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diff --git a/python.html.markdown b/python.html.markdown index 42a52bcf..55f56071 100644 --- a/python.html.markdown +++ b/python.html.markdown @@ -8,20 +8,22 @@ contributors: filename: learnpython.py --- -Python was created by Guido Van Rossum in the early 90s. It is now one of the most popular -languages in existence. I fell in love with Python for its syntactic clarity. It's basically -executable pseudocode. +Python was created by Guido Van Rossum in the early 90s. It is now one of the +most popular languages in existence. I fell in love with Python for its +syntactic clarity. It's basically executable pseudocode. -Feedback would be highly appreciated! You can reach me at [@louiedinh](http://twitter.com/louiedinh) or louiedinh [at] [google's email service] +Feedback would be highly appreciated! You can reach me at [@louiedinh](http://twitter.com/louiedinh) +or louiedinh [at] [google's email service] Note: This article applies to Python 2.7 specifically, but should be applicable -to Python 2.x. Python 2.7 is reachong end of life and will stop beeign maintained in 2020, -it is though recommended to start learnign Python with Python 3. -For Python 3.x, take a look at the [Python 3 tutorial](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python3/). +to Python 2.x. Python 2.7 is reaching end of life and will stop being +maintained in 2020, it is though recommended to start learning Python with +Python 3. For Python 3.x, take a look at the [Python 3 tutorial](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python3/). -It is also possible to write Python code which is compatible with Python 2.7 and 3.x at the same time, -using Python [`__future__` imports](https://docs.python.org/2/library/__future__.html). `__future__` imports -allow you to write Python 3 code that will run on Python 2, so check out the Python 3 tutorial. +It is also possible to write Python code which is compatible with Python 2.7 +and 3.x at the same time, using Python [`__future__` imports](https://docs.python.org/2/library/__future__.html). `__future__` imports +allow you to write Python 3 code that will run on Python 2, so check out the +Python 3 tutorial. ```python @@ -32,6 +34,7 @@ allow you to write Python 3 code that will run on Python 2, so check out the Pyt as comments """ + #################################################### ## 1. Primitive Datatypes and Operators #################################################### @@ -63,7 +66,7 @@ allow you to write Python 3 code that will run on Python 2, so check out the Pyt # to carry out normal division with just one '/'. from __future__ import division 11/4 # => 2.75 ...normal division -11//4 # => 2 ...floored division +11//4 # => 2 ...floored division # Modulo operation 7 % 3 # => 1 @@ -123,11 +126,19 @@ not False # => True # A string can be treated like a list of characters "This is a string"[0] # => 'T' -# % can be used to format strings, like this: -"%s can be %s" % ("strings", "interpolated") +# You can find the length of a string +len("This is a string") # => 16 + +#String formatting with % +#Even though the % string operator will be deprecated on Python 3.1 and removed +#later at some time, it may still be good to know how it works. +x = 'apple' +y = 'lemon' +z = "The items in the basket are %s and %s" % (x,y) # A newer way to format strings is the format method. # This method is the preferred way +"{} is a {}".format("This", "placeholder") "{0} can be {1}".format("strings", "formatted") # You can use keywords if you don't want to count. "{name} wants to eat {food}".format(name="Bob", food="lasagna") @@ -144,8 +155,16 @@ None is None # => True # very useful when dealing with primitive values, but is # very useful when dealing with objects. -# None, 0, and empty strings/lists all evaluate to False. -# All other values are True +# Any object can be used in a Boolean context. +# The following values are considered falsey: +# - None +# - zero of any numeric type (e.g., 0, 0L, 0.0, 0j) +# - empty sequences (e.g., '', (), []) +# - empty containers (e.g., {}, set()) +# - instances of user-defined classes meeting certain conditions +# see: https://docs.python.org/2/reference/datamodel.html#object.__nonzero__ +# +# All other values are truthy (using the bool() function on them returns True). bool(0) # => False bool("") # => False @@ -175,6 +194,7 @@ some_other_var # Raises a name error # Equivalent of C's '?:' ternary operator "yahoo!" if 3 > 2 else 2 # => "yahoo!" + # Lists store sequences li = [] # You can start with a prefilled list @@ -234,7 +254,7 @@ li.remove(2) # Raises a ValueError as 2 is not in the list li.insert(1, 2) # li is now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] again # Get the index of the first item found -li.index(2) # => 3 +li.index(2) # => 1 li.index(7) # Raises a ValueError as 7 is not in the list # Check for existence in a list with "in" @@ -257,8 +277,9 @@ tup[:2] # => (1, 2) # You can unpack tuples (or lists) into variables a, b, c = (1, 2, 3) # a is now 1, b is now 2 and c is now 3 +d, e, f = 4, 5, 6 # you can leave out the parentheses # Tuples are created by default if you leave out the parentheses -d, e, f = 4, 5, 6 +g = 4, 5, 6 # => (4, 5, 6) # Now look how easy it is to swap two values e, d = d, e # d is now 5 and e is now 4 @@ -280,6 +301,9 @@ filled_dict.keys() # => ["three", "two", "one"] filled_dict.values() # => [3, 2, 1] # Note - Same as above regarding key ordering. +# Get all key-value pairs as a list of tuples with "items()" +filled_dicts.items() # => [("one", 1), ("two", 2), ("three", 