Python Programming

Language
By: Priyanka Pradhan

Priyanka Pradhan 1
 Books include:

• Learning Python by Mark Lutz

• Python Essential Reference by David
Beazley
• Python Cookbook, ed. by Martelli,
Ravenscroft and Ascher
• (online at
http://code.activestate.com/recipes/langs/pyt
hon/)
• http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks
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 4 Major Versions of Python

• “Python” or “CPython” is written in C/C++

- Version 2.7 came out in mid-2010
- Version 3.1.2 came out in early 2010

• “Jython” is written in Java for the JVM

• “IronPython” is written in C# for the .Net
environment
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 Contd…

• Created in 1989 by Guido Van Rossum

• Python 1.0 released in 1994
• Python 2.0 released in 2000
• Python 3.0 released in 2008
• Python 2.7 is the recommended version
• 3.0 adoption will take a few years

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 Development Environments
IDE
1. PyDev with Eclipse
2. Komodo
3. Emacs
4. Vim
5. TextMate
6. Gedit
7. Idle
8. PIDA (Linux)(VIM Based)
9. NotePad++ (Windows)
10.Pycharm
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 Web Frameworks

• Django
• Flask
• Pylons
• TurboGears
• Zope
• Grok

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 Introduction

• Multi-purpose (Web, GUI, Scripting,

etc.)
• Object Oriented
• Interpreted
• Strongly typed and Dynamically typed
• Focus on readability and productivity

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 Python features

• no compiling or linking
• rapid development cycle
• no type declarations
• simpler, shorter, more flexible
• automatic memory management
• garbage collection
• high-level data types and operations
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 Contd..

• fast development
• object-oriented programming
• code structuring and reuse, C++
• embedding and extending in C
• mixed language systems
• classes, modules, exceptions,multithreading
• "programming-in-the-large" support
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 Uses of Python
• shell tools
– system admin tools, command line programs
• extension-language work
• rapid prototyping and development
• language-based modules
– instead of special-purpose parsers
• graphical user interfaces
• database access
• distributed programming
• Internet scripting Priyanka Pradhan 10
 Who Uses Python

• Google
• PBS
• NASA
• Library of Congress
• the ONION
• ...the list goes on...

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 Python structure
• modules: Python source files or C extensions
– import, top-level via from, reload
• statements
– control flow
– create objects
– indentation matters – instead of {}
• objects
– everything is an object
– automatically reclaimed when no longer needed
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 Indentation

• Most languages don’t care about

indentation
• Most humans do
• We tend to group similar things together

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 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!'

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 Python Overview

• Programs are composed of modules

• Modules contain statements
• Statements contain expressions
• Expressions create and process objects

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 The Python Interpreter

•Python is an interpreted >>> 3 + 7

language 10
•The interpreter provides an >>> 3 < 15
interactive environment to True
play with the language >>> 'print me'
'print me'
•Results of expressions are >>> print 'print me'
printed on the screen print me
>>>

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 The print Statement

•Elements separated by
commas print with a space
>>> print 'hello'
between them
hello
•A comma at the end of the
>>> print 'hello', 'there'
statement (print ‘hello’,) will
hello there
not print a newline character

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 Documentation

The ‘#’ starts a line comment

>>> 'this will print'

'this will print'
>>> #'this will not'
>>>

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 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

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 Everything is an object

• Everything means
>>> x = 7
everything, including
>>> x
functions and classes 7
(more on this later!) >>> x = 'hello'
• Data type is a property >>> x
of the object and not of 'hello'
>>>
the variable

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 Basic operations
• Assignment:
– size = 40
–a = b = c = 3
• Numbers
– integer, float
– complex numbers: 1j+3, abs(z)
• Strings
– 'hello world', 'it\'s hot'
– "bye world"
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 String operations

• concatenate with + or neighbours

– word = 'Help' + x
– word = 'Help' 'a'
• subscripting of strings
– 'Hello'[2]  'l'
– slice: 'Hello'[1:2]  'el'
– word[-1]  last character
– len(word)  5
– immutable: cannot assign to subscript
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 Numbers: Integers
• Integer – the equivalent of
a C long >>> 132224
• Long Integer – an 132224
unbounded integer value. >>> 132323 ** 2
17509376329L
>>>

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 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

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 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)

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 Numbers are immutable
x 4.5
>>> x = 4.5
>>> y = x y
>>> y += 3
x 4.5
>>> x
4.5 y 7.5
>>> y
7.5

