Getting Started in Python - Mastering Machine Learning with Python in Six Steps: A Practical Implementation Guide to Predictive Data Analytics Using Python (2017)

Mastering Machine Learning with Python in Six Steps: A Practical Implementation Guide to Predictive Data Analytics Using Python (2017)

1. Step 1 – Getting Started in Python

Manohar Swamynathan1

(1)

Bangalore, Karnataka, India

In this chapter you will get a high-level overview of the Python language and its core philosophy, how to set up the Python development environment, and the key concepts around Python programming to get you started with basics. This chapter is an additional step or the prerequisite step for non-Python users. If you are already comfortable with Python, I would recommend that you quickly run through the contents to ensure you are aware of all of the key concepts.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

As the saying goes, “The best things in life are free!” Python is an open source, high-level, object-oriented, interpreted, and general-purpose dynamic programming language. It has a community-based development model. Its core design theory accentuates code readability, and its coding structure enables programmers to articulate computing concepts in fewer lines of code as compared to other high-level programming languages such as Java, C or C++.

The design philosophy of Python is well summarized by the document “The Zen of Python” (Python Enhancement Proposal, information entry number 20), which includes mottos such as the following:

· Beautiful is better than ugly – be consistent.

· Complex is better than complicated – use existing libraries.

· Simple is better than complex – keep it simple and stupid (KISS).

· Flat is better than nested – avoid nested ifs.

· Explicit is better than implicit – be clear.

· Sparse is better than dense – separate code into modules.

· Readability counts – indenting for easy readability.

· Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules – everything is an object.

· Errors should never pass silently – good exception handler.

· Although practicality beats purity - if required, break the rules.

· Unless explicitly silenced – error logging and traceability.

· In ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess – Python syntax is simpler; however, many times we might take a longer time to decipher it.

· Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch – there is not only one of way of achieving something.

· There should be preferably only one obvious way to do it – use existing libraries.

· If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea – if you can’t explain in simple terms then you don’t understand it well enough.

· Now is better than never – there are quick/dirty ways to get the job done rather than trying too much to optimize.

· Although never is often better than *right* now – although there is a quick/dirty way, don’t head in the path that will not allow a graceful way back.

· Namespaces are one honking great idea, so let’s do more of those! – be specific.

· If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea – simplicity.

The Rising Star

Python was officially born on February 20, 1991, with version number 0.9.0 and has taken a tremendous growth path to become the most popular language for the last 5 years in a row (2012 to 2016). Its application cuts across various areas such as website development, mobile apps development, scientific and numeric computing, desktop GUI, and complex software development. Even though Python is a more general-purpose programming and scripting language, it has been gaining popularity over the past 5 years among data scientists and Machine Learning engineers. See Figure 1-1.

A434293_1_En_1_Fig1_HTML

Figure 1-1.

Popular Coding Language (Source: codeeval.com) and Popular Machine Learning Programming Language (Source:KDD poll)

There are well-designed development environments such as IPython Notebook and Spyder that allow for a quick introspection of the data and enable developing of machine learning models interactively.

Powerful modules such as NumPy and Pandas exist for the efficient use of numeric data. Scientific computing is made easy with SciPy package. A number of primary machine learning algorithms have been efficiently implemented in scikit-learn (also known as sklearn). HadooPy, PySpark provides seamless work experience with big data technology stacks. Cython and Numba modules allow executing Python code in par with the speed of C code. Modules such as nosetest emphasize high-quality, continuous integration tests, and automatic deployment.

Combining all of the above has made many machine learning engineers embrace Python as the choice of language to explore data, identify patterns, and build and deploy models to the production environment. Most importantly the business-friendly licenses for various key Python packages are encouraging the collaboration of businesses and the open source community for the benefit of both worlds. Overall the Python programming ecosystem allows for quick results and happy programmers. We have been seeing the trend of developers being part of the open source community to contribute to the bug fixes and new algorithms for the use by the global community, at the same time protecting the core IP of the respective company they work for.

Python 2.7.x or Python 3.4.x?

Python 3.4.x is the latest version and comes with nicer, consistent functionalities! However, there is very limited third-party module support for it, and this will be the trend for at least a couple of more years. However, all major frameworks still run on version 2.7.x and are likely to continue to do so for a significant amount of time. Therefore, it is advised to start with Python 2, for the fact that it is the most widely used version for building machine learning systems as of today.

For an in-depth analysis of the differences between Python 2 vs. 3, you can refer to Wiki.python.org ( https://wiki.python.org/moin/Python2orPython3v ), which says that there are benefits to each.

I recommend Anaconda (Python distribution), which is BSD licensed and gives you permission to use it commercially and for redistribution. It has around 270 packages including the most important ones for most scientific applications, data analysis, and machine learning such as NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, IPython, matplotlib, and scikit-learn. It also provides a superior environment tool conda that allows you to easily switch between environments, even between Python 2 and 3 (if required). It is also updated very quickly as soon as a new version of a package is released and you can just use conda update <packagename> to update it.

You can download the latest version of Anaconda from their official website at https://www.continuum.io/downloads and follow the installation instructions.

Windows Installation

· Download the installer depending on your system configuration (32 or 64 bit).

· Double-click the .exe file to install Anaconda and follow the installation wizard on your screen.

OSX Installation

For Mac OS, you can install either through a graphical installer or from a command line.

Graphical Installer

· Download the graphical installer.

· Double-click the downloaded .pkg file and follow the installation wizard instructions on your screen.

Or

Command-Line Installer

· Download the command-line installer.

· In your terminal window type one of the below and follow the instructions: bash <Anaconda2-x.x.x-MacOSX-x86_64.sh>.

Linux Installation

· Download the installer depending on your system configuration (32 or 64 bit).

· In your terminal window type one of the below and follow the instructions: bash Anaconda2-x.x.x-Linux-x86_xx.sh.

Python from Official Website

For some reason if you don’t want to go with the Anaconda build pack, alternatively you can go to Python’s official website https://www.python.org/downloads/ and browse to the appropriate OS section and download the installer. Note that OSX and most of the Linux come with preinstalled Python so there is no need of additional configuring.

Setting up PATH for Windows: When you run the installer make sure to check the “Add Python to PATH option.” This will allow us to invoke the Python interpreter from any directory.

If you miss ticking “Add Python to PATH option,” follow these instructions:

· Right-click on “My computer.”

· Click “Properties.”

· Click “Advanced system settings” in the side panel.

· Click “Environment Variables.”

· Click the “New” below system variables.

· For the name, enter pythonexe (or anything you want).

· For the value, enter the path to your Python (example: C:\Python32\).

· Now edit the Path variable (in the system part) and add %pythonexe%; to the end of what’s already there.

Running Python

From the command line , type “Python” to open the interactive interpreter.

A Python script can be executed at the command line using the syntax here:

python <scriptname.py>

All the code used in this book are available as IPython Notebook (now known as the Jupyter Notebook), it is an interactive computational environment, in which you can combine code execution, rich text, mathematics, plots and rich media. You can launch the Jupyter Notebook by clicking on the icon installed by Anaconda in the start menu (Windows) or by typing ‘jupyter notebook’ in a terminal (cmd on Windows). Then browse for the relevant IPython Notebook file that you would like to paly with.

Note that the codes can break with change is package version, hence for reproducibility, I have shared my package version numbers, please refer Module_Versions IPython Notebook.

Key Concepts

There are a couple of fundamental concepts in Python, and understanding these are essential for a beginner to get started. A brief look at these concepts is to follow.

Python Identifiers

As the name suggests, identifiers help us to differentiate one entity from another. Python entities such as class, functions, and variables are called identifiers.

· It can be a combination of upper- or lowercase letters (a to z or A to Z).

· It can be any digits (0 to 9) or an underscore (_).

· The general rules to be followed for writing identifiers in Python.

· It cannot start with a digit. For example, 1variable is not valid, whereas variable1 is valid.

· Python reserved keywords (refer to Table 1-1) cannot be used as identifiers.

Table 1-1.

Python keywords

FALSE

Class

Finally

Is

return

None

Continue

For

Lambda

try

TRUE

Def

From

nonlocal

while

And

Del

Global

Not

with

As

Elif

If

Or

yield

Assert

Else

Import

Pass

Break

Except

In

Raise

· Except for underscore (_), special symbols like !, @, #, $, % etc cannot be part of the identifiers.

Keywords

Table 1-1 lists the set of reserved words used in Python to define the syntax and structure of the language. Keywords are case sensitive, and all the keywords are in lowercase except True, False, and None.

My First Python Program

Launch the Python interactive on the command prompt, and then type the following text and press Enter.

>>> print "Hello, Python World!"

