A Quick Tour of Python

Amey Karkare
Dept. of CSE
IIT Kanpur
Welcome Python Programming
 Acknowledgements
 MS Office clip art, various websites and
images
 The images/contents are used for
teaching purpose and for fun. The
copyright remains with the original
creator. If you suspect a copyright
violation, bring it to my notice and I will
remove that image/content.

Welcome Python Programming

 About me

http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~karkare

Programming
The Programming Cycle for Python

Programming
 Run
with some input

Write/Edit
OK?
NO
YES

YES
NO More
Inputs?
Programming
 User Program
Filename, preferred extension is py

Programming
IN[1]: Python Shell Prompt

IN[2]:
User Commands
IN[3]: (Statements)

IN[4]: ( )

Outputs

Python Shell is Interactive

Programming
 Interacting with Python Programs
• Python program communicates its results to
user using print
• Most useful programs require information
from users
– Name and age for a travel reservation system
• Python 3 uses input to read user input as a
string (str)

Programming
 input
• Take as argument a string to print as a prompt
• Returns the user typed value as a string
– details of how to process user string later

IN[1]:

IN[2]: ( )

IN[3]:

Programming
 Elements of Python
• A Python program is a sequence of definitions
and commands (statements)
• Commands manipulate objects
• Each object is associated with a Type
• Type:
– A set of values
– A set of operations on these values
• Expressions: An operation (combination of
objects and operators)
Programming
 Types in Python
• int
– Bounded integers, e.g. 732 or -5
• float
– Real numbers, e.g. 3.14 or 2.0
• long
– Long integers with unlimited precision
• str
– Strings, e.g. ‘hello’ or ‘C’

Programming
 Types in Python
• Scalar
– Indivisible objects that do not have internal
structure
– int (signed integers), float (floating point), bool
(Boolean), NoneType
• NoneType is a special type with a single value
• The value is called None
• Non-Scalar
– Objects having internal structure
– str (strings)
Programming
Example of Types

Programming
 Type Conversion (Type Cast)

• Conversion of value of one type to other

• We are used to int float conversion in Math
– Integer 3 is treated as float 3.0 when a real
number is expected
– Float 3.6 is truncated as 3, or rounded off as 4 for
integer contexts
• Type names are used as type converter
functions

Programming
Type Conversion Examples
Note that float to int conversion
is truncation, not rounding off

Programming
Type Conversion and Input

Programming
 Operators
• Arithmetic + - * // / % **

• Comparison == != > < >= <=

• Assignment = += -= *= //= /= %= **=

• Logical and or not
• Bitwise & | ^ ~ >> <<
• Membership in not in
• Identity is is not

Programming
 Variables
• A name associated with an m
object 64
• Assignment used for binding Acads
m = 64; c
3.1416
c = ‘Acads’;
f = 3.1416; f

• Variables can change their 2.7183

bindings
f = 2.7183; Programming
 Assignment Statement
• A simple assignment statement
Variable = Expression;
• Computes the value (object) of the expression
on the right hand side expression (RHS)
• Associates the name (variable) on the left
hand side (LHS) with the RHS value
• = is known as the assignment operator.

Programming
 Multiple Assignments
• Python allows multiple assignments
x, y = 10, 20 Binds x to 10 and y to 20

• Evaluation of multiple assignment statement:

– All the expressions on the RHS of the = are first
evaluated before any binding happens.
– Values of the expressions are bound to the
corresponding variable on the LHS.
x, y = 10, 20 x is bound to 21
x, y = y+1, x+1 and y to 11 at the
end of the program
Programming
 Programming using Python

Operators and Expressions

Programming
 Binary Operations
Op Meaning Example Remarks

+ Addition 9+2 is 11
9.1+2.0 is 11.1
- Subtraction 9-2 is 7
9.1-2.0 is 7.1
* Multiplication 9*2 is 18
9.1*2.0 is 18.2
/ Division 9/2 is 4.25 In Python3
9.1/2.0 is 4.55 Real div.
// Integer Division 9//2 is 4
% Remainder 9%2 is 1

