Introduction to

Programming
with Python
 Programming basics
 code or source code: The sequence of instructions in a program.
 syntax: The set of legal structures and commands that can be
used in a particular programming language.
 output: The messages printed to the user by a program.

 console: The text box onto which output is printed.

 Some source code editors pop up the console as an external
window,
and others contain their own console window.

2
 Compiling and interpreting
 Many languages require you to compile (translate) your program
into a form that the machine understands.
compile
source code byte code outpu
Hello.java execute
Hello.class t

 Python is instead directly interpreted into machine instructions.

interpret
source code outpu
Hello.py t

3
 The Python Interpreter

•
Python is an interpreted >>> 3 + 7
language
10
•
The interpreter provides >>> 3 < 15
an interactive True
environment to play with
the language >>> 'print me'
'print me'
•
Results of expressions are
>>> print 'print me'
printed on the screen
print me
>>>
 Expressions
 expression: A data value or set of operations to compute a value.
Examples: 1 + 4 * 3
42
 Arithmetic operators we will use:
+ - * / addition, subtraction/negation, multiplication, division
% modulus, a.k.a. remainder
** exponentiation

 precedence: Order in which operations are computed.

 * / % ** have a higher precedence than + -
1 + 3 * 4 is 13

 Parentheses can be used to force a certain order of evaluation.

(1 + 3) * 4 is 16

5
 Integer division
 When we divide integers with / , the quotient is also an integer.
3 52
4 ) 14 27 ) 1425
12 135
2 75
54
21
 More examples:

35 / 5 is 7

84 / 10 is 8

156 / 100 is 1

 The % operator computes the remainder from a division of

integers.
3 43
4 ) 14 5 ) 218
12 20
2 18
15
3

6
 Real numbers
 Python can also manipulate real numbers.
 Examples: 6.022 -15.9997 42.0
2.143e17

 The operators + - * / % ** ( ) all work for real numbers.

 The / produces an exact answer: 15.0 / 2.0 is 7.5
 The same rules of precedence also apply to real numbers:
Evaluate ( ) before * / % before + -

 When integers and reals are mixed, the result is a real

number.
 Example:
7 / 3 * 1.2 + 3 /1 2/ 2.0 is 0.5
2 * 1.2 + 3 / 2
 The conversion
2.4
occurs on a per-operator basis.
+ 3 / 2
2.4 + 1
3.4

7
 Math commands
 Python has useful commands (or called functions) for
performing calculations.
Constant Description
Command name Description
e 2.7182818...
abs(value) absolute value
pi 3.1415926...
ceil(value) rounds up
cos(value) cosine, in radians
floor(value) rounds down
log(value) logarithm, base e
log10(value) logarithm, base 10
max(value1, value2) larger of two values
min(value1, value2) smaller of two values
round(value) nearest whole number
sin(value) sine, in radians
sqrt(value) square root

 To use many of these commands, you must write the following at

the top of your Python program:
from math import * 8
 Numbers: Floating
Point
 int(x) converts x to >>> 1.23232
1.2323200000000001
an integer
>>> print 1.23232
 float(x) converts x
1.23232
to a floating >>> 1.3E7
point 13000000.0
 The interpreter >>> int(2.0)
2
shows >>> float(2)
a lot of digits 2.0
 Variables
 variable: A named piece of memory that can store a value.
 Usage:

Compute an expression's result,

store that result into a variable,

and use that variable later in the program.

 assignment statement: Stores a value into a variable.

