Instructor: Michelle Wang
Outline
This lecture is designed to get students up and running with Python. It is expected that Python 3.12 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
breakstatement 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, {'c': {'d': [4, 5, 6, 4]}}, [1, 2, 3]][1, {'c': {'d': [4, 5, 6, 4, 1]}}, [1, 2, 3]][1, [4,5,6,4,1], [1,2,3]][1, [4,5,6,4], [1,2,3]]
-
Without running the code on your machine, which string is returned by
my_functionwhen 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")1111110abc0abc111111111111bca01111111110
Material
Resources
Extras
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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.
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Sourcery.ai for live code reviews to improve your Python code
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An unbiased evaluation of Python environment management and packaging tools
Podcasts
- Python bytes for quick regular updates in whatβs new in the world of Python
- Talk Python to me
- Real Python with many courses and a podcast