Programming
 The // operator
• Also referred to as “integer division”
• Result is a whole integer (floor of real
division)
– But the type need not be int
– the integral part of the real division
– rounded towards minus infinity
• Examples
9//4 is 2 (-1)//2 is -1 (-1)//(-2) is 0
1//2 is 0 1//(-2) is -1 9//4.5 is 2.0
Programming
 The % operator
• The remainder operator % returns the
remainder of the result of dividing its
first operand by its second.
9%4 is 1 (-1)%2 is 1 (-1)//(-2) is 0
9%4.5 is 0.0 1%(-2) is 1 1%0.6 is 0.4

Ideally: x == (x//y)*y + x %y
Programming
 Conditional Statements
• In daily routine
– If it is very hot, I will skip
exercise.
– If there is a quiz tomorrow, I will
first study and then sleep.
Otherwise I will sleep now.
– If I have to buy coffee, I will
go left. Else I will go
straight.
Programming
 if-else statement
• Compare two integers and print the min.

if x < y: 1. Check if x is less

print (x) than y.
2. If so, print x
else: 3. Otherwise, print y.
print (y)
print (‘is the minimum’)

Programming
 Indentation
• Indentation is important in Python
– grouping of statement (block of statements)
– no explicit brackets, e.g. { }, to group statements
x,y = 6,10 Run
x the program
y

if x < y: 6 10
print (x)
else:
print (y) ed Output
i p p
sk the min’)
print (‘is 6
Programming
 if statement (no else!)
• General form of the if statement
e
if boolean-expr : tru

fals
S1

e
S1
S2
• Execution of if statement S2
– First the expression is evaluated.
– If it evaluates to a true value, then S1 is
executed and then control moves to the S2.
– If expression evaluates to false, then control
moves to the S2 directly.
Programming
 if-else statement
• General form of the if-else statement
if boolean-expr : rt u
e

fa
S1

ls
e
else: S1 S2
S2
S3 S3
• Execution of if-else statement
– First the expression is evaluated.
– If it evaluates to a true value, then S1 is executed and
then control moves to S3.
– If expression evaluates to false, then S2 is executed
and then control moves to S3.
– S1/S2 can be blocks of statements!
Programming
 Nested if, if-else

if a <= b:
if a <= c:
…
else:
…
else:
if b <= c) :
…
else:
…
Programming
 Elif
• A special kind of nesting is the chain of if-
else-if-else-… statements
• Can be written elegantly using if-elif-..-else
if cond1: if cond1:
s1 s1
else: elif cond2:
if cond2: s2
s2 elif cond3:
else: s3
if cond3: elif …
s3 else
else: last-block-of-stmt
…
Programming
 Summary of if, if-else
• if-else, nested if's, elif.
• Multiple ways to solve a problem
–issues of readability,
maintainability
–and efficiency

Programming
 Class Quiz
• What is the value of expression:
(5<2) and (3/0 > 1)

a) Run time crash/error

b) I don’t know / I don’t care

c) False
The correct answer is
False
d) True

Programming
 Short-circuit Evaluation
• Do not evaluate the second operand of binary
short-circuit logical operator if the result can be
deduced from the first operand
– Also applies to nested logical operators

true false false true

not( (2>5) and (3/0 > 1) ) or (4/0 < 2)

Evaluates to true
Programming
 3 Factors for Expr Evaluation
• Precedence
– Applied to two different class of operators
– + and *, - and *, and and or, …
• Associativity
– Applied to operators of same class
– * and *, + and -, * and /, …
• Order
– Precedence and associativity identify the operands for
each operator
– Not which operand is evaluated first
– Python evaluates expressions from left to right
– While evaluating an assignment, the right-hand side is
Programming
evaluated before the left-hand side.
Class Quiz
• What is the output of the following program:
y = 0.1*3
if y != 0.3:
print ('Launch a Missile')
else:
print ("Let's have peace")
Launch a Missile

