Introduction to Python

Resources

Python for Science

More extensive set of notes focusing on scientific computation with Python - probably more useful as a reference. Overlpas with our first few lectures.

Coding Challenges

If you learn best by solving puzzles

Overview

# packages, modules, imports, namespaces
import numpy as np
from scipy.misc import factorial

# function definition with default arguments
def poisson_pmf(k, mu=1):
    """Poisson PMF for value k with rate mu."""
    return mu**k*np.exp(-mu)/factorial(k)
# Jupyter notebook "magic" function
# Sets up "inline" plotting
%matplotlib inline

# Importing the seaborn plotting library and setting defaults
import seaborn as sns
sns.set_context("notebook", font_scale=1.5)

# Variable assignment
n = np.arange(10) # [0, 1, 2, ..., 0]

# Note that poisson_pmf is vectorized
sns.barplot(n, poisson_pmf(n, 2))

# pass is a do-nothing statement -
# Used here to suppress printing of return value for sns.barplot()
pass
_images/01_Introduction_To_Python_4_0.png

Hello, world

print("Hello, world!")
Hello, world!

Types

# Boolean

True, False
(True, False)
# Integer
0, 1, 23, int(3.8)
(0, 1, 23, 3)
# Float
1.2, 3.14, float(2)
(1.2, 3.14, 2.0)
# Complex
1 + 2j, complex(23)
((1+2j), (23+0j))
# String
('abc', "abc",
"""abc
def
ghi""",
r'\t')
('abc', 'abc', 'abcndefnghi', '\t')
# None
None
type(3)
int
type(poisson_pmf)
function

Operators

2 * 3
6
2 ** 3
8
2 ^ 3 # danger, Will Robinson! ^ is bitwise exclusive-or, not exponentiation
1
7 /3
2.3333333333333335
7 // 3
2
2 < 3
True
7 % 3
1
1 == 1
True
1 != 2
True
a = [1,2,3]
b = a
c = [1,2,3]
b == a
True
b is a
True
c == a
True
c is a
False
np.array([1,2,3]) @ np.array([1,2,3])
14
True or False, True | False
(True, True)
True and False, False & True
(False, False)
2 << 4
32
fruits = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'durian', 'eggplant', 'fig']
'durian' in fruits
True

The operator module

Provides versions of operators as functions useful for the functional programming style.

import operator as op

op.mul(3, 4)
12
from functools import reduce

reduce(op.mul, [2,3,4,5], 1)
120

Names, assignment and identity

# Create some object (the list [1,2,3]) on the RHS and assign it to the name on the LHS
a = [1,2,3]
a
[1, 2, 3]
# Find the identity (address in memory in CPython) of the object named a
id(a)
4439213064
# Give the object named as a another name b
b = a
b
[1, 2, 3]
# b is just another name for the object also named a
# So the identity is the same
id(b)
4439213064
# Create a new object (the list [1,23]) and give it a name c
c = [1,2,3]
c
[1, 2, 3]
# The object named c has a different identity from the object with names a, b
id(c)
4684024264
a
[1, 2, 3]
b[0] = 99
a
[99, 2, 3]
c
[1, 2, 3]

Augmented assignment

x = 1
x += 2
x
3
x **= 3
x
27

Collections

Tuples

course = ('STA-663', 2017, 'Spring', 50)
course[0]
'STA-663'
course[1]
2017
course[-1]
50

Tuple unpacking

name, year, semester, size = course
semester
'Spring'
name, *when, size = course
name
'STA-663'
size
50
when
[2017, 'Spring']

Named tuples

import collections
course = collections.namedtuple('course', ['name', 'year','semester', 'size'])
sta_663 = course(name = 'STA-663', year=2017, size=50, semester='Spring')
sta_663
course(name='STA-663', year=2017, semester='Spring', size=50)
name, *when, size = sta_663
when
[2017, 'Spring']
sta_663[-1]
50
sta_663.size
50

Lists

x = [1,2,3,4,5]
x[1:4]
[2, 3, 4]
x[-1] = 10
x
[1, 2, 3, 4, 10]
x[::2]
[1, 3, 10]
x[::-1]
[10, 4, 3, 2, 1]
x + x
[1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10]
x * 3
[1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10]
x.append(20)
x
[1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20]
x.extend([3,4,5])
x
[1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, 3, 4, 5]
x.index(10)
4
x.count(3)
2

Sets

s = {1,1,2,3,4}
s
{1, 2, 3, 4}
s.add(2)
s
{1, 2, 3, 4}
s.add(5)
s
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Set operations and equivalent methods

s & {5,6,7}, s.intersection({5,6,7})
({5}, {5})
s | {5,6,7}, s.union({5,6,7})
({1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7})
s - {5,6,7}, s.difference({5,6,7})
({1, 2, 3, 4}, {1, 2, 3, 4})
s ^ {5,6,7}, s.symmetric_difference({5,6,7})
({1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7})