If you are running Python 2.7.x from the Anaconda build pack, then you can also use the print statement with parentheses as in print (“Hello, Python World!”), which would produce the following result: Hello, Python World! See Figure 1-2.

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Figure 1-2.

Python vs. Others

Code Blocks (Indentation & Suites)

It is very important to understand how to write code blocks in Python. Let’s look at two key concepts around code blocks.

Indentation

One of the most unique features of Python is its use of indentation to mark blocks of code. Each line of code must be indented by the same amount to denote a block of code in Python. Unlike most other programming languages, indentation is not used to help make the code look pretty. Indentation is required to indicate which block of code a code or statement belongs to.

Suites

A collection of individual statements that makes a single code block are called suites in Python. A header line followed by a suite are required for compound or complex statements such as if, while, def, and class (we will understand each of these in details in the later sections). Header lines begin with a keyword, and terminate with a colon (:) and are followed by one or more lines that make up the suite. See Listings 1-1 and 1-2.

# Correct indentation

print ("Programming is an important skill for Data Science")

print ("Statistics is a important skill for Data Science")

print ("Business domain knowledge is a important skill for Data Science")

# Correct indentation, note that if statement here is an example of suites

x = 1

if x == 1:

print ('x has a value of 1')

else:

print ('x does NOT have a value of 1')

Listing 1-1.

Example of correct indentation

# incorrect indentation, program will generate a syntax error

# due to the space character inserted at the beginning of second line

print ("Programming is an important skill for Data Science")

print ("Statistics is a important skill for Data Science")

print ("Business domain knowledge is a important skill for Data Science")

3

# incorrect indentation, program will generate a syntax error

# due to the wrong indentation in the else statement

x = 1

if x == 1:

print ('x has a value of 1')

else:

print ('x does NOT have a value of 1')

Listing 1-2.

Example of incorrect indentation

Basic Object Types

According to the Python data model reference, objects are Python’s notion for data. All data in a Python program is represented by objects or by relations between objects. In a sense, and in conformance to Von Neumann’s model of a “stored program computer,” code is also represented by objects.Every object has an identity, a type, and a value. See Table 1-2 and Listing 1-3.

Table 1-2.

Python object types

Type

Examples

Comments

None

None

# singleton null object

Boolean

True, False

Integer

-1, 0, 1, sys.maxint

Long

1L, 9787L

Float

3.141592654

inf, float(‘inf’)

# infinity

-inf

# neg infinity

nan, float(‘nan’)

# not a number

Complex

2+8j

# note use of j

String

‘this is a string’, “also me”

# use single or double quote

r‘raw string’, b‘ASCII string’

u‘unicode string’

Tuple

empty = ()

# empty tuple

(1, True, ‘ML’)

# immutable list or unalterable list

List

empty = []

empty list

[1, True, ‘ML’]

# mutable list or alterable list

Set

empty = set()

# empty set

set(1, True, ‘ML’)

# mutable or alterable

dictionary

empty = {}

{‘1’:‘A’, ‘2’:‘AA’, True = 1, False = 0}

# mutable object or alterable object

File

f = open(‘filename’, ‘rb’)

none = None # singleton null object

boolean = bool(True)

integer = 1

Long = 3.14

# float

Float = 3.14

Float_inf = float('inf')

Float_nan = float('nan')

# complex object type, note the usage of letter j

Complex = 2+8j

# string can be enclosed in single or double quote

string = 'this is a string'

me_also_string = "also me"

List = [1, True, 'ML'] # Values can be changed

Tuple = (1, True, 'ML') # Values can not be changed

Set = set([1,2,2,2,3,4,5,5]) # Duplicates will not be stored

# Use a dictionary when you have a set of unique keys that map to values

Dictionary = {'a':'A', 2:'AA', True:1, False:0}

# lets print the object type and the value

print type(none), none

print type(boolean), boolean

print type(integer), integer

print type(Long), Long

print type(Float), Float

print type(Float_inf), Float_inf

print type(Float_nan), Float_nan

print type(Complex), Complex

print type(string), string

print type(me_also_string), me_also_string

print type(Tuple), Tuple

print type(List), List

print type(Set), Set

print type(Dictionary), Dictionary

----- output ------

<type 'NoneType'> None

<type 'bool'> True

<type 'int'> 1

<type 'float'> 3.14

<type 'float'> 3.14

<type 'float'> inf

<type 'float'> nan

<type 'complex'> (2+8j)

<type 'str'> this is a string

<type 'str'> also me

<type 'tuple'> (1, True, 'ML')

<type 'list'> [1, True, 'ML']

<type 'set'> set([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

<type 'dict'> {'a': 'A', True: 1, 2: 'AA', False: 0}

Listing 1-3.

Code For Basic Object Types

When to Use List vs. Tuples vs. Set vs. Dictionary

· List: Use when you need an ordered sequence of homogenous collections, whose values can be changed later in the program.

· Tuple: Use when you need an ordered sequence of heterogeneous collections whose values need not be changed later in the program.

· Set: It is ideal for use when you don’t have to store duplicates and you are not concerned about the order or the items. You just want to know whether a particular value already exists or not.

· Dictionary: It is ideal for use when you need to relate values with keys, in order to look them up efficiently using a key.

Comments in Python

Single line comment: Any characters followed by the # (hash) and up to the end of the line are considered a part of the comment and the Python interpreter ignores them.

Multiline comments : Any characters between the strings """ (referred as multiline string), that is, one at the beginning and end of your comments will be ignored by the Python interpreter. See Listing 1-4.

# This is a single line comment in Python

print "Hello Python World" # This is also a single line comment in Python

""" This is an example of a multi line

comment that runs into multiple lines.

Everything that is in between is considered as comments

"""

Listing 1-4.

Example code for comments

Multiline Statement

Python’s oblique line continuation inside parentheses, brackets, and braces is the favorite way of casing longer lines. Using backslash to indicate line continuation makes readability better; however if needed you can add an extra pair of parentheses around the expression. It is important to correctly indent the continued line of your code. Note that the preferred place to break around the binary operator is after the operator, and not before it. See Listing 1-5.

# Example of implicit line continuation

x = ('1' + '2' +

'3' + '4')

# Example of explicit line continuation

y = '1' + '2' + \

'11' + '12'

weekdays = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday',

'Thursday', 'Friday']

weekend = {'Saturday',

'Sunday'}

print ('x has a value of', x)

print ('y has a value of', y)

print days

print weekend

------ output -------

('x has a value of', '1234')

('y has a value of', '1234')

['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday']

set(['Sunday', 'Saturday'])

Listing 1-5.

Example code for multiline statements

Multiple Statements on a Single Line

Python also allows multiple statements on a single line through usage of the semicolon (;), given that the statement does not start a new code block. See Listing 1-6.

import os; x = 'Hello'; print x

Listing 1-6.

Code example for multistatements on a single line

Basic Operators

In Python, operators are the special symbols that can manipulate the value of operands. For example, let’s consider the expression 1 + 2 = 3. Here, 1 and 2 are called operands, which are the value on which operators operate and the symbol + is called an operator.

Python language supports the following types of operators .

· Arithmetic Operators

· Comparison or Relational Operators

· Assignment Operators

· Bitwise Operators

· Logical Operators

· Membership Operators

· Identity Operators

Let’s learn all operators through examples one by one.

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are useful for performing mathematical operations on numbers such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc. See Table 1-3 and then Listing 1-7.

Table 1-3.

Arithmetic operators

Operator

Description

Example

+

Addition

x + y = 30

-

Subtraction

x – y = -10

*

Multiplication

x * y = 200

/

Division

y / x = 2

%

Modulus

y % x = 0

** Exponent

Exponentiation

x**b =10 to the power 20

//

Floor Division – Integer division rounded toward minus infinity

9//2 = 4 and 9.0//2.0 = 4.0, -11//3 = -4, -11.0/

# Variable x holds 10 and variable y holds 5

x = 10

y = 5

# Addition

print "Addition, x(10) + y(5) = ", x + y

# Subtraction

print "Subtraction, x(10) - y(5) = ", x - y

# Multiplication

print "Multiplication, x(10) * y(5) = ", x * y

# Division

print "Division, x(10) / y(5) = ",x / y

# Modulus

print "Modulus, x(10) % y(5) = ", x % y

# Exponent

print "Exponent, x(10)**y(5) = ", x**y

# Integer division rounded towards minus infinity

print "Floor Division, x(10)//y(5) = ", x//y

-------- output --------

Addition, x(10) + y(5) = 15

Subtraction, x(10) - y(5) = 5

Multiplication, x(10) * y(5) = 50

Divions, x(10) / y(5) = 2

Modulus, x(10) % y(5) = 0

Exponent, x(10)**y(5) = 100000

Floor Division, x(10)//y(5) = 2

Listing 1-7.