Programming
 Caution about Using Floats
• Representation of real numbers in a computer
can not be exact
– Computers have limited memory to store data
– Between any two distinct real numbers, there are
infinitely many real numbers.
• On a typical machine running Python, there are
53 bits of precision available for a Python float

Programming
 Caution about Using Floats
• The value stored internally for the decimal
number 0.1 is the binary fraction
0.00011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011010

• Equivalent to decimal value

0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625

• Approximation is similar to decimal

approximation 1/3 = 0.333333333...
• No matter how many digits you use, you have
an approximation
Programming
 Comparing Floats
• Because of the approximations, comparison of
floats is not exact.
• Solution?
• Instead of
x == y
use
abs(x-y) <= epsilon
where epsilon is a suitably chosen small value

Programming
 Programming using Python

Loops

Python Programming
 Printing Multiplication Table
5 X 1 = 5
5 X 2 = 10
5 X 3 = 15
5 X 4 = 20
5 X 5 = 25
5 X 6 = 30
5 X 7 = 35
5 X 8 = 40
5 X 9 = 45
5 X 10 = 50

Python Programming
 Program…
n = int(input('Enter a Too
number:
much '))
print (n, 'X', 1, '=', n*1)
repetition!
print (n, 'X', 2, '=', n*2)
Can I avoid
print (n, 'X', 3, '=', n*3)it?
print (n, 'X', 4, '=', n*4)
print (n, 'X', 5, '=', n*5)
print (n, 'X', 6, '=', n*6)
….

Python Programming
Printing Multiplication Table

Input n Loop Entry

i=1

Loop Exit
i <=10
TRUE FALSE

Print n X i = n*i Stop

i = i+1

Loop
Python Programming
 Printing Multiplication Table
Input n
i=1

TRUE
i <=10
FALSE n = int(input('n=? '))
i=1
Print n x i = ni Stop
i = i+1

while (i <= 10) :

print (n ,'X', i, '=', n*i)
i=i+1
print ('done‘)

Python Programming
 While Statement
while (expression):
S1 expression
FALSE

S2
TRUE

S1 S2
1. Evaluate expression
2. If TRUE then
a) execute statement1
b) goto step 1.
3. If FALSE then execute statement2.
Python Programming
 For Loop
• Print the sum of the reciprocals of the
first 100 natural numbers.

rsum=0.0# the reciprocal sum

# the for loop

for i in range(1,101):
rsum = rsum + 1.0/i
print ('sum is', rsum)
Python Programming
 For loop in Python
• General form

for variable in sequence:

stmt

Python Programming
 range
• range(s, e, d)
– generates the list:
[s, s+d, s+2*d, …, s+k*d]
where s+k*d < e <= s+(k+1)*d
• range(s, e) is equivalent to range(s, e, 1)
• range(e) is equivalent to range(0, e)
Exercise: What if d is negative? Use python
interpreter to find out.
Python Programming
 Quiz
• What will be the output of the following
program

# print all odd numbers < 10

i = 1
while i <= 10:
if i%2==0: # even
continue
print (i, end=‘ ‘)
i = i+1
Python Programming
 Continue and Update Expr
• Make sure continue does not bypass update-
expression for while loops

# print all odd numbers < 10

i = 1 i is not incremented
while i <= 10: when even number
if i%2==0: # even encountered.
continue Infinite loop!!
print (i, end=‘ ‘)
i = i+1
Python Programming
 Programming using Python

f(unctions)
Programming, Functions
 Parts of a function

Input

Oct 15, 2023 Output

Programming, Functions
 def max (a, b):
‘’’return maximum among a and b’’’
keyword if (a > b):
return a 2 arguments
else: a and b
Function Name return b (formal args)

x = max(6, 4) Body of thefunction,

indented w.r.t the
def keyword

Call to the function. Documentation comment

Actual args are 6 and 4. (docstring), type
help <function-name>
Oct 15, 2023 on prompt to get
Programming, help for the function
Functions
def max (a, b):
‘‘‘return maximum among a and b’’’
if (a > b):
return a
else:
return b

In[3] : help(max)
Help on function max in module __main__:

max(a, b)
return maximum among a and b
Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions
 Keyword Arguments
Note use of [0]
def printName(first, last, initials) : to get the first
if initials: character of a
string. More on
print (first[0] + '. ' + last[0] + '.') this later.
else:
print (first, last)
Call Output
printName('Acads', 'Institute', False) Acads Institute
printName('Acads', 'Institute', True) A. I.
printName(last='Institute', initials=False, first='Acads') Acads Institute
printName('Acads', initials=True, last='Institute') A. I.

Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions

 Keyword Arguments
• Parameter passing where formal is bound to
actual using formal's name
• Can mix keyword and non-keyword arguments
– All non-keyword arguments precede keyword
arguments in the call
– Non-keyword arguments are matched by position
(order is important)
– Order of keyword arguments is not important

Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions

 Default Values
def printName(first, last, initials=False) :
if initials:
print (first[0] + '. ' + last[0] + '.')
Note the use
else: of “default”
value
print (first, last)
Call Output
printName('Acads', 'Institute') Acads Institute
printName(first='Acads', last='Institute', initials=True) A. I.
printName(last='Institute', first='Acads') Acads Institute
printName('Acads', last='Institute') Acads Institute

Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions

 Default Values
• Allows user to call a function with fewer
arguments
• Useful when some argument has a fixed value
for most of the calls
• All arguments with default values must be at
the end of argument list
– non-default argument can not follow default
argument

Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions

 Globals
• Globals allow functions to communicate with
each other indirectly
– Without parameter passing/return value
• Convenient when two seemingly “far-apart”
functions want to share data
– No direct caller/callee relation
• If a function has to update a global, it must re-
declare the global variable with global
keyword.
Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions
 Globals
PI = 3.14 >>> print(area (100))
def perimeter(r): 31400.0
return 2 * PI * r >>> print(perimeter(10))
def area(r): 62.800000000000004
return PI * r * r >>> update_pi()
def update_pi(): >>> print(area(100))
global PI 31415.999999999996
PI = 3.14159 >>> print(perimeter(10))
62.832
defines PI to be of float type with value
3.14. PI can be used across functions. Any
change to PI in update_pi will be visible to
all due to the use of global.
Oct 15, 2023 Programming, Functions
Programming with Python

S T R I NGS
T UP L E S
L I S T S
Programming
 Strings
• Strings in Python have type str
• They represent sequence of characters
– Python does not have a type corresponding to
character.
• Strings are enclosed in single quotes(') or
double quotes(“)
– Both are equivalent
• Backslash (\) is used to escape quotes and
special characters
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 Strings

• More readable when print is used

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Length of a String
• len function gives the length of a string

\n is a single character:
the special character
representing newline
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 Concatenate and Repeat
• In Python, + and * operations have special
meaning when operating on strings
• + is used for concatenation of (two) strings
• * is used to repeat a string, an int number of
time
• Function/Operator Overloading

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Concatenate and Repeat

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Indexing
• Strings can be indexed
• First character has index 0

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Indexing
• Negative indices start counting from the right
• Negatives indices start from -1
• -1 means last, -2 second last, ...

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Indexing
• Using an index that is too large or too small
results in “index out of range” error

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Slicing
• To obtain a substring
• s[start:end] means substring of s starting at
index start and ending at index end-1
• s[0:len(s)] is same as s
• Both start and end are optional
– If start is omitted, it defaults to 0
– If end is omitted, it defaults to the length of string
• s[:] is same as s[0:len(s)], that is same as s

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Slicing

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 More Slicing

Understanding Indices for slicing

A c a d s
0 1 2 3 4 5
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 A c a d s

Out of Range Slicing 0

-5
1
-4
2
-3
3
-2
4
-1

• Out of range indices are ignored for slicing

• when start and end have the same sign, if start
>=end, empty slice is returned
Why?

