Python - General

Exercises, examples and other material relating to training module Y050. This module is presented on Private Courses and Specially Run Courses only

Background

Python is an object oriented scripting language that's got very wide use in data processing for Internet and non-Internet applications.

Related technical and longer articles

Python Fast Start

Articles and tips on this subject		updated
4712	A reminder of the key issues to consider in moving from Python 2 to Python 3 1. New style classes take on the old style class format But does it matter if you explicity inherit in Python 3?? 2. print moves from being a keyword to a function Single value tuple as parameter will work in both cases You may also do a sys.stdout.write 3. integer ...	2016-10-30
4656	Identifying the first and last records in a sequence When programming to analyse event or log files, you'll often find it fairly easy to identify the initial or opening record of a linked series, but harder to spot the closing one until your program has gone well past it. Take this data, for example: 16:15:47 +00 INF: ===================Move ...	2016-02-26
4558	Well House Consultants - Python courses / what's special. "Well House Consultants - Python courses / what's special." - in answer to a request from a potential delegate. Some delegates come with prior programming experience / others without - and they require different starting points. So we offer "Learning to Program in Python" - 5 days for newcomers to coding, ...	2015-10-29
2504	Learning to program in ... At Well House Consultants, we offer courses at two levels in a number of program- ming languages. Our "learning to program in ..." courses are for delegates who have never programmed before, or who are rusty, who lack confidence, or want a refresher of the basic principles. Our "... programming" courses ...	2015-07-14 (longest)
4434	Public training courses - upcoming dates I've been presenting a long series of private courses over the past two months - Ruby and Cucumber, Python, Java and C++. From the beggining of March until mid April, I'm training most weeks at our Melksham, Wiltshire training centre - courses scheduled as follows: If you've missed these dates or want ...	2015-02-21
4408	Additional Python courses added to our schedule Extra public Python courses - at our Melksham, Wiltshire training centre. • Learning to Program in Python, starting on Monday 2nd March 2015. 5 days, for delegates without (much) prior programming experience. - £1350.00 (day delegate) or £1700.00 (including overnight accommodation) ...	2015-01-30
4295	A longer Python ... training course Over the years we've taught Python, we've seen the language and its uses grow and mature, and our courses have grown and matured to take account of this. Our courses are always intensive, but we've seen that grow more so of late. So we're taking the step of extending our Python Programming Course ...	2014-09-16
4236	Using Python to analyse last years forum logs. Good coding practise discussion. The coming of a new year is a time to look forward - and also to look back. Yes, I know we look back between Christmas and the New Year - and indeed I did so - but some things such as completing the analysis of results for the year just gone have to wait until after the witching hour of midnight! I ...	2014-01-03
3935	Whether you have programmed before or not, we can teach you Python Our new "Intermediate Python" course last week was a roaring success - rave reviews from the delegates, with a real opportunity to delve deeper for the delegates who all had prior (self-taught) Python experience and really want to make the most of the language in their work. It was very interesting ...	2012-11-25
3911	How well do you know Perl and / or Python? Test your Perl knowledge A simple little quiz that you may enjoy ... ten questions [here]. Questions good for any recent version of Perl 5 - say 5.10 and upwards, as the quiz tests your knowledge of some of the fundamentals. The quiz was, of course, written for a purpose - to answer the question ...	2012-11-10
3903	Python Programming class for delegates who have already self-taught the basics It's quite possible to "self-teach" in Python, but to get the best from the language you need to appreciate its philosophy, the object oriented approach, and how the two work together, you really need something more formal. That way, you'll learn how to design, build, test and maintain code that performs ...	2012-10-27
3902	Shell - Grep - Sed - Awk - Perl - Python - which to use when? Last week, I found myself teaching a Multi-vendor Advanced Unix Data Tools and Techniques course as a guest presenter. The tools that the course 'majored' on are grep, sed, awk and Perl ... being an advanced course, some knowledge was assumed ahead of time, and so reference was made to other utilities ...	2012-10-23 (longer)
3816	Want to escape the Olympics? Learn to program in the countryside! It's still a few days to go before the Olympics open, and I'm already reading of long traffic jams in London, various strikes planned at or near to the events by transport unions, and starting to hear wall to wall coverage of sport and sporting teams on the radio, and see it on the TV and in the paper ...	2012-08-11
3798	When you should use Object Orientation even in a short program - Python example I was training earlier this week in a room with a view - a view of a major link road towards Cambridge City centre, and I was struck by the very different mix of vehicles travelling along the road compared to what I would expect to see in Wiltshire. And - ever keen to have new, relevant data sets available ...	2012-07-14 (longer)
2020	Learning Python - many new example programs I ran a public Python course earlier this week ... and (as I usually do!) wrote a number of short examples during the class to show the delegates not only how something is done, but also how the coding process works and how the particular answers are developed. I can't show you that process here on ...	2012-03-08 (longer)
3463	Busy weekend of contrasts. A busy weekend after a busy week. And already it's Monday morning again. 7 delegates on a Python course, currently (08:15 as I write) at breakfast at Well House Manor. Saturday was a trip to Taunton ... for the twice-a-year meeting of Travel Watch South West, where representatives of user groups and ...	2011-12-03
3519	Python - current versions and implementations (CPython, Jython, IronPython etc) Versions Python originated in 1988, I am told. Think back to decisions YOU made in 1988, and they may have been good ones at the time. But it's likely that a good decision such as "which camera would I buy" made NOW would come up with the same model. And it's the same thing with programming languages ...	2011-11-27 (longer)
3489	Python courses and Private courses - gently updating our product to keep it ahead of the game It's remarkable how stable our courses and training have been over the years. After all, you don't want to learn to program in a language, and then invest significant resources in design and coding, if you're going to have to start again in a year or two! However, technologies do move on and languages ...	2011-10-20
3076	Python through the Snow Welcome to December ... just over three weeks to Christmas, and at this time of year I would usually be scrambling back through the archives for last year's pictures to add festive snow to some of my articles. But this year is different; the snow has come early, and it seems has caught everyone by surprise ...	2010-12-04
2822	Python training courses for use with ESRI ArcMap software It's not the first time I've been asked whether our course in Python covers ESRI / ArcMap software, and whether it's a suitable learning vehicle for Python for use that environment. On the basis that "twice asked is twenty times wondered", I'm posting the generalised question and answer here. Q: I ...	2010-06-30
2017	Python - a truly dynamic language In Python everything is an object - and that includes functions which are objects which contain blocks of code. And this means that you can define different functions of the same name depending on a condition, and you can replace a function with another one too, if you want to. This really is valid: ontop ...	2010-06-23
2778	Learning to program in Python 2 ... and / or in Python 3 Yesterday - "Learning to Program in Python" - and I'm now teaching the day so that it's both Python 2 and Python 3 compatible. But it's really an intro day, and we'll vary how we go for the following 3 days of the course, majoring in an appropriate direction for our group - that's a luxury we have when ...	2010-05-25
2394	Two days of demonstration scripts in Python I've spent the last two days introducing Python to a group of nine delegates (and, naturally, enjoying doing so). As I usually do, I have wrote a lot of new examples to show not only how the language and programs work, but also the thought process behind writing them. At the delegate's request, I have ...	2009-09-05
2367	Learning to program - how to jump the first hurdles From last Sunday ... here are links to the examples of code that I wrote in front of the "Learning to Program in Python" delegates - to show them not only how a program works, but also how I (and other code authors) go from a requirement through to the code that actually does the job. Or, paraphrasing, ...	2009-08-23
2285	Great new diagrams for our notes ... Python releases When training, I project onto a white wall ... and I draw onto the projected image, and add extra notes and diagrams around the side too - after all, the whole wall is a whiteboard. Some of the diagrams and slides that I'll come up with are new / unique for an individual course, and I end up photographing ...	2009-07-13
2227	Learning PHP, Ruby, Lua and Python - upcoming courses The following programming courses are all booking well, but still have good availability: PHP - starting 6th July Ruby - starting 14th July Lua - starting 10th August Python - starting 17th August Also Deploying LAMP (Linux, Apache httpd, MySQL, PHP/Perl) from 20th July. Can be taken as separate Linux ...	2009-06-11
16	Python training Off early this morning (leaving home at 6) to give a Python programming course. I was just catching up on an email correspondence a few minutes ago, and felt the need to explain that Python is a computer programming language ... otherwise I would get some very odd "looks". Mind you, the words "ball" ...	2008-05-10 (short)

