Basic Python Syntax

Numbers and Strings

• like Java, Python has built-in (atomic) types
• numbers (int, float), bool, string, list, etc.
• numeric operators: + - * / ** %
>>> a = 5 >>> c = 1.5 >>> s = “hey”
>>> b = 3 >>> 5/2 >>> s + “ guys”
>>> type (5) 2 'hey guys'
<type 'int'> >>> 5/2. >>> len(s)
>>> a += 4 2.5 3
>>> a >>> 5 ** 2 >>> s[0]
9 25 'h'
no i++ or ++i >>> s[-1]
>>> from __future__ import division 'y'
>>> 5/2
2.5 recommended!
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Assignments and Comparisons
>>> a = b = 0 >>> a = b = 0
>>> a >>> a == b
0 True
>>> b >>> type (3 == 5)
0 <type 'bool'>
>>> "my" == 'my'
>>> a, b = 3, 5 True
>>> a + b
8 >>> (1, 2) == (1, 2)
>>> (a, b) = (3, 5) True
>>> a + b
>>> 8 >>> 1, 2 == 1, 2
>>> a, b = b, a ???
(swap) (1, False, 2)

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 for loops and range()
• for always iterates through a list or sequence
>>> sum = 0
>>> for i in range(10):
... sum += i
... Java 1.5
>>> print sum foreach (String word : words)
! System.out.println(word)
45

>>> for word in ["welcome", "to", "python"]:

... print word,
...
welcome to python

>>> range(5), range(4,6), range(1,7,2)

([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5], [1, 3, 5])
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 while loops
• very similar to while in Java and C
• but be careful
• in behaves differently in for and while
• break statement, same as in Java/C
>>> a, b = 0, 1
>>> while b <= 5:
... print b
... a, b = b, a+b
...
1 simultaneous
1 assignment
2
3 fibonacci series
5
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 Conditionals
>>> if x < 10 and x >= 0:
>>> if 4 > 5:
... print x, "is a digit"
... print "foo"
...
... else:
>>> False and False or True
... print "bar"
True
...
>>> not True
bar
False

>>> print “foo” if 4 > 5 else “bar”

...
conditional expr since Python 2.5
>>> bar

C/Java printf( (4>5)? ”foo” : “bar”);

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 if ... elif ... else
>>> a = "foo"
>>> if a in ["blue", "yellow", "red"]:
... print a + " is a color"
... else:
...! ! if a in ["US", "China"]:
... ! ! print a + " is a country"
... ! ! else:
...! ! ! ! print "I don't know what”, a, “is!"
...
I don't know what foo is! switch (a) {
! case “blue”:
>>> if a in ...: ! case “yellow”:
! case “red”:
... print ... C/Java ! ! print ...; break;
... elif a in ...: ! case “US”:
! case “China”:
... print ... ! ! print ...; break;
... else: ! else:
... print ... !
}
! print ...;
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! !
 break, continue and else
• break and continue borrowed from C/Java
• special else in loops
• when loop terminated normally (i.e., not by break)
• very handy in testing a set of properties|| func(n)

>>> for n in range(2, 10): for (n=2; n<10; n++) {

... for x in range(2, n): ! good = true;
! for (x=2; x<n; x++)
... if n % x == 0:
! ! if (n % x == 0) {
... break ! ! ! good = false;
... else: !C/Java
! ! break;
... print n, ! ! } if (x==n)
... ! if (good)
! ! printf(“%d “, n);
}
prime numbers
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 Defining a Function def
• no type declarations needed! wow!
• Python will figure it out at run-time
• you get a run-time error for type violation
• well, Python does not have a compile-error at all

>>> def fact(n):

... if n == 0:
... return 1
... else:
... return n * fact(n-1)
...
>>> fact(4)
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 Fibonacci Revisited
>>> a, b = 0, 1
>>> while b <= 5:
... print b
... a, b = b, a+b
...
1
1 def fib(n):
2 ! if n <= 1:
3 ! ! return n
5 ! else:
! ! return fib (n-1) + fib (n-2)
conceptually cleaner, but much slower!
>>> fib(5)
5
>>> fib(6)
8
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 Default Values
>>> def add(a, L=[]):
... return L + [a]
...
>>> add(1)
[1]

>>> add(1,1)
error!

>>> add(add(1))
[[1]] lists are heterogenous!