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Tuples
• A tuple consists of a number of values
separated by commas

• Empty and Singleton Tuples

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Nested Tuples
• Tuples can be nested

• Note that course tuple is copied into student.

– Changing course does not affect student

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Length of a Tuple
• len function gives the length of a tuple

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 More Operations on Tuples
• Tuples can be concatenated, repeated,
indexed and sliced

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Unpacking Sequences
• Strings and Tuples are examples of sequences
– Indexing, slicing, concatenation, repetition
operations applicable on sequences
• Sequence Unpacking operation can be applied
to sequences to get the components
– Multiple assignment statement
– LHS and RHS must have equal length

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Unpacking Sequences

( )

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Lists
• Ordered sequence of values
• Written as a sequence of comma-separated
values between square brackets
• Values can be of different types
– usually the items all have the same type

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Lists
• List is also a sequence type
– Sequence operations are applicable

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Lists
• List is also a sequence type
– Sequence operations are applicable

Repetition

( )

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 More Operations on Lists
• L.append(x) • L.pop()
• L.extend(seq) • L.index(x)
• L.insert(i, x) • L.count(x)
• L.remove(x) • L.sort()
• L.pop(i) • L.reverse()
x is any value, seq is a sequence value (list, string, tuple, …),
i is an integer value
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 Mutable and Immutable Types
• Tuples and List types look very similar
• However, there is one major difference: Lists
are mutable
– Contents of a list can be modified
• Tuples and Strings are immutable
– Contents can not be modified

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Summary of Sequences
Operation Meaning
seq[i] i-th element of the sequence
len(seq) Length of the sequence
seq1 + seq2 Concatenate the two sequences
num*seq
seq*num Repeat seq num times

seq[start:end] slice starting from start, and ending at end-1

e in seq True if e is present is seq, False otherwise
e not in seq True if e is not present is seq, False otherwise
for e in seq Iterate over all elements in seq (e is bound to one element per
iteration)

Sequence types include String, Tuple and List.

Lists are mutable, Tuple and Strings immutable.
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 Summary of Sequences
• For details and many useful functions, refer to:
https://docs.python.org/3.2/tutorial/datastruct
ures.html

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Programming with Python

Sets and Dictionaries

Esc101, Strings
 Sets
• An unordered collection with no duplicate
elements
• Supports
– membership testing
– eliminating duplicate entries
– Set operations: union, intersection, difference, and
symmetric difference.

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Sets

{ }

Create a set from

a sequence

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Set Operations

{ }

{ }

{ }

{ }

{ }

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Dictionaries
• Unordered set of key:value pairs,
• Keys have to be unique and immutable
• Key:value pairs enclosed inside curly braces
{...}
• Empty dictionary is created by writing {}
• Dictionaries are mutable
– add new key:value pairs,
– change the pairing
– delete a key (and associated value)
Oct 15, 2023 Programming
 Operations on Dictionaries
Operation Meaning
len(d) Number of key:value pairs in d
d.keys() List containing the keys in d
d.values() List containing the values in d
k in d True if key k is in d
d[k] Value associated with key k in d
d.get(k, v) If k is present in d, then d[k] else v
d[k] = v Map the value v to key k in d
(replace d[k] if present)
del d[k] Remove key k (and associated value) from d
for k in d Iterate over the keys in d

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Operations on Dictionaries

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Operations on Dictionaries

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Operations on Dictionaries

# Remember: for ... in iterates over keys only

# Sort values in a list

Oct 15, 2023 Programming

 Dictionary Construction
• The dict constructor: builds dictionaries
directly from sequences of key-value pairs

Oct 15, 2023 Esc101, Strings

 Programming with Python

File I/O

Programming
 File I/O
• Files are persistent storage
• Allow data to be stored beyond program
lifetime
• The basic operations on files are
– open, close, read, write
• Python treat files as sequence of lines
– sequence operations work for the data read from
files

Programming
 File I/O: open and close
open(filename, mode)
• While opening a file, you need to supply
– The name of the file, including the path
– The mode in which you want to open a file
– Common modes are r (read), w (write), a (append)
• Mode is optional, defaults to r
• open(..) returns a file object
• close() on the file object closes the file
– finishes any buffered operations
Programming
 File I/O: Example

