the integer sequence of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.... The first two terms are 0 and
1. All other terms are obtained by adding the preceding two terms. This means to say thenth
term is the sum of (n-1)th and (n-2)thterm.

Source Code

# Python program to display the Fibonacci sequence up to n-th term using

recursive functions

def recur_fibo(n):
"""Recursive function to
print Fibonacci sequence"""
if n <=1:
return n
else:
return(recur_fibo(n-1) + recur_fibo(n-2))

# take input from the user

nterms = int(input("How many terms? "))

# check if the number of terms is valid

if nterms <= 0:
print("Plese enter a positive integer")
else:
print("Fibonacci sequence:")
for i in range(nterms):
print(recur_fibo(i))

Output

How many terms? 10

Fibonacci sequence:
0
1
1
2
3
5
8
13
21
34

In this program, we ask the user for the number of terms in the sequence. A recursive function
recur_fibo()is used to calculate the nth term of the sequence. We use a forloop to iterate and
calculate each term recursively.
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Python Program to Find Sum of Natural Numbers Using Recursion
 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 PythonFunctions
 PythonRecursion

Source Code

# Python program to find the sum of natural numbers up to n using recursive

function

def recur_sum(n):
"""Function to return the sum
of natural numbers using recursion"""
if n <= 1:
return n
else:
return n + recur_sum(n-1)

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

if num < 0:
print("Enter a positive number")
else:
print("The sum is",recur_sum(num))

Output

Enter a number: 16
The sum is 136

In this program, we ask the user for a number and use recursive function recur_sum()to
compute the sum up to that number.

Python Program to Find Factorial of Number Using Recursion

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 PythonFunctions
 PythonRecursion

The factorial of a number is the product of all the integers from 1 to that number. For example,
the factorial of 6 (denoted as 6!) is 1*2*3*4*5*6 = 720. Factorial is not defined for negative
numbers and the factorial of zero is one, 0! = 1.
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Source Code

# Python program to find the factorial of a number using recursion

def recur_factorial(n):
"""Function to return the factorial
of a number using recursion"""
if n == 1:
return n
else:
return n*recur_factorial(n-1)

# take input from the user

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

# check is the number is negative

if num < 0:
print("Sorry, factorial does not exist for negative numbers")
elif num == 0:
print("The factorial of 0 is 1")
else:
print("The factorial of",num,"is",recur_factorial(num))

Output 1

Enter a number: -2
Sorry, factorial does not exist for negative numbers

Output 2

Enter a number: 7
The factorial of 7 is 5040

Here, we ask the user for a number and use recursive function recur_factorial()to compute
the product up to that number.

Python Program to Convert Decimal to Binary Using Recursion

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 PythonFunctions
 PythonRecursion

Source Code

# Python program to convert decimal number into binary number using recursive
function
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def binary(n):
"""Function to print binary number
for the input decimal using recursion"""
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if n > 1: 7
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 binary(n//2)
print(n % 2,end = '')

# Take decimal number from user

dec = int(input("Enter an integer: "))
binary(dec)

Output

Enter an integer: 52
110100

In this program, we convert decimal number entered by the user into binary using a recursive
function. Decimal number is converted into binary by dividing the number successively by 2 and
printing the remainder in reverse order.

Python Program to Add Two Matrices

 Python forLoop
 PythonList

In Python, we can implement a matrix as nested list (list inside a list). We can treat each element
as a row of the matrix. For example X = [[1, 2], [4, 5], [3, 6]] would represent a 3x2
matrix. First row can be selected as X[0] and the element in first row, first column can be
selected as X[0][0].

We can perform matrix addition in various ways in Python. Here are a couple of them.

Matrix Addition using Nested Loop

Source Code
# Program to add two matrices using nested loop

X = [[12,7,3],
[4,5,6],
[7,8,9]]

Y =[[5,8,1],
[6,7,3],
[4,5,9]]

result = [[0,0,0],
[0,0,0],
[0,0,0]]
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# iterate through rows
for i in range(len(X)):
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# iterate through columns
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 for j in range(len(X[0])):
result[i][j] = X[i][j] + Y[i][j]

for r in result:
print(r)

Output

[17, 15,4]
[10, 12,9]
[11, 13, 18]

Explanation

In this program we have used nested forloops to iterate through each row and each column. At
each point we add the corresponding elements in the two matrices and store it in the result.

MatrixAdditionusingNestedListComprehension

SourceCode

# Program to add two matrices

# using list comprehension

X = [[12,7,3],
[4,5,6],
[7,8,9]]

Y =[[5,8,1],
[6,7,3],
[4,5,9]]

result = [[X[i][j]+Y[i][j] for j in range(len(X[0]))] for i in

range(len(X))]

for r in result:
print(r)

The output of this program is the same as above. We have used nested list comprehension to
iterate through each element in the matrix. List comprehension allows us to write concise codes
and we must try to use them frequently in Python. They are very helpful.