>>> add(add(1), add(1))

???
[1, [1]]

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 Approaches to Typing
✓ strongly typed: types are strictly enforced. no implicit
type conversion
- weakly typed: not strictly enforced
- statically typed: type-checking done at compile-time
✓ dynamically typed: types are inferred at runtime

weak strong
static C, C++ Java, Pascal

dynamic Perl,VB Python, OCaml

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 Lists

heterogeneous variable-sized array

a = [1,'python', [2,'4']]
 Basic List Operations
• length, subscript, and slicing
>>> a[0:3:2]
[1, [2, '4']]
>>> a = [1,'python', [2,'4']]
>>> len(a) >>> a[:-1]
3
[1, 'python']
>>> a[2][1]
'4' >>> a[0:3:]
>>> a[3]
[1, 'python', [2, '4']]
IndexError!
>>> a[-2] >>> a[0::2]
'python'
[1, [2, '4']]
>>> a[1:2]
['python'] >>> a[::]
[1, 'python', [2, '4']]

>>> a[:]
[1, 'python', [2, '4']]

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 +, extend, +=, append
• extend (+=) and append mutates the list!

>>> a = [1,'python', [2,'4']]

>>> a + [2]
[1, 'python', [2, '4'], 2]
>>> a.extend([2, 3])
>>> a
[1, 'python', [2, '4'], 2, 3]
same as a += [2, 3]

>>> a.append('5')
>>> a
[1, 'python', [2, '4'], 2, 3, '5']
>>> a[2].append('xtra')
>>> a
[1, 'python', [2, '4', 'xtra'], 2, 3, '5']

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 Comparison and Reference
• as in Java, comparing built-in types is by value
• by contrast, comparing objects is by reference
>>> c = b [:]
>>> [1, '2'] == [1, '2'] >>> c
True [1, 5]
>>> a = b = [1, '2'] >>> c == b slicing gets
>>> a == b
True a shallow copy
>>> c is b
True False
>>> a is b
True >>> b[:0] = [2] insertion
>>> b
>>> b [1] = 5
[2, 1, 5]
>>> a
>>> b[1:3]=[]
[1, 5] >>> b deletion
>>> a = 4 [2]
>>> b a += b means
>>> a = b
[1, 5] a.extend(b)
>>> b += [1]
>>> a is b >>> a is b NOT
>>> False True a = a + b !!
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 List Comprehension
>>> a = [1, 5, 2, 3, 4 , 6]
>>> [x*2 for x in a]
[2, 10, 4, 6, 8, 12]

>>> [x for x in a if \
4th smallest element
... len( [y for y in a if y < x] ) == 3 ]
[4]

>>> a = range(2,10)
>>> [x*x for x in a if \
... [y for y in a if y < x and (x % y == 0)] == [] ]
???
[4, 9, 25, 49] square of prime numbers

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 List Comprehensions
>>> vec = [2, 4, 6]
>>> [[x,x**2] for x in vec]
[[2, 4], [4, 16], [6, 36]]

>>> [x, x**2 for x in vec]

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

>>> [(x, x**2) for x in vec]

[(2, 4), (4, 16), (6, 36)]

>>> vec1 = [2, 4, 6]

>>> vec2 = [4, 3, -9]
>>> [x*y for x in vec1 for y in vec2]
[8, 6, -18, 16, 12, -36, 24, 18, -54] (cross product)
>>> [x+y for x in vec1 for y in vec2]
[6, 5, -7, 8, 7, -5, 10, 9, -3]
should use zip instead!
>>> [vec1[i]*vec2[i] for i in range(len(vec1))]
[8, 12, -54] (dot product) 35
 Strings

sequence of characters
 Basic String Operations
• join, split, strip

• upper(), lower()

>>> s = " this is a python course. \n"

>>> words = s.split()
>>> words
['this', 'is', 'a', 'python', 'course.']
>>> s.strip()
'this is a python course.'
>>> " ".join(words)
'this is a python course.'
>>> "; ".join(words).split("; ")
['this', 'is', 'a', 'python', 'course.']
>>> s.upper()
' THIS IS A PYTHON COURSE. \n'

http://docs.python.org/lib/string-methods.html 37
 Basic Search/Replace in String
>>> "this is a course".find("is")
2
>>> "this is a course".find("is a")
5
>>> "this is a course".find("is at")
-1

>>> "this is a course".replace("is", "was")

'thwas was a course'
>>> "this is a course".replace(" is", " was")
'this was a course'
>>> "this is a course".replace("was", "were")
'this is a course'

these operations are much faster than regexps!

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 String Formatting
>>> print “%.2f%%” % 97.2363
97.24%

>>> s = '%s has %03d quote types.' % ("Python", 2)

>>> print s
Python has 002 quote types.

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