Python Foundations

This course is an appropriate introduction to students of any background looking to get started with Python core concepts and learn fundamental programming.

Programmers/Developers who aspire to shift their career towards RPA/AI development, Data Science related project development that majorly uses Python as the scripting language

- System Administrators

- Network Administrators and Engineers

- DevOps Engineers

- Back-end developers

- Front-end developers

Working within an engaging, hands-on learning environment, and guided by an expert instructor, students will learn to write effective Python code using the latest features and techniques, including:

• Create working Python scripts following best practices
• Explore simple and complex Python data types and use them appropriately
• Use built-in functions and create custom functions with parameters and return types
• Understand Pythonic features such as comprehensions and iterators
• Work with dates, times, and calendars
• Read and write files with both text and binary data
• Gain familiarity with the standard library and its work-saving modules
• Understand objects in Python and how to create classes

DAY 1: GETTING STARTED WITH PYTHON PROGRAMMING

1- Python Variables and Data types

• Python intro with a quick overview on the syntax, IDEs
• Recall how to declare/initialize variables of different data types in Python - Numeric, String, Bool, Sequence
• Naming Conventions & Rules
• Functions and purpose of main()
• Arguments
• Command line parameters
• White spacing basic rules
• Types as Objects
• Type conversion
• Mutable vs Immutable Objects

2- Working with Strings in Python

• String Literal - Escape Sequences
• Formatting String Output
• Printing and formatting strings
• Scripting with input()
• About raw_input()

3- Working with Dates and times

• Working with dates and times
• Translating timestamps
• Parsing dates from text
• Formatting dates
• Calendar data

4- Working with Conditional Statements and Loops

• If else statements
• If elif
• Nested if statement
• While usage
• Count and Event controlled loop
• Continue and Break
• For iteration examples

5- Objects

• Overview of objects
• Creating objects and defining objects
• Working with objects

6- Basic error handling

• Different errors
• Handling errors
• Best practices

DAY 2: COMPLEX DATA TYPES IN PYTHON

1- Lists & Tuples

• Lists
• Mixed Lists
• Common List Methods
• Other List Operations – CRUD operations
• Working with Tuples
• Immutable Tuples
• Indexing and Slicing
• Shallow and deep copies of List and tuples
• Lists vs Tuples

2- Dictionaries and Sets

• An overview and construction of dictionaries
• Keys and Values
• Dictionary Methods
• About sets
• Creating sets
• Working with sets
• Dictionaries vs Lists vs Tuples vs Sets

3- Understanding Iterators

• The range() function
• Taking the range() of len()
• Iterative Objects
• The iter() Function
• Iterating through a sequence
• Nested sequences
• Sequence functions, keywords, and operators
• Looping across data sets
• Iterating through lists
• Looping across lists of lists
• Looping with dictionaries
• Looping across lists of dictionaries

4- Sorting

• The sorted() function
• Alternate keys
• Sorting collections
• Using operator.itemgetter()
• Reverse sorting

5- Basic File operations in Python

• Opening files
• Read data from files
• Write data to files
• Reading and writing raw (binary) data

DAY 3: PYTHON MODULAR PROGRAMMING

1- Python Functions

• Defining functions
• Parameters
• Returning values
• Nested Functions
• Variable Masking
• Preventing Variable Modifications
• Argument Matching Methods
• Basic List Comprehensions
• Variable scope - local, global, nested

2- Modules & Packages

• Module Basics
• Packages
• Pip and pip3
• Virtual environments
• Defined modules
• Import modules
• From import statements
• Some useful modules to know
• Functions and module aliases

3- The standard library

• The sys module
• Launching external programs
• Math functions
• Random numbers
• Reading CSV data

4- Classes in Python

• About OOP
• Defining a class
• Constructor
• Classes instantiation
• Class variables and methods
• Instance variables
• Properties – getters and setters
• Subclasses (Inheritance)
• Multiple Inheritance
• Static methods

LABS OUTLINE

This course includes lab-based activities to write and run Python programming scripts.

A basic familiarity with any programming or scripting language is helpful, but not essential.