Introduction to Programming

with Python

1
 Brief History of Python
 Invented in the Netherlands, early 90s
by Guido van Rossum
 Named after Monty Python
 Open sourced from the beginning
 Considered a scripting language, but is
much more
 Scalable, object oriented and functional
from the beginning
 Used by Google from the beginning
 Increasingly popular
The Python tutorial is good!
The Basics
 Hello World

•Open a terminal window and type “python”

•If on Windows open a Python IDE like IDLE
•At the prompt type ‘hello world!’

>>> 'hello world!'

'hello world!'
 Python Overview

• Programs are composed of modules

• Modules contain statements
• Statements contain expressions
• Expressions create and process objects
 The Python Interpreter
•Python is an interpreted
language >>> 3 + 7
•The interpreter provides an 10
interactive environment to >>> 3 < 15
play with the language True
>>> 'print me'
•Results of expressions are 'print me'
printed on the screen >>> print 'print me'
print me
interpret
>>>
source code output
Hello.py
 print
 print : Produces text output on the console.

 Syntax:
print "Message"
print Expression
 Prints the given text message or expression value on the console, and
moves the cursor down to the next line.
print Item1, Item2, ..., ItemN
 Prints several messages and/or expressions on the same line.

 Examples:
print "Hello, world!"
age = 45
print "You have", 65 - age, "years until retirement"
Output:
Hello, world!
You have 20 years until retirement
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 Documentation

The ‘#’ starts a line comment

>>> 'this will print'

'this will print'
>>> #'this will not'
>>>
 Whitespace
Whitespace is meaningful in Python: especially
indentation and placement of newlines
Use a newline to end a line of code
Use \ when must go to next line prematurely
No braces {} to mark blocks of code, use
consistent indentation instead
• First line with less indentation is outside of the block
• First line with more indentation starts a nested block
Colons start of a new block in many constructs,
e.g. function definitions, then clauses
 No Braces
• Python uses indentation instead of braces to determine
the scope of expressions
• All lines must be indented the same amount to be part
of the scope (or indented more if part of an inner
scope)
• This forces the programmer to use proper indentation
since the indenting is part of the program!
 Lines and Indentation

• Python provides no braces to indicate blocks of code for class and function
definitions or flow control. Blocks of code are denoted by line indentation,
which is rigidly enforced.

• The number of spaces in the indentation is variable, but all statements within
the block must be indented the same amount. For example −

if True:
print "True"
else:
print "False“
However, the following block generates an error −
• if True: print "Answer" print "True" else: print "Answer" print "False"
 Naming Rules
• Names are case sensitive and cannot start with a
number. They can contain letters, numbers, and
underscores.
bob Bob _bob _2_bob_ bob_2 BoB
• There are some reserved words:
and, assert, break, class, continue,
def, del, elif, else, except, exec,
finally, for, from, global, if,
import, in, is, lambda, not, or,
pass, print, raise, return, try,
while
 Naming conventions
The Python community has these recommend-ed
naming conventions
•joined_lower for functions, methods and, attributes
•joined_lower or ALL_CAPS for constants
•StudlyCaps for classes
•camelCase only to conform to pre-existing
conventions
•Attributes: interface, _internal, __private
 Variables
• Are not declared, just assigned
• The variable is created the first time you assign it
a value
• Are references to objects
• Type information is with the object, not the
reference
• Everything in Python is an object
 Variables
 Syntax:

name = value >>> x = 7

>>> x
 Examples: x = 5
gpa = 3.14
7
>>> x = 'hello'
x 5 gpa 3.14 >>> x
'hello'
A variable that has been given a >>>
value can be used in expressions.
x + 4 is 9
• Data type is a property of the object
and not of the variable
 Data types
• Python has five standard data types −
• Numbers
• String
• List
• Tuple
• Dictionary
 Numbers
• Python supports four different numerical types −
• int (signed integers)
• long (long integers, they can also be represented in
octal and hexadecimal)
• float (floating point real values)
• complex (complex numbers)
int long float complex
10 51924361L 0.0 3.14j
 Basic Datatypes
• Integers (default for numbers)
z = 5 / 2 # Answer 2, integer division in python 2
• Floats
x = 3.456
 Numbers: Integers
• Integer – the equivalent of
a C long >>> 132224
• Long Integer – an 132224
unbounded integer value. >>> 132323 ** 2
17509376329L
>>>
 Numbers: Floating Point
• int(x) converts x to an >>> 1.23232
integer 1.2323200000000001
>>> print 1.23232
• float(x) converts x to a 1.23232
floating point >>> 1.3E7
• The interpreter shows 13000000.0
>>> int(2.0)
a lot of digits
2
>>> float(2)
2.0
 Numbers: Complex
• Built into Python
• Same operations are >>> x = 3 + 2j
supported as integer and >>> y = -1j
>>> x + y
float
(3+1j)
>>> x * y
(2-3j)
 Assignment
 You can assign to multiple names at the
same time
>>> x, y = 2, 3
>>> x
2
>>> y
3
This makes it easy to swap values
>>> x, y = y, x
 Assignments can be chained
>>> a = b = x = 2
 String Literals
 Strings are immutable
 There is no char type like in C++ or Java
 + is overloaded to do concatenation
 Strings
• Can use “” or ‘’ to specify with “abc” == ‘abc’
• Unmatched can occur within the string: “matt’s”
• Use triple double-quotes for multi-line strings or strings than
contain both ‘ and “ inside of them:
“““a‘b“c”””