Example code for arithmetic operators

Comparison or Relational Operators

As the name suggests the comparison or relational operators are useful to compare values. It would return True or False as a result for a given condition. See Table 1-4 and Listing 1-8.

Table 1-4.

Comparison or Relational operators

Operator

Description

Example

==

The condition becomes True, if the values of two operands are equal.

(x == y) is not true.

!=

The condition becomes True, if the values of two operands are not equal.

<>

The condition becomes True, if values of two operands are not equal.

(x<>y) is true. This is similar to != operator.

>

The condition becomes True, if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand.

(x>y) is not true.

<

The condition becomes True, if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand.

(x<y) is true.

>=

The condition becomes True, if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand.

(x>= y) is not true.

<=

The condition becomes True, if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand.

(x<= y) is true.

# Variable x holds 10 and variable y holds 5

x = 10

y = 5

# Equal check operation

print "Equal check, x(10) == y(5) ", x == y

# Not Equal check operation

print "Not Equal check, x(10) != y(5) ", x != y

# Not Equal check operation

print "Not Equal check, x(10) <>y(5) ", x<>y

# Less than check operation

print "Less than check, x(10) <y(5) ", x<y

# Greater check operation

print "Greater than check, x(10) >y(5) ", x>y

# Less than or equal check operation

print "Less than or equal to check, x(10) <= y(5) ", x<= y

# Greater than or equal to check operation

print "Greater than or equal to check, x(10) >= y(5) ", x>= y

-------- output --------

Equal check, x(10) == y(5) False

Not Equal check, x(10) != y(5) True

Not Equal check, x(10) <>y(5) True

Less than check, x(10) <y(5) False

Greater than check, x(10) >y(5) True

Less than or equal to check, x(10) <= y(5) False

Greater than or equal to check, x(10) >= y(5) True

Listing 1-8.

Example code for comparision/relational operators

Assignment Operators

In Python, assignment operators are used for assigning values to variables. For example, consider x = 5; it is a simple assignment operator that assigns the numeric value 5, which is on the right side of the operator onto the variable x on the left side of operator. There is a range of compound operators in Python like x += 5 that add to the variable and later assign the same. It is as good as x = x + 5. See Table 1-5 and Listing 1-9.

Table 1-5.

Assignment operators

Operator

Description

Example

=

Assigns values from right side operands to left side operand.

z = x + y assigns value of x + y into z

+= Add AND

It adds right operand to the left operand and assigns the result to left operand.

z += x is equivalent to z = z + x

-= Subtract AND

It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assigns the result to left operand.

z -= x is equivalent to z = z - x

*= Multiply AND

It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assigns the result to left operand.

z *= x is equivalent to z = z * x

/= Divide AND

It divides left operand with the right operand and assigns the result to left operand.

z /= x is equivalent to z = z/ xz /= x is equivalent to z = z / x

%= Modulus AND

It takes modulus using two operands and assigns the result to left operand.

z %= x is equivalent to z = z % x

**= Exponent AND

Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators and assigns value to the left operand.

z **= x is equivalent to z = z ** x

//= Floor Division

It performs floor division on operators and assigns value to the left operand.

z //= x is equivalent to z = z// x

# Variable x holds 10 and variable y holds 5

x = 5

y = 10

x += y

print "Value of a post x+=y is ", x

x *= y

print "Value of a post x*=y is ", x

x /= y

print "Value of a post x/=y is ", x

x %= y

print "Value of a post x%=y is ", x

x **= y

print "Value of x post x**=y is ", x

x //= y

print "Value of a post x//=y is ", x

-------- output --------

Value of a post x+=y is 15

Value of a post x*=y is 150

Value of a post x/=y is 15

Value of a post x%=y is 5

Value of a post x**=y is 9765625

Value of a post x//=y is 976562

Listing 1-9.

Example code for assignment operators

Bitwise Operators

As you might be aware, everything in a computer is represented by bits, that is, a series of 0’s (zero) and 1’s (one). Bitwise operators enable us to directly operate or manipulate bits. Let’s understand the basic bitwise operations. One of the key usages of bitwise operators is for parsing hexadecimal colors.

Bitwise operators are known to be confusing for newbies to Python programming, so don’t be anxious if you don’t understand usability at first. The fact is that you aren’t really going to see bitwise operators in your everyday machine learning programming. However, it is good to be aware about these operators.

For example let’s assume that x = 10 (in binary 0000 1010) and y = 4 (in binary 0000 0100). See Table 1-6 and Listing 1-10.

Table 1-6.

Bitwise operators

Operator

Description

Example

& Binary AND

This operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands.

(x&y) (means 0000 0000)

| Binary OR

This operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand.

(x | y) = 14 (means 0000 1110)

^ Binary XOR

This operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both.

(x ^ y) = 14 (means 0000 1110)

∼ Binary Ones Complement

This operator is unary and has the effect of ‘flipping’ bits.

(∼x ) = -11 (means 1111 0101)

<< Binary Left Shift

The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand.

x<< 2= 42 (means 0010 1000)

>> Binary Right Shift

The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand.

x>> 2 = 2 (means 0000 0010)

# Basic six bitwise operations

# Let x = 10 (in binary0000 1010) and y = 4 (in binary0000 0100)

x = 10

y = 4

print x >> y # Right Shift

print x << y # Left Shift

print x & y # Bitwise AND

print x | y # Bitwise OR

print x ^ y # Bitwise XOR

print ∼x # Bitwise NOT

-------- output --------

0

160

0

14

14

-11

Listing 1-10.

Example code for bitwise operators

Logical Operators

The AND, OR, NOT operators are called logical operators. These are useful to check two variables against given condition and the result will be True or False appropriately. See Table 1-7 and Listing 1-11.

Table 1-7.

Logical operators

Operator

Description

Example

and Logical AND

If both the operands are true then condition becomes true.

(var1 and var2) is true.

or Logical OR

If any of the two operands are non-zero then condition becomes true.

(var1 or var2) is true.

not Logical NOT

Used to reverse the logical state of its operand.

Not (var1 and var2) is false.

var1 = True

var2 = False

print('var1 and var2 is',var1and var2)

print('var1 or var2 is',var1 or var2)

print('not var1 is',not var1)

-------- output --------

('var1 and var2 is', False)

('var1 or var2 is', True)

('not var1 is', False)

Listing 1-11.

Example code for logical operators

Membership Operators

Membership operators are useful to test if a value is found in a sequence, that is, string, list, tuple, set, or dictionary. There are two membership operators in Python, ‘in’ and ‘not in’. Note that we can only test for presence of key (and not the value) in case of a dictionary. See Table 1-8 and Listing 1-12.

Table 1-8.

Membership operators

Operator

Description

Example

In

Results to True if a value is in the specified sequence and False otherwise.

var1 in var2

not in

Results to True, if a value is not in the specified sequence and False otherwise.

var1 not in var2

var1 = 'Hello world' # string

var1 = {1:'a',2:'b'}# dictionary

print('H' in var1)

print('hello' not in var2)

print(1 in var2)

print('a' in var2)

-------- output --------

True

True

True

False

Listing 1-12.

Example code for membership operators

Identity Operators

Identity operators are useful to test if two variables are present on the same part of the memory. There are two identity operators in Python, ‘is’ and ‘is not’. Note that two variables having equal values do not imply they are identical. See Table 1-9 and Listing 1-13.

Table 1-9.

Identity operators

Operator

Description

Example

Is

Results to True, if the variables on either side of the operator point to the same object and False otherwise.

var1 is var2

is not

Results to False, if the variables on either side of the operator point to the same object and True otherwise.

Var1 is not var2

var1 = 5

var1 = 5

var2 = 'Hello'

var2 = 'Hello'

var3 = [1,2,3]

var3 = [1,2,3]

print(var1 is not var1)

print(var2 is var2)

print(var3 is var3)

-------- output --------

False

True

False

Listing 1-13.

Example code for identity operators

Control Structure

A control structure is the fundamental choice or decision-making process in programming. It is a chunk of code that analyzes values of variables and decides a direction to go based on a given condition. In Python there are mainly two types of control structures: (1) selection and (2) iteration.

Selection

Selection statements allow programmers to check a condition and based on the result will perform different actions. There are two versions of this useful construct: (1) if and (2) if…else. See Listings 1-14, 1-15, and 1-16.

var = -1

if var < 0:

print var

print("the value of var is negative")

# If there is only a signle cluse then it may go on the same line as the header statement

if ( var == -1 ) : print "the value of var is negative"

Listing 1-14.

Example code for a simple ‘if’ statement

var = 1

if var < 0:

print "the value of var is negative"

print var

else:

print "the value of var is positive"

print var

Listing 1-15.