Python Program to Transpose a Matrix

 Python forLoop
 PythonList
Page
In Python, we can implement a matrix as nested list (list inside a list). We can treat each element
as a row of the matrix. For example X = [[1, 2], [4, 5], [3, 6]]would represent a 3x2 20
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matrix. First row can be selected as X[0]and the element in first row, first column can be
selected as X[0][0].

Transpose of a matrix is the interchanging of rows and columns. It is denoted as X'. The element
at ith row and jth column in X will be placed at jth row and ith column in X'. So if X is a 3x2
matrix, X' will be a 2x3 matrix. Here are a couple of ways to accomplish this in Python.

MatrixTransposeusingNestedLoop

SourceCode
# Program to transpose a matrix using nested loop

X = [[12,7],
[4,5],
[3,8]]

result = [[0,0,0],
[0,0,0]]

# iterate through rows

for i in range(len(X)):
# iterate through columns
for j inrange(len(X[0])):
result[j][i] =X[i][j]

for r in result:
print(r)

Output

[12, 4, 3]
[7, 5, 8]

In this program we have used nested forloops to iterate through each row and each column. At
each point we place the X[i][j] element into result[j][i].

Matrix Transpose using Nested List

Comprehension Source Code

# Program to transpose a matrix

# using list comprehension

X = [[12,7],
[4,5],
[3,8]]
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result = [[X[j][i] for j in range(len(X))] for i in range(len(X[0]))]
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Explanation

The output of this program is the same as above. We have used nested list comprehension to
iterate through each element in the matrix. List comprehension allows us to write concise codes
and we must try to use them frequently in Python. They are very helpful.

Python Program to Multiply Two Matrices

 Python forLoop
 PythonList

In Python we can implement a matrix as nested list (list inside a list). We can treat each element
as a row of the matrix. For example X = [[1, 2], [4, 5], [3, 6]] would represent a 3x2
matrix. First row can be selected as X[0] and the element in first row, first column can be
selected as X[0][0].

Multiplication of two matrices X and Y is defined only if the number of columns in X is equal to
the number of rows Y. If X is a n x mmatrix and Y is a m x lmatrix then, XY is defined and has
the dimension n x l (but YX is not defined). Here are a couple of ways to implement matrix
multiplication in Python.

MatrixMultiplicationusingNestedLoop

SourceCode
# Program to multiply two matrices using nested loops

# 3x3 matrix
X = [[12,7,3],
[4,5,6],
[7,8,9]]
# 3x4 matrix
Y = [[5,8,1,2],
[6,7,3,0],
[4,5,9,1]]
# result is 3x4
result = [[0,0,0,0],
[0,0,0,0],
[0,0,0,0]]

# iterate through rows of X

for i in range(len(X)):
# iterate through columns of Y
for j in range(len(Y[0])):
# iterate through rows of Y
for k in range(len(Y)):
result[i][j] += X[i][k] * Y[k][j]
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for r in result:
print(r) 21
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Output

[114, 160, 60, 27]

[74, 97, 73, 14]
[119, 157, 112, 23]

In this program, we have used nested forloops to iterate through each row and each column. We
accumulate the sum of products in the result. This technique is simple but computationally
expensive as we increase the order of matrix. For larger matrix operations we recommend
optimized software packages like NumPywhich is several (in the order of 1000) times faster than
the abovecode.

MatrixMultiplicationusingNestedListComprehension

SourceCode
# Program to multiply two matrices using list comprehension

# 3x3 matrix
X = [[12,7,3],
[4,5,6],
[7,8,9]]
# 3x4 matrix
Y = [[5,8,1,2],
[6,7,3,0],
[4,5,9,1]]

# result is 3x4
result = [[sum(a*b for a,b in zip(X_row,Y_col)) for Y_col in zip(*Y)]for
X_row inX]

for r inresult:
print(r)

The output of this program is the same as above. To understand the above code we must first
know about built-in function zip()and unpacking argumnet list using * operator. We have used
nested list comprehension to iterate through each element in the matrix. The code looks
complicated and unreadable at first. But once you get the hang of list comprehensions, you will
probably not go back to nested loops.

