Python is a widely used high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than would be possible in languages such as C++ or Java.
##Python's core philosophy includes:
- Beautiful is better than ugly
- Explicit is better than implicit
- Simple is better than complex
- Complex is better than complicated
- Readability counts
###Fun Fact: Youtube was built using Python
###Simple and beautiful code:
def function test(x,y):
If x < 10 :
print x
return y
###Print a pyramid of height n
def printTriangle():
n = 10
for i in range(0 , n):
s = ' ' * (n-i)
s = s + '*' * (i*2 - 1)
print s
printTriangle()
##Data Structures ###Strings characters in quotes. They are immutable data types, means that changing the value of a number data type results in a newly allocated object. ###Numbers Number data types store numeric values. They are immutable data types. ###Lists The list is a versatile datatype available in Python which can be written as a list of comma-separated values (items) between square brackets. The list is indexed starting at 0.
list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000]
print list1[0] --> physics
###Dictionary Key-value pairs. Does not maintain order opposed to lists
dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}
print dict['Name'] --> Zara
###Tuples A tuple is a sequence of immutable Python objects. Tuples are sequences, just like lists. The differences between tuples and lists are: the tuples cannot be changed unlike lists (cannot sort, append, reverse, etc.) and tuples use parentheses, whereas lists use square brackets. The tuple is indexed starting at 0.
tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000)
print tup1[0] --> physics
Tuples are comparable
(0,1,2)<(5,1,2) --> true
##Resources and links to courses:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
- http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python
- https://www.coursera.org/specializations/python
- https://www.udacity.com/course/programming-foundations-with-python--ud036
- Cheat sheet: http://www.astro.up.pt/~sousasag/Python_For_Astronomers/Python_qr.pdf