Example code for ‘if else’ statement

Score = 95

if score >= 99:

print('A')

elif score >=75:

print('B')

elif score >= 60:

print('C')

elif score >= 35:

print('D')

else:

print('F')

Listing 1-16.

Example code for nested if else statements

Iteration

A loop control statement enables us to execute a single or a set of programming statements multiple times until a given condition is satisfied. Python provides two essential looping statements: (1) for (2) while statement.

For loop: It allows us to execute code block for a specific number of times or against a specific condition until it is satisfied. See Listing 1-17.

# First Example

print "First Example"

for item in [1,2,3,4,5]:

print 'item :', item

# Second Example

print "Second Example"

letters = ['A', 'B', 'C']

for letter in letters:

print ' First loop letter :', letter

# Third Example - Iterating by sequency index

print "Third Example"

for index in range(len(letters)):

print 'First loop letter :', letters[index]

# Fourth Example - Using else statement

print "Fourth Example"

for item in [1,2,3,4,5]:

print 'item :', item

else:

print 'looping over item complete!'

----- output ------

First Example

item : 1

item : 2

item : 3

item : 4

item : 5

Second Example

First loop letter : A

First loop letter : B

First loop letter : C

Third Example

First loop letter : A

First loop letter : B

First loop letter : C

Fourth Example

item : 1

item : 2

item : 3

item : 4

item : 5

looping over item complete!

Listing 1-17.

Example codes for a ‘for loop’ statement

While loop: The while statement repeats a set of code until the condition is true. See Listing 1-18.

count = 0

while (count <3):

print 'The count is:', count

count = count + 1

Listing 1-18.

Example code for while loop statement

Caution

If a condition never becomes FALSE, a loop becomes an infinite loop.

An else statement can be used with a while loop and the else will be executed when the condition becomes false. See Listing 1-19.

count = 0

while count <3:

print count, " is less than 5"

count = count + 1

else:

print count, " is not less than 5"

Listing 1-19.

example code for a ‘while with a else’ statement

Lists

Python’s lists are the most flexible data type. It can be created by writing a list of comma-separated values between square brackets. Note that that the items in the list need not be of the same data type. See Table 1-10; and Listings 1-20, 1-21, 1-22, 1-23, and 1-24.

Table 1-10.

Python list operations

Description

Python Expression

Example

Results

Creating a list of items

[item1, item2, …]

list = [‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’]

[‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’]

Accessing items in list

list[index]

list = [‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’]

list[2]

c

Length

len(list)

len([1, 2, 3])

3

Concatenation

list_1 + list_2

[1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6]

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Repetition

list * int

[‘Hello’] * 3

[‘Hello’, ‘Hello’, ‘Hello’]

Membership

item in list

3 in [1, 2, 3]

TRUE

Iteration

for x in list: print x

for x in [1, 2, 3]: print x,

1 2 3

Count from the right

list[-index]

list = [1,2,3]; list[-2]

2

Slicing fetches sections

list[index:]

list = [1,2,3]; list[1:]

[2,3]

Comparing lists

cmp(list_1, list_2)

print cmp([1,2,3,4], [5,6,7]); print cmp([1,2,3], [5,6,7,8])

1 -1

Return max item

max(list)

max([1,2,3,4,5])

5

Return min item

min(list)

max([1,2,3,4,5])

1

Append object to list

list.append(obj)

[1,2,3,4].append(5)

[1,2,3,4,5]

Count item occurrence

list.count(obj)

[1,1,2,3,4].count(1)

2

Append content of sequence to list

list.extend(seq)

[‘a’, 1].extend([‘b’, 2])

[‘a’, 1, ‘b’, 2]

Return the first index position of item

list.index(obj)

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].index(‘c’)

2

Insert object to list at a desired index

list.insert(index, obj)

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].insert(4, ‘d’)

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,‘d’, 1,2,3]

Remove and return last object from list

list.pop(obj=list[-1])

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].pop() [‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].pop(2)

3 c

Remove object from list

list.remove(obj)

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].remove(‘c’)

[‘a’, ‘b’, 1,2,3]

Reverse objects of list in place

list.reverse()

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].reverse()

[3,2,1,‘c’,‘b’,‘a’]

Sort objects of list

list.sort()

[‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].sort() [‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’,1,2,3].sort(reverse = True)

[1,2,3,‘a’, ‘b’,‘c’] [‘c’,‘b’,‘a’,3,2,1]

# Create lists

list_1 = ['Statistics', 'Programming', 2016, 2017, 2018];

list_2 = ['a', 'b', 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ];

# Accessing values in lists

print "list_1[0]: ", list_1[0]

print "list2_[1:5]: ", list_2[1:5]

---- output ----

list_1[0]: Statistics

list2_[1:5]: ['b', 1, 2, 3]

Listing 1-20.

Example code for accessing lists

print "list_1 values: ", list_1

# Adding new value to list

list_1.append(2019)

print "list_1 values post append: ", list_1

---- output ----

list_1 values: ['c', 'b', 'a', 3, 2, 1]

list_1 values post append: ['c', 'b', 'a', 3, 2, 1, 2019]

Listing 1-21.

Example code for adding new values to lists

print "Values of list_1: ", list_1

# Updating existing value of list

print "Index 2 value : ", list_1[2]

list_1[2] = 2015;

print "Index 2's new value : ", list_1[2]

---- output ----

Values of list_1: ['c', 'b', 'a', 3, 2, 1, 2019]

Index 2 value : a

Index 2's new value : 2015

Listing 1-22.

Example code for updating existing values of lists

Print "list_1 values: ", list_1

# Deleting list element

del list_1[5];

print "After deleting value at index 2 : ", list_1

---- output ----

list_1 values: ['c', 'b', 2015, 3, 2, 1, 2019]

After deleting value at index 2 : ['c', 'b', 2015, 3, 2, 2019]

Listing 1-23.

Example code for deleting a list element

print "Length: ", len(list_1)

print "Concatenation: ", [1,2,3] + [4, 5, 6]

print "Repetition :", ['Hello'] * 4

print "Membership :", 3 in [1,2,3]

print "Iteration :"

for x in [1,2,3]: print x

# Negative sign will count from the right

print "slicing :", list_1[-2]

# If you dont specify the end explicitly, all elements from the specified start index will be printed

print "slicing range: ", list_1[1:]

# Comparing elements of lists

print "Compare two lists: ", cmp([1,2,3, 4], [1,2,3])

print "Max of list: ", max([1,2,3,4,5])

print "Min of list: ", min([1,2,3,4,5])

print "Count number of 1 in list: ", [1,1,2,3,4,5,].count(1)

list_1.extend(list_2)

print "Extended :", list_1

print "Index for Programming : ", list_1.index( 'Programming')

print list_1

print "pop last item in list: ", list_1.pop()

print "pop the item with index 2: ", list_1.pop(2)

list_1.remove('b')

print "removed b from list: ", list_1

list_1.reverse()

print "Reverse: ", list_1

list_1 = ['a', 'b','c',1,2,3]

list_1.sort()

print "Sort ascending: ", list_1

list_1.sort(reverse = True)

print "Sort descending: ", list_1

---- output ----

Length: 5

Concatenation: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Repetition : ['Hello', 'Hello', 'Hello', 'Hello']

Membership : True

Iteration :

1

2

3

slicing : 2017

slicing range: ['Programming', 2015, 2017, 2018]

Compare two lists: 1

Max of list: 5

Min of list: 1

Count number of 1 in list: 2

Extended : ['Statistics', 'Programming', 2015, 2017, 2018, 'a', 'b', 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Index for Programming : 1

['Statistics', 'Programming', 2015, 2017, 2018, 'a', 'b', 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

pop last item in list: 7

pop the item with index 2: 2015

removed b from list: ['Statistics', 'Programming', 2017, 2018, 'a', 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Reverse: [6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 'a', 2018, 2017, 'Programming', 'Statistics']

Sort ascending: [1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c']

Sort descending: ['c', 'b', 'a', 3, 2, 1]

Listing 1-24.

Example code for basic operations on lists

Tuple

A Python tuple is a sequences or series of immutable Python objects very much similar to the lists. However there exist some essential differences between lists and tuples, which are the following. See also Table 1-11; and Listings 1-25, 1-26, 1-27, and 1-28.

1. 1.

Unlike list, the objects of tuples cannot be changed.

2. 2.

Tuples are defined by using parentheses, but lists are defined by square brackets.

Table 1-11.