>>> x = 'hello'
>>> x = x + ' there'
>>> x
'hello there'
 Strings
 string: A sequence of text characters in a program.
 Strings start and end with quotation mark " or apostrophe ' characters.
 Examples:
"hello"
"This is a string"
"This, too, is a string. It can be very long!"

 A string may not span across multiple lines or contain a " character.
"This is not
a legal String."
"This is not a "legal" String either."

 A string can represent characters by preceding them with a backslash.

 \t tab character
 \n new line character
 \" quotation mark character
 \\ backslash character

 Example: "Hello\tthere\nHow are you?"

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 Indexes
 Characters in a string are numbered with indexes starting at 0:
 Example:
name = "P. Diddy"
index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
character P . D i d d y >>> s = '012345'
>>> s[3]
'3'
 Accessing an individual character of a string: >>> s[1:4]
variableName [ index ]
'123'
 Example: >>> s[2:]
print name, "starts with", name[0] '2345'
Output: >>> s[:4]
P. Diddy starts with P '0123'
>>> s[-2]
'4'
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 String properties
 len(string) - number of characters in a string
(including spaces)
 str.lower(string) - lowercase version of a string
 str.upper(string) - uppercase version of a string

 Example:
name = "Martin Douglas Stepp"
length = len(name)
big_name = str.upper(name)
print big_name, "has", length, "characters"

Output:
MARTIN DOUGLAS STEPP has 20 characters

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 List
• Compound data types.
• A list contains items separated bycommas
and enclosed within square brackets []..
• items belonging to a list can be of different
data type.
 List Example
• list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]
• tinylist = [123, 'john']
• print list # Prints complete list
• ['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003]
• print list[0] # Prints first element of the list
• abcd
• print list[1:3] # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd
• [786, 2.23]
• print list[2:] # Prints elements starting from 3rd element
• [2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003]
• print tinylist * 2 # Prints list two times print
• [123, 'john', 123, 'john']
• print list + tinylist # Prints concatenated lists
• ['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003, 123, 'john']
 Tuples
• Another sequence data type that is similar to
the list.
• A tuple consists of a number of values
separated by commas.
• The main differences between lists and
tuples are:
– Lists are enclosed in brackets [] and their
elements and size can be changed,
– while tuples are enclosed in parentheses ( ) and
cannot be updated.
• Tuples can be thought of as read-only lists.
 List vs Tuple
• tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )
• list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

• tuple[2] = 1000 # Invalid syntax with tuple

• list[2] = 1000 # Valid syntax with list

 Dictionaries
• tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}

• print tinydict
– # Prints com plete dictionary

• print tinydict.keys()
– # Prints all the keys

• print tinydict.values()
– # Prints all the values
 Dictionary Example
>>> s={'a' : 1 , 'b' :2}
>>> s.keys()
dict_keys(['b', 'a'])
>>> s.values()
dict_values([2, 1])
>>> s['a']
1
 Data Type Summary

• Integers: 2323, 3234L

• Floating Point: 32.3, 3.1E2
• Complex: 3 + 2j, 1j
• Lists: l = [ 1,2,3]
• Tuples: t = (1,2,3)
• Dictionaries: d = {‘hello’ : ‘there’, 2 : 15}
 Expressions
• expression: A data value or set of operations to compute a
value.
Examples: 1 + 4 * 3
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• Arithmetic operators we will use:

• + - * / addition, subtraction/negation, multiplication, division
– % modulus, a.k.a. remainder
– ** exponentiation
• precedence: Order in which operations are computed.