 Syntax:
name = value

 Examples: x = 5
gpa = 3.14

x 5 gpa 3.14
 A variable that has been given a value can be used in expressions.
x + 4 is 9

10
 print
 print : Produces text output on the console.
 Syntax:
print "Message"
print Expression
 Prints the given
text message or
expression value
on the console,
and
moves the cursor
down to the next
line.
print Item1,
Item2, ...,
ItemN
 Prints several
messages and/or
expressions on the 1
Example: print Statement

•
Elements separated by
commas print with a space
between them >>> print 'hello'
•
A comma at the end of the hello
statement (print ‘hello’,) >>> print
will not print a newline 'hello', 'there'
character hello there
 input
 input : Reads a number from user input.
 You can assign (store) the result of input into a variable.
 Example:
age = input("How old are you? ")
print "Your age is", age
print "You have", 65 - age, "years until
retirement"
Output:
How old are you? 53
Your age is 53
You have 12 years until retirement

1
 Input: Example
print "What's your name?"
name = raw_input("> ")

print "What year were you born?"

birthyear = int(raw_input("> "))

print "Hi “, name, “!”, “You are “,

2016 – birthyear
% python input.py
What's your name?
> Michael
What year were
you born?
>1980
Hi Michael! You are
 Repetition
(loops) and
Selection (if/else)
 The for loop
 for loop: Repeats a set of statements over a group of values.

Syntax:
for variableName in groupOfValues:
statements

We indent the statements to be repeated with tabs or spaces.

variableName gives a name to each value, so you can refer to it in the statements.

groupOfValues can be a range of integers, specified with the range function.


Example:
for x in range(1, 6):
print x, "squared is", x * x

Output:
1 squared is 1
2 squared is 4
3 squared is 9
4 squared is 16
5 squared is 25

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 range
 The range function specifies a range of
integers:

range(start, stop) - the integers between start (inclusive)
and stop (exclusive)
 It can also accept a third value specifying the change between values.

range(start, stop, step) - the integers between start (inclusive)
and stop (exclusive) by step
 Example:
for x in range(5, 0, -1):
print x
print "Blastoff!"
Output:
5
4
3
2
1
Blastoff!

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 Cumulative loops
 Some loops incrementally compute a value that is initialized outside
the loop. This is sometimes called a cumulative sum.
sum = 0
for i in range(1, 11):
sum = sum + (i * i)
print "sum of first 10 squares is", sum

Output:
sum of first 10 squares is 385

 Exercise: Write a Python program that computes the factorial of an

integer.

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 if
 if statement: Executes a group of statements only if a
certain condition is true. Otherwise, the statements are
skipped.
 Syntax:
if condition:
statements

 Example:
gpa = 3.4
if gpa > 2.0:
print "Your application is accepted."

19
 if/else
 if/else statement: Executes one block of statements if a
certain condition is True, and a second block of statements if it is
False.

Syntax:
if condition:
statements
else:
statements

 Example:
gpa = 1.4
if gpa > 2.0:
print
"Welcome to
Mars
University!
"
else:
print "Your
application
is denied."

 Multiple conditions 21
Example of If Statements

import math
x = 30
if x <= 15 : y >>> import ifstatement
= x + 15 y = 0.999911860107
>>>
elif x <= 30
In interpreter
:
y = x + 30
else :
y=x
print ‘y = ‘,
Inprint
file ifstatement.py
math.sin(y)
 while
 while loop: Executes a group of statements as long as a condition is True.
 good for indefinite loops (repeat an unknown number of times)
 Syntax:
while condition:
statements
 Example:
number = 1
while number < 200:
print number,
number = number * 2

 Output:
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128

2
 While Loops
>>> import whileloop
x=1 1
while x < 10 : 2
print x 3
x=x+1 4
5
6

In whileloop.py
7
8
9
>>>

In interpreter
 Logic
 Many logical expressions use relational operators:
Operator Meaning Example Result
== equals 1 + 1 == 2 True
!= does not equal 3.2 != 2.5 True
< less than 10 < 5 False
> greater than 10 > 5 True
<= less than or equal to 126 <= 100 False
>= greater than or equal to 5.0 >= 5.0 True

 Logical expressions can be combined with logical operators:

Operator Example Result
and 9 != 6 and 2 < 3 True
or 2 == 3 or -1 < 5 True
not not 7 > 0 False

 Exercise: Write code to display and count the factors of a number.