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 String Literals

• Strings are immutable

• There is no char type like >>> x = 'hello'
>>> x = x + ' there'
in C++ or Java
>>> x
• + is overloaded to do 'hello there'
concatenation

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 String Literals: Many Kinds
• Can use single or double quotes, and three double
quotes for a multi-line string
>>> 'I am a string'
'I am a string'
>>> "So am I!"
'So am I!'
>>> s = """And me too!
though I am much longer
than the others :)"""
'And me too!\nthough I am much longer\nthan the others :)‘
>>> print s
And me too!
though I am much longer
than the others :)‘ Priyanka Pradhan 28
 Substrings and Methods
• len(String) – returns the
>>> s = '012345'
number of characters in the
>>> s[3]
String
'3'
>>> s[1:4]
• str(Object) – returns a
'123'
String representation of the
>>> s[2:]
Object
'2345'
>>> s[:4] >>> len(x)
'0123' 6
>>> s[-2] >>> str(10.3)
'4' '10.3'

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 String Formatting
• Similar to C’s printf
• <formatted string> % <elements to insert>
• Can usually just use %s for everything, it will
convert the object to its String representation.
>>> "One, %d, three" % 2
'One, 2, three'
>>> "%d, two, %s" % (1,3)
'1, two, 3'
>>> "%s two %s" % (1, 'three')
'1 two three'
>>>
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 Do nothing

• pass does nothing

• syntactic filler
while 1:
pass

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 Operators

• Arithmetic

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String Manipulation

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Logical Comparison

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Identity Comparison

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Arithmetic Comparison

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Class Declaration

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 Class Attributes

• Attributes assigned at class declaration

should always be immutable

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Class Methods

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Class Instantiation & Attribute
Access

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Class Inheritance

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Imports

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Error Handling

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 Lists
• Ordered collection of data
• Data can be of different
>>> x = [1,'hello', (3 + 2j)]
types >>> x
• Lists are mutable [1, 'hello', (3+2j)]
>>> x[2]
• Issues with shared
(3+2j)
references and mutability >>> x[0:2]
• Same subset operations as [1, 'hello']
Strings

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 List
• lists can be heterogeneous
– a = ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234, 2*2]
• Lists can be indexed and sliced:
– a[0]  spam
– a[:2]  ['spam', 'eggs']
• Lists can be manipulated
– a[2] = a[2] + 23
– a[0:2] = [1,12]
– a[0:0] = []
– len(a)  5 Priyanka Pradhan 45
 List methods
• append(x)
• extend(L)
– append all items in list (like Tcl lappend)
• insert(i,x)
• remove(x)
• pop([i]), pop()
– create stack (FIFO), or queue (LIFO)  pop(0)
• index(x)
– return the index for value x
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 Contd…
• count(x)
– how many times x appears in list
• sort()
– sort items in place
• reverse()
– reverse list

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 Lists: Modifying Content
• x[i] = a reassigns the >>> x = [1,2,3]
>>> y = x
ith element to the
>>> x[1] = 15
value a >>> x
• Since x and y point to [1, 15, 3]
the same list object, >>> y
[1, 15, 3]
both are changed
>>> x.append(12)
• The method append >>> y
also modifies the list [1, 15, 3, 12]

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 Lists: Modifying Contents
>>> x = [1,2,3]
• The method >>> y = x
append modifies >>> z = x.append(12)
the list and returns >>> z == None
None True
• List addition (+) >>> y
returns a new list [1, 2, 3, 12]
>>> x = x + [9,10]
>>> x
[1, 2, 3, 12, 9, 10]
>>> y
[1, 2, 3, 12]
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 Strings share many features with
lists
>>> smiles = "C(=N)(N)N.C(=O)(O)O"
>>> smiles[0]
'C'
>>> smiles[1]
'('
>>> smiles[-1]
'O'
>>> smiles[1:5]
'(=N)'
>>> smiles[10:-4]
'C(=O)' Priyanka Pradhan 50
 String Methods: find, split
smiles = "C(=N)(N)N.C(=O)(O)O"
>>> smiles.find("(O)")
15
>>> smiles.find(".")
9
>>> smiles.find(".", 10)
-1
>>> smiles.split(".")
['C(=N)(N)N', 'C(=O)(O)O']
>>>
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 String operators: in, not in

if "Br" in “Brother”:
print "contains brother“

email_address = “clin”
if "@" not in email_address:
email_address += "@brandeis.edu“

