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Python Introduction
Course Code: PY-INP
In this Python training course, students learn to program in Python. The course is aimed at students new to the language who may or may not have experience with other programming languages. This Python course is taught using Python 3; however, differences between Python 2 and Python 3 are noted.
This course is intended for students who would like to learn Python programming and may or may not have programming experience.
Before attending this course, students must have:
- Some programming experience (recommended but not compulsory)
- Learn how Python works and what it is good for
- Understand Python's place in the world of programming languages
- Learn to work with and manipulate strings in Python
- Learn to perform math operations with Python
- Learn to work with Python sequences: lists, arrays, dictionaries, and sets
- Learn to collect user input and output results
- Learn flow control processing in Python
- Learn to write to and read from files using Python
- Learn to write functions in Python
- Learn to handle exceptions in Python
- Learn to work with dates and times in Python
This course has no associated exam.
Modules
This module explains how to get started using Python.
Lessons
- Getting Familiar with the Terminal
- Running Python
- Running a Python File
- Literals
- Variables
- Constants and Deleting Variables
- Writing a Python Module
- print () Function
- Collecting User Input
- Reading from and Writing to Files
- Exercise: Working with Files
Lab 1: Click here to enter text.
- Exercise: Hello, world!
- Exercise: Exploring Types
- Exercise: A Simple Python Script
- Exercise: Hello, You!
- Exercise: Working with Files
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Work with Python, use variables, output data, collect user input, and write simple Python functions and modules.
You have seen some of Python’s built-in functions. In this lesson, you will learn to write your own.
Lessons
- Defining Functions
- Variable Scope
- Global Variables
- Function Parameters
- Returning Values
- Returning Values
- Importing Modules
- Methods vs. Functions
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: A Function with Parameters
- Exercise: Parameters with Default Values
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Define functions with or without parameters
- Understand variable scope and how to import modules.
Python includes some built-in math functions and some additional built-in libraries that provide extended math (and related) functionality. In this lesson, we’ll cover the built-in functions and the math and random libraries.
Lessons
- Arithmetic Operators
- Assignment Operators
- Precedence of Operations
- Built-in Math Functions
- The math Module
- The random Module
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: Floor and Modulus
- Exercise: How Many Pizzas Do We Need?
- Exercise: Dice Rolling
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Do basic math in Python use the math and random modules for extended math functionality.
This module explains how to work with Python Strings.
Lessons
- Quotation Marks and Special Characters
- String Indexing
- Slicing Strings
- Concatenation and Repetition
- Combining Concatenation and Repetition
- Python Strings are Immutable
- Common String Methods
- String Formatting
- Formatted String Literals (f-strings) (introduced in Python 3.6)
- Built-in String Functions
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: Indexing Strings
- Exercise: Slicing Strings
- Exercise: Repetition
- Exercise: Playing with Formatting
- Exercise: Outputting Tab-delimited Text
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Manipulate and format strings.
Iterables are objects that can return their members one at a time. The iterables we will cover in this lesson are lists, tuples ranges, dictionaries, and sets.
Lessons
- Definitions
- Sequences
- Lists
- Sequences and Random
- Tuples
- Ranges
- Converting Sequences to Lists
- Indexing
- Slicing
- min (), max(), and sum()
- Converting between Sequences and Strings
- Unpacking Sequences
- Dictionaries
- The len() Function
- Sets
- *args and **kwargs
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: Remove and Return Random Element
- Exercise: Simple Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
- Exercise: Creating a Dictionary from User Input
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Understand lists, tuples, ranges, dictionaries, and sets.
- Understand the *args and **kwargs parameters.
A virtual environment provides a self-contained directory tree with its own Python installation and additional packages necessary for the project(s) being done in that environment. As such, scripts can be run in a virtual environment that have dependencies that are different from those in other development projects that may be running in the standard environment or in separate virtual environments.
Lessons
- Packages with pip
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: Creating, Activating, Deactivating, and Deleting a Virtual Environment
- Exercise: Working with a Virtual Environment
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Create and use virtual environments
- Install packages with pip.
This module explains how to change the flow by using conditional statements and loops.
Lessons
- Conditional Statements
- Compound Conditions
- The is and is not Operators
- all () and any() and the Ternary Operator
- In Between
- Loops in Python
- break and continue
- Looping through Lines in a File
- The else Clause in Loops
- The enumerate () Function
- Generators
- List Comprehensions
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: All True and Any True
- Exercise: Word Guessing Game
- Exercise: for...else
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Write if-elif-else conditions and to loop through sequences.
- Understand the enumerate () function, generators, and list comprehensions.
This module explains how to anticipate and handle exceptions gracefully.
Lessons
- Exception Basics
- Generic Exceptions
- The else and finally Clauses
- Using Exceptions for Flow Control
- Raising Your Own Exceptions
Lab 1: Installing and Configuring Windows 7
- Exercise: Raising Exceptions
- Exercise: Running Sum
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Handle Python exceptions.
This module explains how to use Python’s built-in modules to work with dates and times.
Lessons
- Understanding Time
- The time Module
- Time Structures
- Times as Strings
- Time and Formatted Strings
- Pausing Execution with time.sleep()
- The datetime Module
- datetime.datetime Objects
- datetime.timedelta Objects
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: What Colour Pants Should I Wear?
- Exercise: Report on Departure Times
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Work with the time and datetime modules
This module explains how to process files.
Lessons
- Opening Files
- Writing to Files
- The os Module
- os.walk()
- The os.path Module
- A Better Way to Open Files
Lab 1: Exercises in this lesson
- Exercise: Finding Text in a File
- Exercise: Writing to Files
- Exercise: List Creator
- Exercise: Comparing Lists
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Work with files and directories on the operating system
This module explains how to use the official Python style guide.
Lessons
- PEP8
- Pylint
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Understand the PEP8 coding standards and how to use Pylint to analyze your code