25
Loop Control Statements

break Jumps out of the closest

enclosing loop

continue Jumps to the top of the closest

enclosing loop

pass Does nothing, empty statement

placeholder
 More Examples For
Loops
 Similar to perl for loops, iterating through a
list of values
for x in [1,7,13,2]: for x in range(5) :
forloop1.py print x forloop2.py print x

%python forloop1.py
% python forloop2.py
1
0
7
1
13
2
2
3
4 [0,1, …, n-1]
range(N) generates a list of numbers
More Data Types
 Everything is an object

 Everything means
>>> x = 7
everything, >>> x
including 7
functions and >>>
classes (more on x=
'hello'
this later!) >>>
 Data type is a x
property of the 'hello'
>>>
object and not
of the variable
 Numbers: Integers

 Integer – the
equivalent of a C long >>> 132224
 Long Integer – an 132224
unbounded >>> 132323 **
2
integer value. 17509376329L
>>>
 Numbers: Floating
Point
 int(x) converts x to >>> 1.23232
1.2323200000000001
an integer
>>> print 1.23232
 float(x) converts x
1.23232
to a floating >>> 1.3E7
point 13000000.0
 The interpreter >>> int(2.0)
2
shows >>> float(2)
a lot of digits 2.0
 Numbers: Complex

 Built into Python

 Same operations are >>> x = 3 + 2j
>>> y = -1j
supported as
>>> x +y
integer and float (3+1j)
>>> x *y
(2-3j)
 String Literals

 + is overloaded to do
concatenation >>> x = 'hello'
>>> x = x + ' there'
>>> x
'hello there'
 String Literals
 Can use single or double quotes, and
three double quotes for a multi-line
string

>>> 'I am a string'

'I am a string'
>>> "So am I!"
'So am I!'
Substrings and Methods

•len(String) – returns the

>>> s = '012345' number of characters in
>>> s[3] the String
'3' >>> len(x) 6
>>> s[1:4]
'123'
>>> s[2:]
'2345'
>>> s[:4]
'0123'
 String Formatting
 Similar to C’s printf
 <formatted string> % <elements to

insert>
 Can usually just use %s for everything,

it will convert the object to its String

representation.
>>> "One, %d, three" % 2
'One, 2, three'
>>> "%d, two, %s" % (1,3)
'1, two, 3'
>>> "%s two %s" % (1, 'three')
'1 two three'
>>>
 Types for Data
Collection List, Set,
and Dictionary

List


Ordered Pairs of values

Unordered list
Python Collections (Arrays)
There are four collection data types in the Python
programming language:
• List is a collection which is ordered and changeable.
Allows duplicate members.
• Set is a collection which is unordered, unchangeable*,
and unindexed. No duplicate members.
• Dictionary is a collection which is ordered** and
changeable. No duplicate members.
 Lists
 Ordered collection of data
 Data can be of different types

 Lists are mutable

 Same subset operations as Strings

 List Functions
 list.append(x)
 Add item at the end of the list.

 list.insert(i,x)
 Insert item at a given position.

 Similar to a[i:i]=[x]

 list.remove(x)
 Removes first item from the list with value x

 list.pop(i)
 Remove item at position I and return it. If no index I is given then

remove the first item in the list.

 list.index(x)
 Return the index in the list of the first item with value x.

 list.count(x)
 Return the number of time x appears in the list

 list.sort()
 Sorts items in the list in ascending order

 list.reverse()
 Reverses items in the list
 Sets
 A set is another python data structure that is an unordered
collection with no duplicates.
>>> setA=set(["a","b","c","d"])
>>> setB=set(["c","d","e","f"])
>>> "a" in setA
True
>>> "a" in setB
False
 Dictionaries

 A set of key-value pairs

 Dictionaries are mutable
 Entries can be changed by assigning to that entry
•
Assigning to a key that does not exist adds an entry
 The del method deletes an element from a dictionary