About the Book
You already know you want to learn Python, and a smarter way to learn Python 3 is to learn by doing. The Python Workshop focuses on building up your practical skills so that you can build up your machine learning skills as a data scientist, write scripts that help automate your life and save you time, or even create your own games and desktop applications. You'll learn from real examples that lead to real results.
Throughout The Python Workshop, you'll take an engaging step-by-step approach to understanding Python. You won't have to sit through any unnecessary theory. If you're short on time you can jump into a single exercise each day or spend an entire weekend learning about Python scripting. It's your choice. Learning on your terms, you'll build up and reinforce key skills in a way that feels rewarding.
Every physical copy of The Python Workshop unlocks access to the interactive edition. With videos detailing all exercises and activities, you'll always have a guided solution. You can also benchmark yourself against assessments, track progress, and receive free content updates. You'll even earn a secure credential that you can share and verify online upon completion. It's a premium learning experience that's included with your printed copy. To redeem, follow the instructions located at the start of your Python book.
Fast-paced and direct, The Python Workshop is the ideal companion for Python beginners. You'll build and iterate on your code like a software developer, learning along the way. This process means that you'll find that your new skills stick, embedded as best practices. You will have a solid foundation for the years ahead.
Vital Python – Math, Strings, Conditionals, and Loops
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to simplify mathematical expressions with the order of operations using integers and floats; assign variables and change Python types to display and retrieve user information; apply global functions including len(), print(), and input(); manipulate strings using indexing, slicing, string concatenation, and string methods; apply Booleans and nested conditionals to solve problems with multiple pathways; utilize 'for loops' and 'while loops' to iterate over strings and repeat mathematical operations and create new programs by combining math, strings, conditionals, and loops. This chapter covers the fundamentals of the Python language.
Introduction
Welcome to the Python Workshop. This book is for anyone new to the Python programming language. Our objective is to teach you Python so that you can solve realworld problems as a Python developer and data scientist. This book will combine theory, examples, exercises, questions, and activities for all core concepts; so that you can learn to use Python best practices to solve real-world problems. The exercises and activities have been chosen specifically to help you review the concepts covered and extend your learning. The best way to learn Python is to solve problems on your own.
The material (in this book) is targeted at beginners but will be equally as beneficial to experienced developers who are not yet familiar with Python. We are not teaching computer science per se, but rather Python, the most beautiful and powerful coding language in the world. If you have never studied computer science, you will learn the most important concepts here, and if you have studied computer science, you will discover tools and tricks for Python that you have never seen before.
Python has become the most popular programming language in the world due to its simple syntax, extensive range, and dominance in the field of machine learning. In this book, you will become fluent in Python syntax, and you will take significant steps toward producing Pythonic code. You will gain experience in Python development, data science, and machine learning.
Many introductory Python books provide full introductions to computer science. Learning computer science with Python is an excellent way to start, but it is not the method of this book. Units on software development and data science are rarely covered in such books. They may be touched upon, but here, they represent 40% of our book.
By contrast, many books on software development and data science are not designed for beginners. If they are, the Python fundamentals that they teach are usually summarized in one brief unit. This book devotes considerable space to Python fundamentals and essentials. Beginners are not only welcome; they are guided every step of the way.
In addition to the unique focus on Python fundamentals and essentials, the fact that the content is written by seasoned educators, data scientists, and developers makes this Python book more than just a text or reference.
Contents
Chapter 1, Vital Python – Math, Strings, Conditionals, and Loops, explains how to write basic Python programs, and outlines the fundamentals of the Python language.
Chapter 2, Python Structures, covers the essential elements that are used to store and retrieve data in all programming languages.
Chapter 3, Executing Python – Programs, Algorithms, and Functions, explains how to write more powerful and concise code through an increased appreciation of well- written algorithms, and an understanding of functions.
Chapter 4, Extending Python, Files, Errors, and Graphs, covers the basic I/O (input- output) operations for Python and covers using the matplotlib and seaborn libraries to create visualizations.
Chapter 5, Constructing Python – Classes and Methods, introduces the most central concepts in object-oriented programming, and it will help you write code using classes, which will make your life easier.
Chapter 6, The Standard Library, covers the importance of the Python standard library. It explains how to navigate in the standard Python libraries and overviews some of the most commonly used modules.
Chapter 7, Becoming Pythonic, covers the Python programming language, with which you will enjoy writing succinct, meaningful code. It also demonstrates some techniques for expressing yourself in ways that are familiar to other Python programmers.
Chapter 8, Software Development, covers how to debug and troubleshoot our applications, how to write tests to validate our code and the documentation for other developers and users.
Chapter 9, Practical Python – Advanced Topics, explains how to take advantage of parallel programming, how to parse command-line arguments, how to encode and decode Unicode, and how to profile Python to discover and fix performance problems.
Chapter 10, Data Analytics with pandas and NumPy, covers data science, which is the core application of Python. We will be covering NumPy and pandas in this chapter.
Chapter 11, Machine Learning, covers the concept of machine learning and the steps involved in building a machine learning algorithm.