Python Program to Check Whether a String is Palindrome or Not

 Pythonif...elif...elseandNestedif
 PythonStrings
 Python StringMethods

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A palindrome is a string which is same read forward or backwards. For example: "dad" is the
same in forward or reverse direction. Another example is "aibohphobia" which literally means, 21
an irritable fear of palindromes.
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Source Code

# Program to check if a string

# is palindrome ornot

# take input from the user

my_str = input("Enter a string: ")

# make it suitable for caselesscomparison

my_str =my_str.casefold()

# reverse the string

rev_str =reversed(my_str)

# check if the string is equal to its reverse

if list(my_str) == list(rev_str):
print("It is palindrome")
else:
print("It is not palindrome")

Output 1

Enter a string: aIbohPhoBiA

It is palindrome

Output 2

Enter a string: palindrome

It is not palindrome

In this program, we have taken a string from the user. Using the method casefold()we make it
suitable for caseless comparisons. Basically, this method returns a lowercased version of the
string. We reverse the string using the built-in function reversed(). Since this function returns a
reversed object, we use the list()function to convert them into a list before comparing.

Python Program to Remove Punctuations From a String

 Python forLoop
 PythonStrings

Sometimes, we may wish to break a sentence into a list of words. In such cases, we may first
want to clean up the string and remove all the punctuation marks. Here is an example of how it is
done.

Source Code
Page

# Program to all punctuation from the string provided by the user 21

# define punctuation 3
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punctuations = '''!()-[]{};:'"\,<>./?@#$%^&*_~'''

# take input from the user

my_str = input("Enter a string: ")

# remove punctuation from the string

no_punct = ""
for char in my_str:
if char not in punctuations:
no_punct = no_punct + char

# display the unpunctuated string

print(no_punct)

Output

Enter a string: "Hello!!!", he said ---and went.

Hello he said and went

In this program, we first define a string of punctuations. Then, we iterate over the provided string
using a for loop. In each iteration, we check if the character is a punctuation mark or not using
the membership test. We have an empty string to which we add (concatenate) the character if it is
not a punctuation. Finally, we display the cleaned up string.

Python Program to Sort Words in Alphabetic Order

 Python forLoop
 PythonStrings
 Python StringMethods

In this example, we illustrate how words can be sorted lexicographically (alphabetic order).

Source Code

# Program to sort alphabetically the words form a string provided by the user

# take input from the user

my_str = input("Enter a string: ")

# breakdown the string into a list of words

words = my_str.split()

# sort the list

words.sort()

# display the sorted words

for word in words:
print(word) Page

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Output

Enter a string: Hello this Is an Example With cased letters

Example
Hello
Is
With
an
cased
letters
this

In this program, we take a string form the user. Using the split() method the string is converted
into a list of words. The split() method splits the string at whitespaces. The list of words isthen
sorted using the sort() method and all the words aredisplayed.

Python Program to Illustrate Different Set Operations

 PythonSets

Python offers a datatype called set whose elements must be unique. It can be used to perform
different set operations like union, intersection, difference and symmetric difference.

Source Code
# Program to perform different set operations like in mathematics

# define three sets

E = {0, 2, 4, 6,8};
N = {1, 2, 3, 4,5};

# set union
print("Union of E and N is",E | N)

# set intersection
print("Intersection of E and N is",E & N)

# set difference
print("Difference of E and N is",E - N)

# set symmetric difference

print("Symmetric difference of E and N is",E ^ N)

Output

Union of E and N is {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8}

Intersection of E and N is {2, 4}
Difference of E and N is {8, 0, 6}
Symmetric difference of E and N is {0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8} Page

In this program, we take two different sets and perform different set operations on them. This can 21
equivalently done by using set methods.
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Python Program to Count the Number of Each Vowel
 Python forLoop
 PythonStrings
 Python StringMethods

Source Code
# Program to count the number of each vowel in a string

# string of vowels
vowels = 'aeiou'

# take input from the user

ip_str = input("Enter a string: ")

# make it suitable for caseless comparisions

ip_str = ip_str.casefold()

# make a dictionary with each vowel a key and value 0

count = {}.fromkeys(vowels,0)

# count the vowels

for char in ip_str:
if char in count:
count[char] += 1

print(count)

Output

Enter a string: Hello, have you tried our turorial section yet?
{'e': 5, 'u': 3, 'o': 5, 'a': 2, 'i': 3}

In this program we have taken a string from the user. Using the method casefold()we make it
suitable for caseless comparisions. Basically, this method returns a lowercased version of the
string. We use the dictionary method fromkeys()to construct a new dictionary with each vowel
as its key and all values equal to 0. This is initialization of the count. Next we iterate over the
input string using a forloop. In each iteration we check if the character is in the dictionary keys
(Trueif it is a vowel) and increment the value by 1 if true.

We can do the same thing using a dictionary comprehension.