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 String Method: “strip”, “rstrip”, “lstrip” are
ways to
remove whitespace or selected characters
>>> line = " # This is a comment line \n"
>>> line.strip()
'# This is a comment line'
>>> line.rstrip()
' # This is a comment line'
>>> line.rstrip("\n")
' # This is a comment line '
>>>
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 More String methods
email.startswith(“c") endswith(“u”)
True/False

>>> "%s@brandeis.edu" % "clin"

'clin@brandeis.edu'

>>> names = [“Ben", “Chen", “Yaqin"]

>>> ", ".join(names)
‘Ben, Chen, Yaqin‘

>>> “chen".upper()
‘CHEN'
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 “\” is for special characters
\n -> newline
\t -> tab
\\ -> backslash
...
But Windows uses backslash for directories!
filename = "M:\nickel_project\reactive.smi" # DANGER!
filename = "M:\\nickel_project\\reactive.smi" # Better!
filename = "M:/nickel_project/reactive.smi" # Usually works

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 Tuples
• Tuples are immutable
versions of lists
• One strange point is the >>> x = (1,2,3)
format to make a tuple with >>> x[1:]
(2, 3)
one element:
>>> y = (2,)
‘,’ is needed to differentiate >>> y
from the mathematical (2,)
expression (2) >>>

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 Tuples and sequences

• lists, strings, tuples: examples of sequence

type
• tuple = values separated by commas
>>> t = 123, 543, 'bar'
>>> t[0]
123
>>> t
(123, 543, 'bar')
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 Contd…

• Tuples may be nested

>>> u = t, (1,2)
>>> u
((123, 542, 'bar'), (1,2))
• Empty tuples: ()
>>> empty = ()
>>> len(empty)
0 Priyanka Pradhan 58
 Dictionaries

• A set of key-value pairs

• Dictionaries are mutable

>>> d = {1 : 'hello', 'two' : 42, 'blah' : [1,2,3]}

>>> d
{1: 'hello', 'two': 42, 'blah': [1, 2, 3]}
>>> d['blah']
[1, 2, 3]

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 Contd..
• no particular order
• delete elements with del
>>> del tel['foo']
• keys() method  unsorted list of keys
>>> tel.keys()
['cs', 'lennox', 'hgs']
• use has_key() to check for existence
>>> tel.has_key('foo')
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 Dictionaries: Add/Modify
• Entries can be changed by assigning to that entry
>>> d
{1: 'hello', 'two': 42, 'blah': [1, 2, 3]}
>>> d['two'] = 99
>>> d
{1: 'hello', 'two': 99, 'blah': [1, 2, 3]}
• Assigning to a key that does not exist adds an entry
>>> d[7] = 'new entry'
>>> d
{1: 'hello', 7: 'new entry', 'two': 99, 'blah': [1, 2, 3]}
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 Dictionaries: Deleting Elements
• The del method deletes an element from a dictionary

>>> d
{1: 'hello', 2: 'there', 10: 'world'}
>>> del(d[2])
>>> d
{1: 'hello', 10: 'world'}

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 Copying Dictionaries and Lists
• The built-in list >>> l1 = [1] >>> d = {1 : 10}
function will >>> l2 = list(l1) >>> d2 = d.copy()
copy a list >>> l1[0] = 22 >>> d[1] = 22
>>> l1 >>> d
• The dictionary [22] {1: 22}
has a method >>> l2 >>> d2
called copy [1] {1: 10}

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Dictionary Methods

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 Data Type Summary

• Lists, Tuples, and Dictionaries can store any type

(including other lists, tuples, and dictionaries!)
• Only lists and dictionaries are mutable
• All variables are references

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 Contd…

• 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}

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 Modules

• collection of functions and variables,

typically in scripts
• definitions can be imported
• file name is module name + .py
• e.g., create module fibo.py
def fib(n): # write Fib. series up to n
...
def fib2(n): # returnPriyanka
Fib.Pradhan
series up to n 67
 Contd…
• function definition + executable statements
• executed only when module is imported
• modules have private symbol tables
• avoids name clash for global variables
• accessible as module.globalname
• can import into name space:
>>> from fibo import fib, fib2
>>> fib(500)
• can import all names defined by module:
>>> from fibo import *
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 Input
• The raw_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.

