This guide is meant for people who know programming concepts, and need or want to learn Python without all the intro filler a lot of tutorials have.
The focus is mostly on implementation and syntax.
To execute a Python script, run python FILE_NAME, after having Python installed.
The cleanest way I've found to install it ( clean meaning minimal effort ), is to brew install python.
I installed it with brew install awscli, but I needed the AWS CLI anyway, so it worked out.
It's an interpreted language, so you don't need an IDE. VSCode has some cool extensions for linting, and that's my default editor anyhow.
You can right click and run the scripts from VSCode, if that's your thing.
Support truthy and falsey values.
- Empty String
- 0
- 0.0
Python does not have curly braces, {}, it instead uses white space and indentation to determine execution
Format:
if condition operator second_condition
# execute for true
# Code executed after completion
Example:
if 1 == 1:
print('duh')
print('out of condition')
Python does not compare data types, so == is for comparison
Use a : to the end of the else
if 1 == 1:
print('duh')
else:
print('inside false condition)
print('out of condition')
This is the else if.
elif a < 3:
print('do sumn')
while CONDITION:
# do stuff that eventually turns condition false
for i in iterable
print('I did stuff ' + str(i) + ' times')
Or the non insane way, using string interpolation
for i in iterable
printf('I did it ${i} times')
range(start, end, step)
end is treated like an index position, but not start. So range(1,5) will go from 1-4
External dependency, collection of Python code. Think node_modules/.
- Standard library is a collection of modules built into the language. They need to be imported to be used
import random<-- almost too easy, right?
Modules are accessed with dot notation, so to call a function on random, you'd write random.randint(args)
You can pull specific functions out of certain modules.
If you're familiar with JS, it's essentially destructuring.
from random import WHATEVER_YOU_WANT
You can also import several things, comma separated.
import one, two, three, four
The npm or yarn of Python. Installs 3rd party modules