Instructor: Michelle Wang

Outline

This lecture is designed to get students up and running with Python. It is expected that Python 3 (preferably 3.8 or later) is installed, and that the students have some basic previous experience in a scripting language.

It will guide students through the fundamental syntax, concepts, and data structures required to code in Python 3.

Topics include:

• running your code,
• commenting,
• variables,
• arithmetic,
• logic,
• strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries,
• functions,
• libraries,
• if statements,
• loops,
• exceptions,
• and classes.

Questions you will be able to answer after taking this module

• How does the use of a break statement alter the flow of a loop in Python?

• What happens if you attempt to append new elements to a Tuple?

• Without running the code on your machine, what is the printed output when the following code is run?

  my_dictionary = {"a" : 1, "b" : {"c" : {"d" : [4,5,6,4]}}, "c" : [1,2,3]}
  x = my_dictionary["b"]["c"]["d"].append(my_dictionary["c"][-3])
  print(my_dictionary.values())
  

  1. [1, {'c': {'d': [4, 5, 6, 4]}}, [1, 2, 3]]
  2. [1, {'c': {'d': [4, 5, 6, 4, 1]}}, [1, 2, 3]]
  3. [1, [4,5,6,4,1], [1,2,3]]
  4. [1, [4,5,6,4], [1,2,3]]

• Without running the code on your machine, which string is returned by my_function when called with the specified parameters?

  def my_function(x, y, z):
      result = ""
      if len(z) <= 6 and len(z) > 2:
          result = z[-2] + y
      else:
          result = x + y
      return x + x + result
  
  my_function("111", "abc", "0100")
  

  1. 1111110abc
  2. 0abc111111
  3. 111111bca0
  4. 1111111110

Material

• code
• slides

Resources

• Think Python 2e textbook

• conda cheatsheet

Pre-recorded lecture video

Extras

explanation

• List of resources to learn Python

• Glossary of common python terms

• The good research handbook is for grad students, postdocs and PIs who do a lot of programming as part of their research. It will teach you, in a practical manner, how to organize your code so that it is easy to understand and works reliably.

• Sourcery.ai for live code reviews to improve your Python code

• A very brief intro to Python for MATLAB users

• An unbiased evaluation of Python environment management and packaging tools

Podcasts

• Python bytes for quick regular updates in what’s new in the world of Python
• Talk Python to me
• Real Python with many courses and a podcast

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