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uk

How to use the Pythonista app

to learn the Python
programming language
1. Printing text www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

The print command

print ‘Hello world.’ prints text on screen.
print ‘I can print text.’
print ‘\n’
print ‘Why did the beach cry?’ This prints a blank line.
print ‘Because the seaweed!’

Edit and  Can you change the joke to make it better?

improve: Remember to press to check your program works!

Key vocabulary

Program – A sequence of commands which a computer follows.

Run - Carrying out the commands in a program.
2. Solving calculations www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

print 50 + 50
The answers to these
print 50 – 25
calculations will be printed when
print 50 * 10
the program is run.
print 50 / 5
print (3 * 6) + 2
print (8 + 7) / 3
print (20 – 10) * 5

Edit and  Can you change the numbers in the calculations?

improve: Remember to press to check your program works!

Key vocabulary

Testing - Trying out a program to check if it works as expected.

Debugging - Finding and correcting mistakes in a program's code.
3. Text variables www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

name = ‘Molly’
print ‘Hello’, name You always put text in
This is a variable – inverted commas!
something that can food = ‘chocolate’
change. Print ‘I like to eat’, food

team = ‘Manchester United’

print ‘I support’, team

sport = swimming This prints what the

print sport, ‘is fun’ variable is set as.

 Change the text each Key vocabulary

Edit and
variable is set as. Remember Variable – A value that can be
improve:
the inverted commas! stored and used in a program.
4. Inputting text www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

This is a variable –
The raw_input command makes
something that can
the user type in what they want.
change.

name = raw_input(‘What is your name?’)

print ‘Hello’, name

age = raw_input(‘What is your age?’)

print ‘You are’, age

town = raw_input(‘Where do you live?’)

print ‘You live in’, town

subject = raw_input(‘What subject do you like?’)

print subject, ‘is your favourite’
5. Inputting numbers www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

This is a variable –
something that can The float command tells the
change. computer the user is typing a number.

number = float(raw_input(‘Type a whole number.’))

answer = number * 8
print answer

number2 = float(raw_input(‘Type another whole number.’))

answer = number + number 2
print answer

Edit and
 Change this symbol to do different calculations.
improve:
6. Random numbers www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

This sets a What happens if you change

variable as a the 10 to a smaller number or
random number. the 20 to a bigger number?

import random

number = random.randrange(10,20,1)
print number
print number + 10
print number * 10

Edit and  Change these symbols and numbers to do different

improve: calculations with the random number.
7. Programs with a purpose www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

Variable User input

score = float(raw_input(‘Type your score.’))

This works out total = float(raw_input(‘Type the total possible.’))
what % you got percent = score / total * 100
in a test. print ‘Your percentage is’, percent

width = float(raw_input(‘Type the rectangle width.’))

This works out length = float(raw_input(‘Type the rectangle length.’))
the area of a area = length * width
rectangle. print ‘The area is’, area

Programming challenge:
Create a program that calculates the perimeter of a rectangle by adding
together its two lengths and two widths, inputted by the user.
8. Lists www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

These two variables store lists

import random
of colours and animals.
colours = [‘red’, ’green’] Remember your inverted
animals = [‘lions’, ‘bears’] commas!

print ‘My rainbow zoo has:’

This picks a random colour and
colour = random.choice(colours)
animal and prints it.
animal = random.choice(animals)
print colour, animal Key vocabulary
List – A set of values

Edit and  Put more items in the lists to make the rainbow zoo more fun!
improve:
9. Functions www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

Key vocabulary
Function – A sub-program which can
This function is named cointoss. be called (run) later using its name.

import random
This is a function – a set of
def cointoss():
commands with a name that
options = [‘heads’, ‘tails’] does something (tosses a coin).
result = random.choice(options)
print result
Programming challenge:
cointoss()
cointoss() Change this function to roll a dice
cointoss() instead. Change its name from
cointoss()
cointoss to roll.
cointoss()
Then change the options to
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
10. Conditional (if) statements www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

This program prints

‘Correct’ if the user answer = raw_input(‘Do cats bark? ’)
answers correctly, if answer == ‘no’:
REMEMEBR THE
else prints ‘Wrong’ if print ‘Correct’ COLON!
they answer else:
incorrectly.
print ‘Wrong’

== means ‘is the

THIS MUST BE TABBED IN!
same as’

Edit and  Change the question being asked (and the answer too, if needed).
improve:
11. OR statements www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

answer = raw_input(‘Is it dark at night? ’)

if answer == ‘yes’ or answer == ‘YES’:
print ‘Correct’
else:
print ‘Wrong’ The or command lets the user
input different answers but still
get the question correct.

Edit and  Change the question being asked (and the answer too, if needed).
improve:

Key vocabulary
Conditional (IF) statement – Decides which commands to run depending on
whether certain things (conditions) are true or false.
12. Score calculators www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

score = 0
This variable sets the score to
answer = raw_input(‘Is it grass green? ’) 0 at the start.
if answer == ‘yes’ or answer == ‘YES’:
print ‘Correct’
score = score + 1 This adds 1 to the score if the
else: user answers correctly.
print ‘Wrong’

answer = raw_input(‘What is 3 + 3? ’)
The quiz uses conditional (if)
if answer == ‘6’ or answer == ‘six’: statements to print if the user
print ‘Correct’ answers correctly or not.
score = score + 1
else:
Programming challenge:
print ‘Wrong’
Create your own quiz that
print ‘Your score is’, score prints the player’s score at the
end.
13. While loops www.simonhaughton.co.uk

Press and create an . Type in these commands and run them :

password = ‘fish’ This variable sets

guess = ‘’ password as ‘fish’.

while (password != guess): This while loop keeps

guess = raw_input(‘Enter password: ’) repeating while the guess
if password == guess: is wrong, until the guess
print ‘Correct’ is correct.
else:
print ‘Try again’ A conditional (if)
statement prints if the
guess is correct or not.

Key vocabulary
While loop – Commands in a while loop keep repeating until a condition is
met (e.g. the correct password is inputted).