Python

Overview

Names & Assignment

Sequences types: Lists, Tuples, and
Strings
Mutability
Loops
Functions
Conditions
The Basics
 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
 Enough to Understand the Code
 Indentation matters to code meaning
• Block structure indicated by indentation
 First assignment to a variable creates it
• Variable types don’t need to be declared.
• Python figures out the variable types on its own.
 Assignment is = and comparison is ==
 For numbers + - * / % are as expected
 Logical operators are words (and, or,
not) not symbols
 The basic printing command is print
 Basic Datatypes
 Integers (default for numbers)
z = 5 / 2 # Answer 2, integer division
 Floats
x = 3.456
 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”””
 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, loops
 Comments
 Start comments with #, rest of line is ignored
def fact(n):
“““fact(n) assumes n is a positive
integer and returns factorial of n.”””
assert(n>0)
return 1 if n==1 else n*fact(n-1)
 Assignment
 Binding a variable in Python means setting a name to
hold a reference to some object
• Assignment creates references, not copies
 Names in Python do not have an intrinsic type,
objects have types
• Python determines the type of the reference automatically
based on what data is assigned to it
 You create a name the first time it appears on the left
side of an assignment expression:
x=3
 Variable 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, etc.
 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
Accessing Non-Existent Name
Accessing a name before it’s been properly
created (by placing it on the left side of an
assignment), raises an error
>>> y

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<pyshell#16>", line 1, in -toplevel-
y
NameError: name ‘y' is not defined
>>> y = 3
>>> y
3
Sequence types:
Tuples, Lists, and
Strings
 Sequence Types
1. Tuple: (‘john’, 32, [CMSC])
 Items can be of mixed types, including
collection types
2. Strings: “John Smith”

3. List: [1, 2, ‘john’, (‘up’, ‘down’)]

 ordered sequence of items of mixed types
 They can have many dimensions
 Similar Syntax
 All three sequence types (tuples,
strings, and lists) share much of the
same syntax and functionality.
 Key difference:
• Tuples and strings are immutable
• Lists are mutable
 The operations shown in this section
can be applied to all sequence types
• most examples will just show the
operation performed on one
 Sequence Types 1

 Define tuples using parentheses and commas

>>> tu = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
 Define lists are using square brackets and
commas
>>> li = [“abc”, 34, 4.34, 23]
 Define strings using quotes (“, ‘, or “““).
>>> st = “Hello World”
>>> st = ‘Hello World’
>>> st = “““This is a multi-line
string that uses triple quotes.”””
 Sequence Types 2
 Access individual members of a tuple, list, or
string using square bracket “array” notation
 Note that all are 0 based…
>>> tu = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
>>> tu[1] # Second item in the tuple.
‘abc’
>>> li = [“abc”, 34, 4.34, 23]
>>> li[1] # Second item in the list.
34
>>> st = “Hello World”
>>> st[1] # Second character in string.
‘e’
 Positive and negative indices

>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)

Positive index: count from the left, starting with 0
>>> t[1]
‘abc’
Negative index: count from right, starting with –1
>>> t[-3]
4.56
 Slicing: return copy of a subset

>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)

Return a copy of the container with a subset of

the original members. Start copying at the first
index, and stop copying before second.
>>> t[1:4]
(‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3))
Negative indices count from end
>>> t[1:-1]
(‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3))
 Slicing: return copy of a subset

>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)

Omit first index to make copy starting from
beginning of the container
>>> t[:2]
(23, ‘abc’)
Omit second index to make copy starting at first
index and going to end
>>> t[2:]
(4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
 Copying the Whole Sequence

 [ : ] makes a copy of an entire sequence

>>> t[:]
(23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
 The ‘in’ Operator
 Boolean test whether a value is inside a container:
>>> t = [1, 2, 4, 5]
>>> 3 in t
False
>>> 4 in t
True
>>> 4 not in t
False
 For strings, tests for substrings
>>> a = 'abcde'
>>> 'c' in a
True
>>> 'cd' in a
True
>>> 'ac' in a
False
 Be careful: the in keyword is also used in the syntax
of for loops and list comprehensions
 The + Operator
The + operator produces a new tuple, list, or
string whose value is the concatenation of its
arguments.

>>> (1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

>>> [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6]

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

>>> “Hello” + “ ” + “World”

‘Hello World’
 The * Operator
 The * operator produces a new tuple, list, or
string that “repeats” the original content.
>>> (1, 2, 3) * 3
(1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3)

>>> [1, 2, 3] * 3
[1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]

>>> “Hello” * 3
‘HelloHelloHello’
 Mutability:
Tuples vs. Lists
 Lists are mutable

>>> li = [‘abc’, 23, 4.34, 23]

>>> li[1] = 45
>>> li
[‘abc’, 45, 4.34, 23]
 We can change lists in place.
 Name li still points to the same memory
reference when we’re done.
 Tuples are immutable
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 4.56, (2,3), ‘def’)
>>> t[2] = 3.14
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#75>", line 1, in -toplevel-
tu[2] = 3.14
TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment

You can’t change a tuple.