Dictionary

d = {'a': 1, 'b':2, 'c':3}
d
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
d['b']
2
d1 = dict(d=4, e=5, f=6)
d1
{'d': 4, 'e': 5, 'f': 6}
d.update(d1)
d
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3, 'd': 4, 'e': 5, 'f': 6}
list(d.keys())
['c', 'e', 'a', 'd', 'f', 'b']
list(d.values())
[3, 5, 1, 4, 6, 2]
d['g'] = 7
d
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3, 'd': 4, 'e': 5, 'f': 6, 'g': 7}
for k in d:
    print(k, d[k])
c 3
e 5
a 1
g 7
d 4
f 6
b 2

Dictionary variants

# From Python 3.6 regular dictionaries will maintain order

d = {}
d['z'] = 1
d['x'] = 2
d['y'] = 3

for k in d:
    print(k, d[k])
x 2
y 3
z 1
d = collections.OrderedDict()
d['z'] = 1
d['x'] = 2
d['y'] = 3

for k in d:
    print(k, d[k])
z 1
x 2
y 3
d = collections.defaultdict(list)
d['a'].append(1)
d['a'].append(2)
d['b'].extend([3,4,5])
d
defaultdict(list, {'a': [1, 2], 'b': [3, 4, 5]})

Example: Word counter

jabberwocky = '''
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
      Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.
'''

Using regular dictionary

c1 = {}
for word in jabberwocky.split():
    c1[word] = c1.get(word, 0) + 1
c1['vorpal']
2

Using defaultdict with int factory

int() # Note int is a factory fucntion that produces 0
0
c2 = collections.defaultdict(int)
for word in jabberwocky.split():
    c2[word] += 1
c2['vorpal']
2

Using Counter

c3 = collections.Counter(jabberwocky.split())
c3['vorpal']
2

Control Structures

if-elif-else

x, y = 3,4

if (x > y):
    print(x, '>', y)
elif (x == y):
    print(x, 'equals', y)
else:
    print('Either', x, '<', y, 'or x and y are not orderable')
Either 3 < 4 or x and y are not orderable

for

for fruit in fruits:
    print(fruit)
apple
banana
cherry
durian
eggplant
fig

while

i = 0
while (i < 5):
    print(i)
    i += 1
0
1
2
3
4

continue and break

for i in range(3):
    for j in range(5):
        if i==j:
            continue
        print(i, j)
0 1
0 2
0 3
0 4
1 0
1 2
1 3
1 4
2 0
2 1
2 3
2 4
i = 0
while True:
    print(i)
    if i > 5:
        break
    i += 1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6

Functions

Built-in functions

([x for x in dir(__builtin__)  if x.islower() and not x.startswith('__')])
['abs',
 'all',
 'any',
 'ascii',
 'bin',
 'bool',
 'bytearray',
 'bytes',
 'callable',
 'chr',
 'classmethod',
 'compile',
 'complex',
 'copyright',
 'credits',
 'delattr',
 'dict',
 'dir',
 'divmod',
 'dreload',
 'enumerate',
 'eval',
 'exec',
 'filter',
 'float',
 'format',
 'frozenset',
 'get_ipython',
 'getattr',
 'globals',
 'hasattr',
 'hash',
 'help',
 'hex',
 'id',
 'input',
 'int',
 'isinstance',
 'issubclass',
 'iter',
 'len',
 'license',
 'list',
 'locals',
 'map',
 'max',
 'memoryview',
 'min',
 'next',
 'object',
 'oct',
 'open',
 'ord',
 'pow',
 'print',
 'property',
 'range',
 'repr',
 'reversed',
 'round',
 'set',
 'setattr',
 'slice',
 'sorted',
 'staticmethod',
 'str',
 'sum',
 'super',
 'tuple',
 'type',
 'vars',
 'zip']
len('hello')
5
range(5, 10, 2)
range(5, 10, 2)
ord('c') - ord('a')
2
chr(ord('a') + 2)
'c'
list(zip('abcd', range(1,10)))
[('a', 1), ('b', 2), ('c', 3), ('d', 4)]
sum([4,5,6])
15
sorted(fruits)
['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'durian', 'eggplant', 'fig']
sorted(fruits, reverse=True)
['fig', 'eggplant', 'durian', 'cherry', 'banana', 'apple']
sorted(fruits, key=len)
['fig', 'apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'durian', 'eggplant']

User-defined functions

def f(a, b, c):
    return a + b * c
f(1,2,3)
7
f(c=3, a=1, b=2)
7
f(1,2,c=3)
7
args = [1,2,3]
f(*args)
7
kwargs = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
f(**kwargs)
7