– * / % ** have a higher precedence than + -

1 + 3 * 4 is 13

– Parentheses can be used to force a certain order of evaluation.

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(1 + 3) * 4 is 16
 Python language supports the
following types of operators.
• Arithmetic Operators
• Comparison (Relational) Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Logical Operators
• Bitwise Operators
• Membership Operators
• Identity Operators
 Logic
• Many logical expressions use relational
operators:
Operator Meaning Example Result
== equals 1 + 1 == 2 True
!= does not equal 3.2 != 2.5 True
< less than 10 < 5 False
> greater than 10 > 5 True
<= less than or equal to 126 <= 100 False
>= greater than or equal to 5.0 >= 5.0 True

• Logical expressions can be combined with

logical operators: Operator Example Result
and 9 != 6 and 2 < 3 True
or 2 == 3 or -1 < 5 True
not not 7 > 0 False
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 User Input
• The input(string) method returns a line of user
input as a string
• The parameter is used as a prompt
• The string can be converted by using the
conversion methods int(string), float(string), etc.
 Input: Example
print "What's your name?"
name = input("> ")

print "What year were you born?"

birthyear = int(input("> "))

print ("Hi”,name, “! You are”, 2016-birthyear, “years old!”)

~: python input.py
What's your name?
> Michael
What year were you born?
>1980
Hi Michael! You are 31 years old!
 input
 input : Reads a number from user input.
 You can assign (store) the result of input into a variable.
 Example:
age = input("How old are you? ")
print "Your age is", age
print "You have", 65 - age, "years until retirement"
Output:
How old are you? 53
Your age is 53
You have 12 years until retirement

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 Control Flow: if
 if statement: Executes a group of statements only if a certain
condition is true. Otherwise, the statements are skipped.
 Syntax:
if condition:
statements

 Example:
gpa = 3.4
if gpa > 2.0:
print "Your application is accepted."

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 if/else
 if/else statement: Executes one block of statements if a certain
condition is True, and a second block of statements if it is False.
 Syntax:
if condition:
statements
else:
statements

 Example:
gpa = 1.4
if gpa > 2.0:
print "Welcome to Mars University!"
else:
print "Your application is denied."

 Multiple conditions can be chained with elif ("else if"):

if condition:
statements
elif condition:
statements
else:
statements
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 Control Flow: If Statements
import math
x = 30
if x <= 15 : >>> import ifstatement
y = x + 15 y = 0.999911860107
elif x <= 30 : >>>
y = x + 30 In interpreter
else :
y=x
print ‘y = ‘,
print math.sin(y)

In file ifstatement.py
 Range Test

if (3 <= Time <= 5):

print “Office Hour“

Or
if(Time>=3 and Time<=5)
 A Code Sample (in IDLE)
x = 34 - 23 # A comment.
y = “Hello” # Another one.
z = 3.45
if z == 3.45 or y == “Hello”:
x=x+1
y = y + “ World” # String concat.
print x
print y
 while
 while loop: Executes a group of statements as long as a condition is True.
 good for indefinite loops (repeat an unknown number of times)

 Syntax:
while condition:
statements

 Example:
number = 1
while number < 200:
print number,
number = number * 2

 Output:
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128

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 While Loops
>>> import whileloop
x=1 1
while x < 10 : 2
print x 3
x=x+1 4
5
6
In whileloop.py
7
8
9
>>>
In interpreter
 The Loop Else Clause
• The optional else clause runs only if the loop exits
normally (not by break)

x=1
~: python whileelse.py
while x < 3 : 1
print x 2
x=x+1 hello
else: Run from the command line
print 'hello'
In whileelse.py
 The Loop Else Clause

x=1
while x < 5 :
print x
x=x+1 ~: python whileelse2.py
break 1
else :
print 'i got here'

whileelse2.py
 For Loop
for letter in 'Python': # First Example
print 'Current Letter :', letter

fruits = ['banana', 'apple', 'mango']

for fruit in fruits: # Second Example print
'Current fruit :', fruit

for num in range(10,20):

#to iterate between 10 to 20
 Even numbers
n = int(input("Enter a number: "))
print("List of Even numbers is")
for i in range(1,n):
if (i%2 ==0) :
print(i)
 factorial
fact =1
i=1
n=int(input("Enter a number: "))

while i<=n :
fact=fact*i
i=i+1
else:
print("Factorial of ", n, " is ", fact)