Source Code
# Program to count the number of
# each vowel in a string using
# dictionary and list comprehension Page
# take input from the user
ip_str = input("Enter a string: ")
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# make it suitable for caseless comparisions
ip_str = ip_str.casefold()

# count the vowels

count = {x:sum([1 for char in ip_str if char == x]) for x in 'aeiou'}

print(count)

Explanation

The ouput of this program is the same as above. Here we have nested a list comprehension inside
a dictionary comprehension to count the vowels in a single line. However, this program is slower
as we iterate over the entire input string for each vowel.

Python Program to Merge Mails

 Python StringMethods
 Python FileI/O

When we want to send the same invitations to many people, the body of the mail does not
change. Only the name (and maybe address) needs to be changed. Mail merge is a process of
doing this. Instead of writing each mail separately, we have a template for body of the mail and a
list of names that we merge together to form all the mails.

Source Code to Merge Mails

# Python program to mail merger
# Names are in the file names.txt
# Body of the mail is in body.txt

# open names.txt for reading

with open("names.txt",'r',encoding = 'utf-8') as names_file:

# open body.txt for reading

with open("body.txt",'r',encoding = 'utf-8') as body_file:

# read entire content of thebody

body =body_file.read()

# iterate over names

for name innames_file:
mail = "Hello "+name+body
# write the mails to individual files
with open(name.strip()+".txt",'w',encoding = 'utf-8') as
mail_file:
mail_file.write(mail)
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For this program, we have written all the names in separate lines in the file "names.txt". The
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body is in the "body.txt" file. We open both the files in reading mode and iterate over each name 7
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using a for loop. A new file with the name "[name].txt" is created, where name is the name of
that person. We use strip()method to clean up leading and trailing whitespaces (reading a line
from the file also reads the newline '\n' character). Finally, we write the content of the mail into
this file using the write()method.

Python Program to Find the Size (Resolution) of Image

 PythonFunctions
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions
 Python FileI/O

JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It is one of the most
widely used compression techniques for image compression.

Most of the file formats have headers (initial few bytes) which contain useful information about
the file. For example, jpeg headers contain information like height, width, number of color
(grayscale or RGB) etc. In this program, we find the resolution of a jpeg image reading these
headers, without using any external library.

Source Code of Find Resolution of JPEG Image

# Python Program to find the resolution of a jpeg image without using

external libraries

def jpeg_res(filename):
""""This function prints the resolution
of the jpeg image file passed into it"""

# open image for reading in binary mode

with open(filename,'rb') as img_file:

# height of image (in 2 bytes) is at 164thposition

img_file.seek(163)

# read the 2bytes

a = img_file.read(2)

# calculate height
height = (a[0] << 8) + a[1]

# next 2 bytes is width

a = img_file.read(2)

# calculate width
width = (a[0] << 8) + a[1]
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print("The resolution of the image is",width,"x",height)
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Output

The resolution of the image is 280 x 280

In this program, we opened the image in binary mode. Non-text files must be open in this mode.
The height of the image is at 164th position followed by width of the image. Both are 2 bytes
long. Note that this is true only for JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) standard. If your image
is encode using other standard (like EXIF), the code will not work. We convert the 2 bytes into a
number using bitwise shifting operator <<. Finally, the resolution is displayed.

Python Program to Find Hash of File

 PythonFunctions
 Python ProgrammingUser-defined Functions
 Python FileI/O

Hash functions take an arbitrary amount of data and return a fixed-length bit string. They are
widely used in cryptography for authentication purposes. There are many hashing functions like
MD5, SHA-1 etc. The output of the function is called the digest message. Refer this page to
know more about hash functions in cryptography.

In this example, we will illustrate how to hash a file. We will use the SHA-1 hashing algorithm.
The digest of SHA-1 is 160 bits long. We do not feed the data from the file all at once, because
some files are very large to fit in memory all at once. Breaking the file into small chunks will
make the process memory efficient.

Source Code to Find Hash

# Python rogram to find the SHA-1 message digest of a file

# import hashlib module

import hashlib

def hash_file(filename):
""""This function returns the SHA-1 hash
of the file passed into it"""

# make a hash object

h = hashlib.sha1()

# open file for reading in binary mode

with open(filename,'rb') as file:

# loop till the end of the file Page

chunk = 0
while chunk != b'': 21
# read only 1024 bytes at a time
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 chunk = file.read(1024)
h.update(chunk)

# return the hex representation of digest

return h.hexdigest()

message = hash_file("track1.mp3")
print(message)

Output

633d7356947eec543c50b76a1852f92427f4dca9

In this program, we open the file in binary mode. Hash functions are available in the hashlib
module. We loop till the end of the file using a while loop. On reaching the end, we get empty
bytes object. In each iteration we only read 1024 bytes (this value can be changed according to
our wish) from the file and update the hashing function. Finally, we return the digest message in
hexadecimal representation using the hexdigest()method.

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