Examples from our training material

accts	First steps in Object definition and use
animals.py	Sample class with test harness too
costings.py	A file of functions for 'from' or 'import'
d2	ways of looping through a list
darling.py	file to be included to bring in application globals
dd	loading functions from shared file
demo	early python demonstration - using, re-using, copying variables
demo2	first real application - simple calculation
demox	How EVERYTHING is an object - even functions!
dfg.py	Hiding algorithms in functions - 'encapsulation'
dooper	A one-liner to print a file's contents
extend.py	Decorator, lots of __ methods, formatting, and more
fd	Some early list demonstrations!
fdo	File read and write - program 'samples' every 10th line of a log file
filer	Reading a file line by line (good for huge files)
grabbage	Reading a web page 'as if it was a local file'
ld	Lists, lists of lists, mutable and immutable
mlog	Tracking start and end records
monty	First 'real' application
neville	Simple log file analysis
nuform	Some examples of the % (string formatting) operator
ooe	generatings lists of 365 elements to convert day of year to month and day
p4l	Use of xrange rather than range to avoid huge intermediate lists
peeps	Converting a file on disc to a list of objects in memory
pipo	Running an operating system command via a pipe
re1	Regular Expression to extract data from log file (and dictionary analyse)
rv1	Using a generator to avoid a large intermediate list - control
sheep	lists of functions, lambdas, callbacks (posh/flexible ways to use functions)
together.py	Station growths
tupperware	Trying to modify a tuple
wac	Web Access Counter - parsing big data file
wool	Generator function to prevent need for intermediate list
zzz	transport in Ireland

Background information

Some modules are available for download as a sample of our material or under an Open Training Notes License for free download from [here].

Topics covered in this module

What is Python?
What is Python used for?
What sort of language is Python?
Is Python the right language for me?

Complete learning

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Well House Consultants specialise in training courses in Ruby, Lua, Python, Perl, PHP, and MySQL. We run Private Courses throughout the UK (and beyond for longer courses), and Public Courses at our training centre in Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It's surprisingly cost effective to come on our public courses - even if you live in a different country or continent to us.

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