Python Tuple operations

Description

Python Expression

Example

Results

Creating a tuple

(item1, item2, …) () # empty tuple (item1,) # Tuple with one item, note comma is required

tuple = (‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’,1,2,3) tuple = () tuple = (1,)

(‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’,1,2,3) () 1

Accessing items in tuple

tuple[index] tuple[start_index:end_index]

tuple = (‘a’,‘b’,‘c’,‘d’,1,2,3) tuple[2] tuple[0:2]

c a, b, c

Deleting a tuple

del tuple_name

del tuple

Length

len(tuple)

len((1, 2, 3))

3

Concatenation

tuple_1 + tuple_2

(1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Repetition

tuple * int

(‘Hello’,) * 4

(‘Hello’, ‘Hello’, ‘Hello’, ‘Hello’)

Membership

item in tuple

3 in (1, 2, 3)

TRUE

Iteration

for x in tuple: print x

for x in (1, 2, 3): print x

1 2 3

Count from the right

tuple[-index]

tuple = (1,2,3); list[-2]

2

Slicing fetches sections

tuple[index:]

tuple = (1,2,3); list[1:]

(2,3)

Comparing lists

cmp(tuple_1, tuple_2)

print cmp((1,2,3,4), (5,6,7)); print cmp((1,2,3), (5,6,7,8))

1 -1

Return max item

max(tuple)

max((1,2,3,4,5))

5

Return min item

min(tuple)

max((1,2,3,4,5))

1

Convert a list to tuple

tuple(seq)

tuple([1,2,3,4])

(1,2,3,4,5)

# Creating a tuple

Tuple = ()

print "Empty Tuple: ", Tuple

Tuple = (1,)

print "Tuple with single item: ", Tuple

Tuple = ('a','b','c','d',1,2,3)

print "Sample Tuple :", Tuple

---- output ----

Empty Tuple: ()

Tuple with single item: (1,)

Sample Tuple : ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 1, 2, 3)

Listing 1-25.

Example code for creating tuple

# Accessing items in tuple

Tuple = ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 1, 2, 3)

print "3rd item of Tuple:", Tuple[2]

print "First 3 items of Tuple", Tuple[0:2]

---- output ----

3rd item of Tuple: c

First 3 items of Tuple ('a', 'b')

Listing 1-26.

Example code for accessing tuple

# Deleting tuple

print "Sample Tuple: ", Tuple

del Tuple

print Tuple # Will throw an error message as the tuple does not exist

---- output ----

Sample Tuple: ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 1, 2, 3)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

NameError Traceback (most recent call last)

<ipython-input-35-6a0deb3cfbcf> in <module>()

3 print "Sample Tuple: ", Tuple

4 del Tuple

----> 5 print Tuple # Will throw an error message as the tuple does not exist

NameError: name 'Tuple' is not defined

Listing 1-27.

Example code for deleting tuple

# Basic Tuple operations

Tuple = ('a','b','c','d',1,2,3)

print "Length of Tuple: ", len(Tuple)

Tuple_Concat = Tuple + (7,8,9)

print "Concatinated Tuple: ", Tuple_Concat

print "Repetition: ", (1, 'a',2, 'b') * 3

print "Membership check: ", 3 in (1,2,3)

# Iteration

for x in (1, 2, 3): print x

print "Negative sign will retrieve item from right: ", Tuple_Concat[-2]

print "Sliced Tuple [2:] ", Tuple_Concat[2:]

# Comparing two tuples

print "Comparing tuples (1,2,3) and (1,2,3,4): ", cmp((1,2,3), (1,2,3,4))

print "Comparing tuples (1,2,3,4) and (1,2,3): ", cmp((1,2,3,4), (1,2,3))

# Find max

print "Max of the Tuple (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10): ", max((1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10))

print "Min of the Tuple (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10): ", min((1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10))

print "List [1,2,3,4] converted to tuple: ", type(tuple([1,2,3,4]))

---- output ----

Length of Tuple: 7

Concatinated Tuple: ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9)

Repetition: (1, 'a', 2, 'b', 1, 'a', 2, 'b', 1, 'a', 2, 'b')

Membership check: True

1

2

3

Negative sign will retrieve item from right: 8

Sliced Tuple [2:] ('c', 'd', 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9)

Comparing tuples (1,2,3) and (1,2,3,4): -1

Comparing tuples (1,2,3,4) and (1,2,3): 1

Max of the Tuple (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10): 10

Min of the Tuple (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10): 1

List [1,2,3,4] converted to tuple: <type 'tuple'>

Listing 1-28.

Example code for basic operations on tupe (not exhaustive)

Sets

As the name implies, sets are the implementations of mathematical sets. Three key characteristic of set are the following.

1. 1.

The collection of items is unordered.

2. 2.

No duplicate items will be stored, which means that each item is unique.

3. 3.

Sets are mutable, which means the items of it can be changed.

An item can be added or removed from sets. Mathematical set operations such as union, intersection, etc., can be performed on Python sets. See Table 1-12 and Listing 1-29.

Table 1-12.

Python set operations

Description

Python Expression

Example

Results

Creating a set.

set{item1, item2, …} set() # empty set

languages = set([‘Python’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Julia’])

set([‘SAS’, ‘Python’, ‘R’, ‘Julia’])

Add an item/element to a set.

add()

languages.add(‘SPSS’)

set([‘SAS’, ‘SPSS’, ‘Python’, ‘R’, ‘Julia’])

Remove all items/elements from a set.

clear()

languages.clear()

set([])

Return a copy of a set.

copy()

lang = languages.copy() print lang

set([‘SAS’, ‘SPSS’, ‘Python’, ‘R’, ‘Julia’])

Remove an item/element from set if it is a member. (Do nothing if the element is not in set).

discard()

languages = set([‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘AI’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’]) languages.discard(‘AI’)

set([‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’])

Remove an item/element from a set. If the element is not a member, raise a KeyError.

remove()

languages = set([‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘AI’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’]) languages.remove(‘AI’)

set([‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’])

Remove and return an arbitrary set element. RaiseKeyError if the set is empty.

pop()

languages = set([‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘AI’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’]) print “Removed:”, (languages.pop()) print(languages)

Removed: C set([‘Java’, ‘Python’, ‘Data Science’, ‘Julia’, ‘SPSS’, ‘R’, ‘SAS’, ‘Machine Learning’])

Return the difference of two or more sets as a new set.

difference()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.difference(B)

{1, 2, 3}

Remove all item/elements of another set from this set.

difference_update()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.difference_update(B) print A

set([1, 2, 3])

Return the intersection of two sets as a new set.

intersection()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.intersection(B)

{4, 5}

Update the set with the intersection of itself and another.

intersection_update()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.intersection_update B print A

set([4, 5])

Return True if two sets have a null intersection.

isdisjoint()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.isdisjoint(B)

FALSE

Return True if another set contains this set.

issubset()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} print A.issubset(B)

FALSE

Return True if this set contains another set.

issuperset()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} print A.issuperset(B)

FALSE

Return the symmetric difference of two sets as a new set.

symmetric_difference()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A. symmetric_difference(B)

{1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8}

Update a set with the symmetric difference of itself and another.

symmetric_difference_update()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.symmetric_difference(B) print A A.symmetric_difference_update(B) print A

set([1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8])

Return the union of sets in a new set.

union()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.union(B) print A

set([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

Update a set with the union of itself and others.

update()

# initialize A and B A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8} A.update(B) print A

set([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])

Return the length (the number of items) in the set.

len()

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} len(A)

5

Return the largest item in the set.

max()

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} max(A)

1

Return the smallest item in the set.

min()

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} min(A)

5

Return a new sorted list from elements in the set. Does not sort the set.

sorted()

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} sorted(A)

[4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Return the sum of all items/elements in the set.

sum()

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} sum(A)

15

# Creating an empty set

languages = set()

print type(languages), languages

languages = {'Python', 'R', 'SAS', 'Julia'}

print type(languages), languages

# set of mixed datatypes

mixed_set = {"Python", (2.7, 3.4)}

print type(mixed_set), languages

---- output ----

<type 'set'> set([])

<type 'set'> set(['SAS', 'Python', 'R', 'Julia'])

<type 'set'> set(['SAS', 'Python', 'R', 'Julia'])

Listing 1-29.

Example code for creating sets

Accessing Set Elements

See Listing 1-30.

print list(languages)[0]

print list(languages)[0:3]

---- output ----

C

['C', 'Java', 'Python']

Listing 1-30.

Example code for accessing set elements

Changing a Set in Python

Although sets are mutable, indexing on them will have no meaning due to the fact that they are unordered. So sets do not support accessing or changing an item/element using indexing or slicing. The add() method can be used to add a single element and the update() method for adding multiple elements. Note that the update() method can take the argument in the format of tuples, lists, strings, or other sets. However, in all cases the duplicates are ignored. See Listing 1-31.