• Do some writing
• How to do it?
• see the next few slides

Programming
 File I/O: read, write and append
• Reading from an open file returns the
contents of the file
– as sequence of lines in the program
• Writing to a file
– IMPORTANT: If opened with mode 'w', clears the
existing contents of the file
– Use append mode ('a') to preserve the contents
– Writing happens at the end

Programming
File I/O: Examples

Programming
 File I/O: Examples
( )

( )

Programming
 File I/O: Examples
( )

Note empty line due to '\n'

Programming
 File I/O: Examples
Note the use of for ... in
for sequence

( )

]
Programming
 File I/O: Examples

( )

( )

( )

Programming
 Programming using Python

Modules and Packages

Amey Karkare
Dept. of CSE
IIT Kanpur

Welcome Python Programming

 Modules
• As program gets longer, need to organize them for
easier access and easier maintenance.
• Reuse same functions across programs without
copying its definition into each program.
• Python allows putting definitions in a file
– use them in a script or in an interactive instance of the
interpreter
• Such a file is called a module
– definitions from a module can be imported into other
modules or into the main module
Programming
 Modules
• A module is a file containing Python
definitions and statements.
• The file name is the module name with the
suffix .py appended.
• Within a module, the module’s name is
available in the global variable __name__.

Programming
Modules Example
fib.py - C:\

Programming
Modules Example

Within a module, the

module’s name is
available as the value of
the global variable
Programming __name__.
 Importing Specific Functions
• To import specific functions from a module

• This brings only the imported functions in the current symbol

table
– No need of modulename. (absence of fib. in the example)

Programming
 Importing ALL Functions
• To import all functions from a module, in the current
symbol table

• This imports all names except those beginning with

an underscore (_).

Programming
 __main__ in Modules
• When you run a module on the command line with
python fib.py <arguments>
the code in the module will be executed, just as if
you imported it, but with the __name__ set to
"__main__".
• By adding this code at the end of your module
if __name__ == "__main__":
... # Some code here
you can make the file usable as a script as well as an
importable module

Programming
 __main__ in Modules
if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
print (fib_iter(int(sys.argv[1])))
• This code parses the command line only if the
module is executed as the “main” file:
$ python fib.py 10
55
• If the module is imported, the code is not run:
>>> import fib
>>>
Programming
 Package
• A Python package is a collection of Python modules.
• Another level of organization.
• Packages are a way of structuring Python’s module
namespace by using dotted module names.
– The module name A.B designates a submodule
named B in a package named A.
– The use of dotted module names saves the authors of
multi-module packages like NumPy or Pillow from having
to worry about each other’s module names.

Programming
A sound Package

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html
Programming
 A sound Package

What are these files

with funny names?

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html

Oct 15, 2023xs Programming

 __init.py__
• The __init__.py files are required to make
Python treat directories containing the file as
packages.
• This prevents directories with a common name,
such as string, unintentionally hiding valid
modules that occur later on the module search
path.
• __init__.py can just be an empty file
• It can also execute initialization code for the
package
Programming
Importing Modules from Packages

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/
modules.html
Programming
 Importing Modules from Packages
import sound.effects.echo

• Loads the submodule sound.effects.echo

• It must be referenced with its full name:

sound.effects.echo.echofilter(
input, output,
delay=0.7, atten=4
)
Programming
Importing Modules from Packages
from sound.effects import echo
• This also loads the submodule echo
• Makes it available without package prefix
• It can be used as:
echo.echofilter(
input, output,
delay=0.7, atten=4
)
Programming
 Importing Modules from Packages
from sound.effects.echo import echofilter

• This loads the submodule echo, but this makes its

function echofilter() directly available.

echofilter(input, output,
delay=0.7, atten=4)

Programming
 Popular Packages
• pandas, numpy, scipy, matplotlib, …
• Provide a lot of useful functions

Programming