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 Input: Example
print “enter your name?"
name = raw_input("> ")

print "When were you born?"

birthyear = int(raw_input("> "))

print "Hi %s! You are %d years old!" % (name, 2017 - birthyear)
~: python input.py
What's your name?
> Michael
What year were you born?
>1980
Hi Michael! You are Pradhan
Priyanka 31 years old! 70
 Booleans
• 0 and None are false
• Everything else is true
• True and False are aliases for 1 and 0 respectively

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 Boolean Expressions
• Compound boolean expressions >>> True and False
short circuit False
• and and or return one of the >>> False or True
elements in the expression True
>>> 7 and 14
• Note that when None is returned 14
the interpreter does not print >>> None and 2
anything >>> None or 2
2

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 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!

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 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
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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
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 Loop Control Statements

break Jumps out of the closest

enclosing loop

continue Jumps to the top of the closest

enclosing loop

pass Does nothing, empty statement

placeholder

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 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
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 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

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 For Loops

for x in [1,7,13,2] : for x in range(5) :

forloop1.py forloop2.py print x
print x

~: python forloop1.py ~: python forloop2.py

1 0
7 1
13 2
2 3
4

range(N) generatesPriyanka
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 For Loops
• For loops also may have the optional else clause

for x in range(5):
print x
break
else : ~: python elseforloop.py
print 'i got here' 1

elseforloop.py

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 Function Basics

def max(x,y) : >>> import functionbasics

if x < y : >>> max(3,5)
return x 5
else : >>> max('hello', 'there')
return y 'there'
>>> max(3, 'hello')
'hello'
functionbasics.py

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 Functions are first class objects
• Can be assigned to a variable
• Can be passed as a parameter
• Can be returned from a function
• Functions are treated like any other variable in
Python, the def statement simply assigns a
function to a variable

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Function names are like any variable
>>> x = 10
>>> x
10
• Functions are objects >>> def x () :
• The same reference ... print 'hello'
rules hold for them as >>> x
for other objects <function x at 0x619f0>
>>> x()
hello
>>> x = 'blah'
>>> x
'blah'
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 Functions as Parameters

def foo(f, a) : >>> from funcasparam import *

return f(a) >>> foo(bar, 3)
9
def bar(x) :
return x * x

funcasparam.py Note that the function foo takes two

parameters and applies the first as a
function with the second as its
parameter

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 Higher-Order Functions
map(func,seq) – for all i, applies func(seq[i]) and returns the
corresponding sequence of the calculated results.

>>> from highorder import *

def double(x): >>> lst = range(10)
return 2*x >>> lst
[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
highorder.py >>> map(double,lst)
[0,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18]

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 Higher-Order Functions

filter(boolfunc,seq) – returns a sequence containing all those items

in seq for which boolfunc is True.

>>> from highorder import *

def even(x): >>> lst = range(10)
return ((x%2 == 0) >>> lst
[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
highorder.py >>> filter(even,lst)
[0,2,4,6,8]

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 Higher-Order Functions

reduce(func,seq) – applies func to the items of seq, from left to

right, two-at-time, to reduce the seq to a single value.

>>> from highorder import *

def plus(x,y): >>> lst = [‘h’,’e’,’l’,’l’,’o’]
return (x + y) >>> reduce(plus,lst)
‘hello’
highorder.py

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 Functions Inside Functions
• Since they are like any other object, you can have
functions inside functions

def foo (x,y) : >>> from funcinfunc import *

def bar (z) : >>> foo(2,3)
return z * 2 7
return bar(x) + y

funcinfunc.py
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Functions Returning Functions
def foo (x) :
def bar(y) :
return x + y ~: python funcreturnfunc.py
return bar <function bar at 0x612b0>
# main 5
f = foo(3)
print f
print f(2)

funcreturnfunc.py

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 Parameters: Defaults
• Parameters can be
>>> def foo(x = 3) :
assigned default ... print x
values ...
• They are overridden if >>> foo()
a parameter is given 3
>>> foo(10)
for them 10
• The type of the default >>> foo('hello')
doesn’t limit the type hello
of a parameter
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 Parameters: Named
• Call by name
>>> def foo (a,b,c) :
• Any positional ... print a, b, c
arguments must ...
come before >>> foo(c = 10, a = 2, b = 14)
2 14 10
named ones in a
>>> foo(3, c = 2, b = 19)
call 3 19 2

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 Anonymous Functions
• A lambda expression
returns a function
>>> f = lambda x,y : x + y
object >>> f(2,3)
• The body can only 5
be a simple >>> lst = ['one', lambda x : x * x, 3]
expression, not >>> lst[1](4)
complex statements 16

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 Modules

• The highest level structure of Python

• Each file with the py suffix is a module
• Each module has its own namespace

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