# initialize a set

languages = {'Python', 'R'}

print(languages)

# add an element

languages.add('SAS')

print(languages)

# add multiple elements

languages.update(['Julia','SPSS'])

print(languages)

# add list and set

languages.update(['Java','C'], {'Machine Learning','Data Science','AI'})

print(languages)

---- output ----

set(['Python', 'R'])

set(['Python', 'SAS', 'R'])

set(['Python', 'SAS', 'R', 'Julia', 'SPSS'])

set(['C', 'Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'AI', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

Listing 1-31.

Example code for changing set elements

Removing Items from Set

The discard() or remove() method can be used to remove a particular item from a set. The fundamental difference between discard() and remove() is that the first do not take any action if the item does not exist in the set, whereas remove() will raise an error in such a scenario. See Listing 1-32.

# remove an element

languages.remove('AI')

print(languages)

# discard an element, although AI has already been removed discard will not throw an error

languages.discard('AI')

print(languages)

# Pop will remove a random item from set

print "Removed:", (languages.pop()), "from", languages

---- output ----

set(['C', 'Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

set(['C', 'Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

Removed: C from set(['Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

Listing 1-32.

Example code for removing items from set

Set Operations

As discussed earlier, sets allow us to use mathematical set operations such as union, intersection, difference, and symmetric difference. We can achieve this with the help of operators or methods.

Set Union

A union of two sets A and B will result in a set of all items combined from both sets. There are two ways to perform union operation: 1) Using | operator 2) using union() method. See Listing 1-33.

# initialize A and B

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

# use | operator

print "Union of A | B", A|B

# alternative we can use union()

A.union(B)

---- output ----

Union of A | B set([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])

Listing 1-33.

Example code for set union operation

Set Intersection

An intersection of two sets A and B will result in a set of items that exists or is common in both sets. There are two ways to achieve intersection operation: 1) using & operator 2) using intersection() method. See Listing 1-34.

# use & operator

print "Intersection of A & B", A & B

# alternative we can use intersection()

print A.intersection(B)

---- output ----

Intersection of A & B set([4, 5])

Listing 1-34.

Example code for set intersesction operation

Set Difference

The difference of two sets A and B (i.e., A - B) will result in a set of items that exists only in A and not in B. There are two ways to perform a difference operation: 1) using ‘–’ operator, and 2) using difference() method. See Listing 1-35.

# use - operator on A

print "Difference of A - B", A - B

# alternative we can use difference()

print A.difference(B)

---- output ----

Difference of A - B set([1, 2, 3])

Listing 1-35.

Example code for set difference operation

Set Symmetric Difference

A symmetric difference of two sets A and B is a set of items from both sets that are not common. There are two ways to perform a symmetric difference: 1) using ^ operator, and 2) using symmetric_difference()method . See Listing 1-36.

# use ^ operator

print "Symmetric difference of A ^ B", A ^ B

# alternative we can use symmetric_difference()

A.symmetric_difference(B)

---- output ----

Symmetric difference of A ^ B set([1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8])

Listing 1-36.

Example code for set symmetric difference operation

Basic Operations

Let’s look at fundamental operations that can be performed on Python sets. See Listing 1-37.

# Return a shallow copy of a set

lang = languages.copy()

print languages

print lang

# initialize A and B

A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

B = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

print A.isdisjoint(B) # True, when two sets have a null intersection

print A.issubset(B) # True, when another set contains this set

print A.issuperset(B) # True, when this set contains another set

sorted(B) # Return a new sorted list

print sum(A) # Retrun the sum of all items

print len(A) # Return the length

print min(A) # Return the largestitem

print max(A) # Return the smallest item

---- output ----

set(['C', 'Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'AI', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

set(['C', 'Java', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Julia', 'SPSS', 'AI', 'R', 'SAS', 'Machine Learning'])

False

False

False

15

5

1

5

Listing 1-37.

Example code for basic operations on sets

Dictionary

The Python dictionary will have a key and value pair for each item that is part of it. The key and value should be enclosed in curly braces. Each key and value is separated using a colon (:), and further each item is separated by commas (,). Note that the keys are unique within a specific dictionary and must be immutable data types such as strings, numbers, or tuples, whereas values can take duplicate data of any type. See Table 1-13; and Listings 1-38, 1-39, 1-40, 1-41, and 1-42.

Table 1-13.

Python Dictionary operations

Description

Python Expression

Example

Results

Creating a dictionary

dict = {‘key1’:‘value1’, ‘key2’:‘value2’…..}

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6, ‘Class’: ‘First’}

{‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6, ‘Class’: ‘First’}

Accessing items in dictionary

dict [‘key’]

dict[‘Name’]

dict[‘Name’]: Jivin

Deleting a dictionary

del dict[‘key’]; dict.clear(); del dict;

del dict[‘Name’]; dict.clear(); del dict;

{‘Age’:6, ‘Class’:‘First’}; {};

Updating a dictionary

dict[‘key’] = new_value

dict[‘Age’] = 6.5

dict[‘Age’]: 6.5

Length

len(dict)

len({‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6, ‘Class’: ‘First’})

3

Comparing elements of dicts

cmp(dict_1, dict_2)

dict1 = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6}; dict2 = {‘Name’: ‘Pratham’, ‘Age’: 7}; dict3 = {‘Name’: ‘Pranuth’, ‘Age’: 7}; dict4 = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6}; print “Return Value: ”, cmp (dict1, dict2) print “Return Value: ” , cmp (dict2, dict3) print “Return Value: ”, cmp (dict1, dict4)

Return Value : -1 Return Value : 1 Return Value : 0

String representation of dict

str(dict)

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6}; print “Equivalent String: ”, str (dict)

Equivalent String : {‘Age’: 6, ‘Name’: ‘Jivin’}

Return the shallow copy of dict

dict.copy()

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6}; dict1 = dict.copy() print dict1

{‘Age’: 6, ‘Name’: ‘Jivin’}

Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value

dict.fromkeys()

seq = (‘name’, ‘age’, ‘sex’) dict = dict.fromkeys(seq) print “New Dictionary: ”, str(dict) dict = dict.fromkeys(seq, 10) print “New Dictionary: ”, str(dict)

New Dictionary : {‘age’: None, ‘name’: None, ‘sex’: None} New Dictionary : {‘age’: 10, ‘name’: 10, ‘sex’: 10}

For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary

dict.get(key, default=None)

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} print “Value for Age: ”, dict.get(‘Age’) print “Value for Education: ”, dict.get(‘Education’, “First Grade”)

Value : 6 Value : First Grade

Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise

dict.has_key(key)

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} print “Age exists? ”, dict.has_key(‘Age’) print “Sex exists? ”, dict.has_key(‘Sex’)

Value : True Value : False

Returns a list of dict’s (key, value) tuple pairs

dict.items()

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} print “dict items: ”, dict.items()

Value : [(‘Age’, 6), (‘Name’, ‘Jivin’)]

Returns list of dictionary dict’s keys

dict.keys()

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin‘, ‘Age’: 6} print “dict keys: ”, dict.keys()

Value : [‘Age’, ‘Name’]

Similar to get(), but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict

dict.setdefault(key, default=None)

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} print “Value for Age: ”, dict.setdefault(‘Age’, None) print “Value for Sex: ”, dict.setdefault(‘Sex’, None)

Value : 6 Value : None

Adds dictionary dict2’s key-values pairs to dict

dict.update(dict2)

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} dict2 = {‘Sex’: ‘male’ } dict.update(dict2) print “dict.update(dict2) = ”, dict

Value : {‘Age’: 6, ‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Sex’: ‘male’}

Returns list of dictionary dict’s values

dict.values()

dict = {‘Name’: ‘Jivin’, ‘Age’: 6} print “Value: ”, dict.values()

Value : [6, ‘Jivin’]

# Creating dictionary

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

print "Sample dictionary: ", dict

---- output ----

Sample dictionary: {'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin', 'Class': 'First'}

Listing 1-38.

Example code for creating dictionary

# Accessing items in dictionary

print "Value of key Name, from sample dictionary:", dict['Name']

---- output ----

Value of key Name, from sample dictionary: Jivin

Listing 1-39.

Example code for accessing dictionary

# Deleting a dictionary

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

print "Sample dictionary: ", dict

del dict['Name'] # Delete specific item

print "Sample dictionary post deletion of item Name:", dict

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

dict.clear() # Clear all the contents of dictionary

print "dict post dict.clear():", dict

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

del dict # Delete the dictionary

---- output ----

Sample dictionary: {'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin', 'Class': 'First'}

Sample dictionary post deletion of item Name: {'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

dict post dict.clear(): {}

Listing 1-40.

Example for deleting dictionary

# Updating dictionary

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

print "Sample dictionary: ", dict

dict['Age'] = 6.5

print "Dictionary post age value update: ", dict

---- output ----

Sample dictionary: {'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin', 'Class': 'First'}

Dictionary post age value update: {'Age': 6.5, 'Name': 'Jivin', 'Class': 'First'}

Listing 1-41.