You can make a fresh tuple and assign its
reference to a previously used name.
>>> t = (23, ‘abc’, 3.14, (2,3), ‘def’)
The immutability of tuples means they’re faster
than lists.
 Operations on Lists Only

>>> li = [1, 11, 3, 4, 5]

>>> li.append(‘a’) # Note the method

syntax
>>> li
[1, 11, 3, 4, 5, ‘a’]

>>> li.insert(2, ‘i’)

>>>li
[1, 11, ‘i’, 3, 4, 5, ‘a’]
 The extend method vs +
 + creates a fresh list with a new memory ref
 extend operates on list li in place.
>>> li.extend([9, 8, 7])
>>> li
[1, 2, ‘i’, 3, 4, 5, ‘a’, 9, 8, 7]

 Potentially confusing:
• extend takes a list as an argument.
• append takes a singleton as an argument.
>>> li.append([10, 11, 12])
>>> li
[1, 2, ‘i’, 3, 4, 5, ‘a’, 9, 8, 7, [10,
11, 12]]
 Operations on Lists Only
Lists have many methods, including index, count,
remove, reverse, sort
>>> li = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘b’]
>>> li.index(‘b’) # index of 1st occurrence
1
>>> li.count(‘b’) # number of occurrences
2
>>> li.remove(‘b’) # remove 1st occurrence
>>> li
[‘a’, ‘c’, ‘b’]
 Operations on Lists Only
>>> li = [5, 2, 6, 8]

>>> li.reverse() # reverse the list *in place*

>>> li
[8, 6, 2, 5]

>>> li.sort() # sort the list *in place*

>>> li
[2, 5, 6, 8]

>>> li.sort(some_function)
# sort in place using user-defined comparison
 Tuple details
 The comma is the tuple creation operator, not parens
>>> 1,
(1,)

 Python shows parens for clarity (best practice)

>>> (1,)
(1,)

 Don't forget the comma!

>>> (1)
1

 Trailing comma only required for singletons others

 Empty tuples have a special syntactic form
>>> ()
()
>>> tuple()
()
 Summary: Tuples vs. Lists
 Lists slower but more powerful than tuples
• Lists can be modified, and they have lots of
handy operations and mehtods
• Tuples are immutable and have fewer
features
 To convert between tuples and lists use the
list() and tuple() functions:
li = list(tu)
tu = tuple(li)
 Functions
 A function is a block of code which only runs
when it is called.

 They are really useful if you have operations that

need to be done repeatedly; i.e. calculations.

 The function must be defined before it is called.

In other words, the block of code that makes up
the function must come before the block of code
that makes use of the function.
 Functions
def function_name(parameters/args):
do something
return something

Program to multiply numbers:

def multiply(a, b):

product = a*b
return product
 For loops
 The for loop is used to iterate over elements in a
sequence, and is often used when you have a
piece of code that you want to repeat a number of
times.
 For loops essentially say:

“For all elements in a sequence, do

something”

_______________________________________________________
 break() funtion
 To terminate a loop, you can use the break()
function.
 The break() statement breaks out of the innermost
enclosing for or while loop.
 While loops
 The while loop tells the computer to do something as long
as a specific condition is met.
 It essentially says:

“while this is true, do this.”

 When working with while loops, its important to remember

the nature of various operators.
 While loops use the break() function in the same way as a
for loop does.
 For vs While loops
 You will use for loops more often than while
loops.
 The for loop is the natural choice for cycling
through a list, characters in a string, etc;
basically, anything of determinate size.
 The while loop is the natural choice if you are
cycling through something, such as a sequence
of numbers, an indeterminate number of times
until some condition is met.
 Nested loops

 In some situations, you may want a loop

within a loop; this is known as a nested loop.
 Conditions
 There are three main conditional statements in
Python; if, else, elif.
 Question
 You are given a list of student scores for a math competition. Each student's score is
represented as a list with the student's name as the first element and their score as the
second element. For example, ["Alice", 85] represents Alice's score.
 Write a Python function called find_highest_score that takes a 2D list of student scores and
returns the name of the student with the highest score. If there are multiple students with
the same highest score, return the name of the first student with that score.
student_scores = [["Alice", 85], ["Bob", 92], ["Charlie", 78], ["David", 92], ["Eve", 88]]

student_scores = [["Alice", 85], ["Bob", 92], ["Charlie", 78], ["David", 92], ["Eve", 88]]
highest_scorer = find_highest_score(student_scores)
print("The student with the highest score is:", highest_scorer)

The student with the highest score is: Bob

Note: Your function should be able to handle lists of different lengths and the provided list of student scores is just an
example. Your code should work for any similar list of student scores.