3)] + # Check for existence of keys in a dictionary with "in" "one" in filled_dict # => True 1 in filled_dict # => False @@ -427,6 +451,7 @@ with open("myfile.txt") as f: for line in f: print line + #################################################### ## 4. Functions #################################################### @@ -444,15 +469,14 @@ add(y=6, x=5) # Keyword arguments can arrive in any order. # You can define functions that take a variable number of -# positional args, which will be interpreted as a tuple if you do not use the * +# positional args, which will be interpreted as a tuple by using * def varargs(*args): return args varargs(1, 2, 3) # => (1, 2, 3) - # You can define functions that take a variable number of -# keyword args, as well, which will be interpreted as a dict if you do not use ** +# keyword args, as well, which will be interpreted as a dict by using ** def keyword_args(**kwargs): return kwargs @@ -525,6 +549,10 @@ filter(lambda x: x > 5, [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]) # => [6, 7] [add_10(i) for i in [1, 2, 3]] # => [11, 12, 13] [x for x in [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] if x > 5] # => [6, 7] +# You can construct set and dict comprehensions as well. +{x for x in 'abcddeef' if x in 'abc'} # => {'d', 'e', 'f'} +{x: x**2 for x in range(5)} # => {0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16} + #################################################### ## 5. Classes @@ -643,34 +671,67 @@ math.sqrt == m.sqrt == sqrt # => True import math dir(math) +# If you have a Python script named math.py in the same +# folder as your current script, the file math.py will +# be loaded instead of the built-in Python module. +# This happens because the local folder has priority +# over Python's built-in libraries. + #################################################### ## 7. Advanced #################################################### -# Generators help you make lazy code +# Generators +# A generator "generates" values as they are requested instead of storing +# everything up front + +# The following method (*NOT* a generator) will double all values and store it +# in `double_arr`. For large size of iterables, that might get huge! def double_numbers(iterable): + double_arr = [] + for i in iterable: + double_arr.append(i + i) + +# Running the following would mean we'll double all values first and return all +# of them back to be checked by our condition +for value in double_numbers(range(1000000)): # `test_non_generator` + print value + if value > 5: + break + +# We could instead use a generator to "generate" the doubled value as the item +# is being requested +def double_numbers_generator(iterable): for i in iterable: yield i + i -# A generator creates values on the fly. -# Instead of generating and returning all values at once it creates one in each -# iteration. This means values bigger than 15 wont be processed in -# double_numbers. -# Note xrange is a generator that does the same thing range does. -# Creating a list 1-900000000 would take lot of time and space to be made. -# xrange creates an xrange generator object instead of creating the entire list -# like range does. -# We use a trailing underscore in variable names when we want to use a name that -# would normally collide with a python keyword -xrange_ = xrange(1, 900000000) - -# will double all numbers until a result >=30 found -for i in double_numbers(xrange_): - print i - if i >= 30: +# Running the same code as before, but with a generator, now allows us to iterate +# over the values and doubling them one by one as they are being consumed by +# our logic. Hence as soon as we see a value > 5, we break out of the +# loop and don't need to double most of the values sent in (MUCH FASTER!) +for value in double_numbers_generator(xrange(1000000)): # `test_generator` + print value + if value > 5: break +# BTW: did you notice the use of `range` in `test_non_generator` and `xrange` in `test_generator`? +# Just as `double_numbers_generator` is the generator version of `double_numbers` +# We have `xrange` as the generator version of `range` +# `range` would return back and array with 1000000 values for us to use +# `xrange` would generate 1000000 values for us as we request / iterate over those items + +# Just as you can create a list comprehension, you can create generator +# comprehensions as well. +values = (-x for x in [1,2,3,4,5]) +for x in values: + print(x) # prints -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 to console/terminal + +# You can also cast a generator comprehension directly to a list. +values = (-x for x in [1,2,3,4,5]) +gen_to_list = list(values) +print(gen_to_list) # => [-1, -2, -3, -4, -5] + # Decorators # in this example beg wraps say @@ -678,7 +739,6 @@ for i in double_numbers(xrange_): # message from functools import wraps - def beg(target_function): @wraps(target_function) def wrapper(*args, **kwargs): @@ -689,13 +749,11 @@ def beg(target_function): return wrapper - @beg def say(say_please=False): msg = "Can you buy me a beer?" return msg, say_please - print say() # Can you buy me a beer? print say(say_please=True) # Can you buy me a beer? Please! I am poor :( ``` @@ -712,6 +770,8 @@ print say(say_please=True) # Can you buy me a beer? Please! I am poor :( * [Python Module of the Week](http://pymotw.com/2/) * [A Crash Course in Python for Scientists](http://nbviewer.ipython.org/5920182) * [First Steps With Python](https://realpython.com/learn/python-first-steps/) +* [LearnPython](http://www.learnpython.org/) +* [Fullstack Python](https://www.fullstackpython.com/) ### Dead Tree |