Example code for updating dictionary

# Basic operations

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6, 'Class': 'First'}

print "Length of dict: ", len(dict)

dict1 = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6};

dict2 = {'Name': 'Pratham', 'Age': 7};

dict3 = {'Name': 'Pranuth', 'Age': 7};

dict4 = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6};

print "Return Value: dict1 vs dict2", cmp (dict1, dict2)

print "Return Value: dict2 vs dict3", cmp (dict2, dict3)

print "Return Value: dict1 vs dict4", cmp (dict1, dict4)

# String representation of dictionary

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6}

print "Equivalent String: ", str (dict)

# Copy the dict

dict1 = dict.copy()

print dict1

# Create new dictionary with keys from tuple and values to set value

seq = ('name', 'age', 'sex')

dict = dict.fromkeys(seq)

print "New Dictionary: ", str(dict)

dict = dict.fromkeys(seq, 10)

print "New Dictionary: ", str(dict)

# Retrieve value for a given key

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6};

print "Value for Age: ", dict.get('Age')

# Since the key Education does not exist, the second argument will be returned

print "Value for Education: ", dict.get('Education', "First Grade")

# Check if key in dictionary

print "Age exists? ", dict.has_key('Age')

print "Sex exists? ", dict.has_key('Sex')

# Return items of dictionary

print "dict items: ", dict.items()

# Return items of keys

print "dict keys: ", dict.keys()

# return values of dict

print "Value of dict: ", dict.values()

# if key does not exists, then the arguments will be added to dict and returned

print "Value for Age : ", dict.setdefault('Age', None)

print "Value for Sex: ", dict.setdefault('Sex', None)

# Concatenate dicts

dict = {'Name': 'Jivin', 'Age': 6}

dict2 = {'Sex': 'male' }

dict.update(dict2)

print "dict.update(dict2) = ", dict

---- output ----

Length of dict: 3

Return Value: dict1 vs dict2 -1

Return Value: dict2 vs dict3 1

Return Value: dict1 vs dict4 0

Equivalent String: {'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin'}

{'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin'}

New Dictionary: {'age': None, 'name': None, 'sex': None}

New Dictionary: {'age': 10, 'name': 10, 'sex': 10}

Value for Age: 6

Value for Education: First Grade

Age exists? True

Sex exists? False

dict items: [('Age', 6), ('Name', 'Jivin')]

dict keys: ['Age', 'Name']

Value for Age : 6

Value for Sex: None

dict.update(dict2) = {'Age': 6, 'Name': 'Jivin', 'Sex': 'male'}

Value of dict: [6, 'Jivin', 'male']

Listing 1-42.

Example code for basic operations on dictionary

User-Defined Functions

A user-defined function is a block of related code statements that are organized to achieve a single related action. The key objective of the user-defined functions concept is to encourage modularity and enable reusability of code.

Defining a Function

Functions need to be defined, and below is the set of rules to be followed to define a function in Python.

· The keyword def denotes the beginning of a function block, which will be followed by the name of the function and open, close parentheses. After this a colon (:) to be put to indicate the end of the function header.

· Functions can accept arguments or parameters. Any such input arguments or parameters should be placed within the parentheses in the header of the parameter.

· The main code statements are to be put below the function header and should be indented, which indicates that the code is part of the same function.

· Functions can return an expression to the caller. If return method is not used at the end of the function, it will act as a subprocedure. The key difference between the function and the subprocedure is that a function will always return expression whereas a subprocedure will not. See Listings 1-43 and I-44.

Syntax for creating functions without argument:

def functoin_name():

1st block line

2nd block line

...

# Simple function

def someFunction():

print "Hello World"

# Call the function

someFunction()

----- output -----

Hello world

Listing 1-43.

Example code for creating functions without argument

Syntax for Creating Functions with Argument

def functoin_name(parameters):

1st block line

2nd block line

...

return [expression]

# Simple function to add two numbers

def sum_two_numbers(x, y):

return x + y

# after this line x will hold the value 3

print sum_two_numbers(1,2)

----- output -----

3

Listing 1-44.

Example code for creating functions with arguments

Scope of Variables

The availability of a variable or identifier within the program during and after the execution is determined by the scope of a variable. There are two fundamental variable scopes in Python.

1. 1.

Global variables

2. 2.

Local variables

Note that Python does support global variables without you having to explicitly express that they are global variables. See Listing 1-45.

# Global variable

x = 10

# Simple function to add two numbers

def sum_two_numbers(y):

return x + y

# Call the function and print result

print sum_two_numbers(10)

----- output -----

20

Listing 1-45.

Example code for defining variable scopes

Default Argument

You can define a default value for an argument of function, which means the function will assume or use the default value in case any value is not provided in the function call for that argument. See Listing 1-46.

# Simple function to add two number with b having default value of 10

def sum_two_numbers(x, y = 10):

return x + y

# Call the function and print result

print sum_two_numbers(10)

20

print sum_two_numbers(10, 5)

15

Listing 1-46.

Example code for function with default argument

Variable Length Arguments

There are situations when you do not know the exact number of arguments while defining the function and would want the ability to process all the arguments dynamically. Python’s answer for this situation is the variable length argument that enables us to process more arguments than you specified while defining the function. The *args and **kwargs is a common idiom to allow a dynamic number of arguments.

The *args Will Provide All Function Parameters in the Form of a tuple

See Listing 1-47.

# Simple function to loop through arguments and print them

def sample_function(*args):

for a in args:

print a

# Call the function

Sample_function(1,2,3)

1

2

3

Listing 1-47.

Example code for passing argumens as *args

The **kwargs will give you the ability to handle named or keyword arguments keyword that you have not defined in advance. See Listing 1-48.

# Simple function to loop through arguments and print them

def sample_function(**kwargs):

for a in kwargs:

print a, kwargs[a]

# Call the function

sample_function(name='John', age=27)

age 27

name 'John'

Listing 1-48.

Example code for passing argumens as **kwargs

Module

A module is a logically organized multiple independent but related set of codes or functions or classes. The key principle behind module creating is it’s easier to understand, use, and has efficient maintainability. You can import a module and the Python interpreter will search for the module in interest in the following sequences.

1. 1.

Currently active directly, that is, the directory from which the Python your program is being called.

2. 2.

If the module isn’t found in currently active directory, Python then searches each directory in the path variable PYTHONPATH. If this fails then it searches in the default package installation path.

Note that the module search path is stored in the system module called sys as the sys.path variable, and this contains the current directory, PYTHONPATH, and the installation dependent default.

When you import a module, it’s loaded only once, regardless of the number of times it is imported. You can also import specific elements (functions, classes, etc.) from your module into the current namespace. See Listing 1-49.

# Import all functions from a module

import module_name

from modname import*

# Import specific function from module

from module_name import function_name

Listing 1-49.

Example code for importing modules

Python has an internal dictionary known as namespace that stores each variable or identifier name as the key and their corresponding value is the respective Python object. There are two types of namespace, local and global. The local namespace gets created during execution of a Python program to hold all the objects that are being created by the program. The local and global variable have the same name and the local variable shadows the global variable. Each class and function has its own local namespace. Python assumes that any variable assigned a value in a function is local. For global variables you need to explicitly specify them.

Another key built-in function is the dir(), and running this will return a sorted list of strings containing the names of all the modules, variables, and functions that are defined in a module. See Listing 1-50.

Import os

content = dir(os)

print content

---- output ----

['F_OK', 'O_APPEND', 'O_BINARY', 'O_CREAT', 'O_EXCL', 'O_NOINHERIT', 'O_RANDOM', 'O_RDONLY', 'O_RDWR', 'O_SEQUENTIAL', 'O_SHORT_LIVED', 'O_TEMPORARY', 'O_TEXT', 'O_TRUNC', 'O_WRONLY', 'P_DETACH', 'P_NOWAIT', 'P_NOWAITO', 'P_OVERLAY', 'P_WAIT', 'R_OK', 'SEEK_CUR', 'SEEK_END', 'SEEK_SET', 'TMP_MAX', 'UserDict', 'W_OK', 'X_OK', '_Environ', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '__package__', '_copy_reg', '_execvpe', '_exists', '_exit', '_get_exports_list', '_make_stat_result', '_make_statvfs_result', '_pickle_stat_result', '_pickle_statvfs_result', 'abort', 'access', 'altsep', 'chdir', 'chmod', 'close', 'closerange', 'curdir', 'defpath', 'devnull', 'dup', 'dup2', 'environ', 'errno', 'error', 'execl', 'execle', 'execlp', 'execlpe', 'execv', 'execve', 'execvp', 'execvpe', 'extsep', 'fdopen', 'fstat', 'fsync', 'getcwd', 'getcwdu', 'getenv', 'getpid', 'isatty', 'kill', 'linesep', 'listdir', 'lseek', 'lstat', 'makedirs', 'mkdir', 'name', 'open', 'pardir', 'path', 'pathsep', 'pipe', 'popen', 'popen2', 'popen3', 'popen4', 'putenv', 'read', 'remove', 'removedirs', 'rename', 'renames', 'rmdir', 'sep', 'spawnl', 'spawnle', 'spawnv', 'spawnve', 'startfile', 'stat', 'stat_float_times', 'stat_result', 'statvfs_result', 'strerror', 'sys', 'system', 'tempnam', 'times', 'tmpfile', 'tmpnam', 'umask', 'unlink', 'unsetenv', 'urandom', 'utime', 'waitpid', 'walk', 'write']

Listing 1-50.

Example code dir() operation

Looking at the above output, __name__ is a special string variable name that denotes the module’s name and __file__is the filename from which the module was loaded.

File Input/Output

Python provides easy functions to read and write information to a file. To perform read or write operation on files we need to open them first. Once the required operation is complete, it needs to be closed so that all the resources tied to that file are freed. See Table 1-14.

Table 1-14.

File input / output operations

Description

Syntax

Example

Opening a file

obj=open(filename , access_mode , buffer)

f = open(‘vehicles.txt’, ‘w’)

Reading from a file

fileobject.read(value)

f = open(‘vehicles.txt’) f.readlines()

Closing a file

fileobject.close()

f.close()

Writing to a file

fileobject.write(string str)

vehicles = [‘scooter\n’, ‘bike\n’, ‘car\n’] f = open(‘vehicles.txt’, ‘w’) f.writelines(vehicles)f.close()

Below is the sequence of a file operation.

· Open a file

· Perform operations that are read or write

· Close the file

Opening a File

While opening a file the access_mode will determine the file open mode that is read, write, append etc. Read (r) mode is the default file access mode and this is an optional parameter,

Please refer to Table 1-15 for a complete list of file opening modes. Also see Listing 1-51.

Table 1-15.

File opening modes

Modes

Description

R

reading only

Rb

reading only in binary format

r+

file will be available for both read and write

rb+

file will be available for both read and write in binary format

W

writing only

Wb

writing only in binary format

w+

open for both writing and reading, if file existing overwrite else create

wb+

open for both writing and reading in binary format; if file existing, overwrite, else create

A

Opens file in append mode. Creates a file if does not exist

Ab

opens file in append mode. Creates a file if it does not exist

a+

opens file for both append and reading. Creates a file if does not exist

ab+

Opens file for both append and reading in binary format. Creates a file if it does not exist

# Below code will create a file named vehicles and add the items. \n is a newline character

vehicles = ['scooter\n', 'bike\n', 'car\n']

f = open('vehicles.txt', 'w')

f.writelines(vehicles)

# Reading from file

f = open('vechicles.txt')

print f.readlines()

f.close()

---- output ----

['scooter\n', 'bike\n', 'car\n']

Listing 1-51.

Example code for file operations

Exception Handling

Any error that happens while a Python program is being executed that will interrupt the expected flow of the program is called as exception. Your program should be designed to handle both expected and unexpected errors.

Python has rich set of built-in exceptions that forces your program to output an error when something in it goes wrong.

Below in Table 1-16 is the list of Python Standard Exceptions as described in Python’s official documentation ( https://docs.python.org/2/library/exceptions.html ).

Table 1-16.

Python built-in exception handling

Exception name

Description

Exception

Base class for all exceptions.

StopIteration

Raised when the next() method of an iterator does not point to any object.

SystemExit

Raised by the sys.exit() function.

StandardError

Base class for all built-in exceptions except StopIteration and SystemExit.

ArithmeticError

Base class for all errors that occur for numeric calculation.

OverflowError

Raised when a calculation exceeds maximum limit for a numeric type.

FloatingPointError

Raised when a floating point calculation fails.

ZeroDivisonError

Raised when division or modulo by zero takes place for all numeric types.

AssertionError

Raised in case of failure of the Assert statement.

AttributeError

Raised in case of failure of attribute reference or assignment.

EOFError

Raised when there is no input from either the raw_input() or input() function and the end of file is reached.

ImportError

Raised when an import statement fails.

KeyboardInterrupt

Raised when the user interrupts program execution, usually by pressing Ctrl+c.

LookupError

Base class for all lookup errors.

IndexError

Raised when an index is not found in a sequence.

KeyError

Raised when the specified key is not found in the dictionary.

NameError

Raised when an identifier is not found in the local or global namespace.

UnboundLocalError

Raised when trying to access a local variable in a function or method but no value has been assigned to it.

EnvironmentError

Base class for all exceptions that occur outside the Python environment.

IOError

Raised when an input/ output operation fails, such as the print statement or the open() function when trying to open a file that does not exist.

IOError

Raised for operating system-related errors.

SyntaxError

Raised when there is an error in Python syntax.

IndentationError

Raised when indentation is not specified properly.

SystemError

Raised when the interpreter finds an internal problem, but when this error is encountered the Python interpreter does not exit.

SystemExit

Raised when Python interpreter is quit by using the sys.exit() function. If not handled in the code, causes the interpreter to exit.

Raised when Python interpreter is quit by using the sys.exit() function. If not handled in the code, causes the interpreter to exit.

Raised when an operation or function is attempted that is invalid for the specified data type.

ValueError

Raised when the built-in function for a data type has the valid type of arguments, but the arguments have invalid values specified.

RuntimeError

Raised when a generated error does not fall into any category.

NotImplementedError

Raised when an abstract method that needs to be implemented in an inherited class is not actually implemented.

You can handle exceptions in your Python program using try, raise, except, and finally statements.

try and except: try clause can be used to place any critical operation that can raise an exception in your program and an exception clause should have the code that will handle a raised exception. See Listing 1-52.

try:

x = 1

y = 1

print "Result of x/y: ", x / y

except (ZeroDivisionError):

print("Can not divide by zero")

except (TypeError):

print("Wrong data type, division is allowed on numeric data type only")

except:

print "Unexpected error occurred", '\n', "Error Type: ", sys.exc_info()[0], '\n', "Error Msg: ", sys.exc_info()[1]

---- output ----

Result of x/y: 1

Listing 1-52.

Example code for exception handling

Note

1) changing value of b to zero in the above code will print the statement “Can’t divide by zero.”

2) Replacing ‘a’ with ‘A’ in divide statement will print below output.

Unexpected error occurred

Error Type: <type ‘exceptions.NameError’>

Error Msg: name ‘A’ is not defined

Finally: This is an optional clause that is intended to define clean-up actions that must be executed under all circumstances. See Listing 1-53.

# Below code will open a file and try to convert the content to integer

try:

f = open('vechicles.txt')

print f.readline()

i = int(s.strip())

except IOError as e:

print "I/O error({0}): {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror)

except ValueError:

print "Could not convert data to an integer."

except:

print "Unexpected error occurred", '\n', "Error Type: ", sys.exc_info()[0], '\n', "Error Msg: ", sys.exc_info()[1]

finally:

f.close()

print "file has been closed"

---- output ----

scooter

Could not convert data to an integer.

file has been closed

Listing 1-53.

Example code for exception handling with file operations

Python executes a finally clause always before leaving the try statement irrespective of an exception occurrence. If an exception clause not designed to handle the exception is raised in the try clause, the same is re-raised after the finally clause has been executed. If usage of statements such as break, continue, or return forces the program to exit the try clause, still the finally is executed on the way out. See Figure 1-3.

A434293_1_En_1_Fig3_HTML

Figure 1-3.

Code Flow for Error Handler

Note that generally it’s a best practice to follow a single exit point principle by using finally. This means that either after successful execution of your main code or your error handler has finished handling an error, it should pass through the finally so that the code will be exited at the same point under all circumstances.

Endnotes

With this we have reached the end of this chapter. So far I have tried to cover the basics and the essential topics to get you started in Python, and there is an abundance of online / offline resources available to increase your knowledge depth about Python as a programming language. On the same note, I would like to leave you with some useful resources for your future reference. See Table 1-17.

Table 1-17.

Additional resources

Resource

Description

Mode

http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/intro/learning/

This is the Python’s official tutorial, and it covers all the basics and offers a detailed tour of the language and standard libraries.

Online

http://awesome-python.com/

A curated list of awesome Python frameworks, libraries, software, and resources.

Online

The Hacker's Guide to Python

This book is aimed at developers who already know Python but want to learn from more experienced Python developers.

Book

© Manohar Swamynathan 2017

Manohar SwamynathanMastering Machine Learning with Python in Six Steps10.1007/978-1-4842-2866-1_2