PYTHON BASICS

Python is most widely used general purpose high level programming language like
Java, C, C++ etc. Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early
nineties at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the
Netherlands. Python is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C+
+, Algol-68, SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages. Rossum was a fan of a
comedy series from late seventies. Python is named after a TV Comedy Show called ‘Monty
Python’s Flying Circus’ and not after Python-the snake. Python 3.13.5 is the latest version of
Python.

FEATURES OF PYTHON

• General purpose programming language - As a general-purpose programming

language python is designed to be used for widest variety of application domains (a
general-purpose language). ...It can be used for developing both desktop and web
applications, complex scientific and numeric applications, data analysis and
visualization. Conversely, a domain-specific programming language is one designed
to be used within a specific application domain. For eg: COBOL (Business
applications), FORTRAN(Complex mathematical computations).

• High level language - High-level language is any programming language that enables
development of a program in a much more user-friendly programming context and is
generally independent of the computer's hardware architecture. Like JAVA, C ,C++
Python is a Highlevel programming language.

• Interpreted - Python runs on an interpreter system, meaning that code can be

executed as soon as it is written. You do not need to compile your program before
executing it.

• Interactive - We can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the interpreter
directly to write your programs and It allows interactive testing and debugging of
snippets of code.
• Portable - Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms like Windows,
Linux, MAC OS and has the same interface on all platforms. You can move Python
programs from one platform to another, and run it without any changes.

• Multiple Programming Paradigms- Python also supports several programming

paradigms. It supports object oriented and Functional programming. Python can be
treated in a procedural way, an object-oriented way or a functional way.

• Easy to Learn - Python has a simple syntax similar to the English language. This
makes python easier to learn. Python has syntax that allows developers to write
programs with fewer lines than some other programming languages. Most of other
high level languages like JAVA, C, C++ has so many syntactical constructs like
Punctuation marks, semicolon, braces etc to indicate the ending of a statement or to
identify block of code. But in Python, It has fewer syntactical constructions than
other languages.

For eg:

In JAVA

Suppose we need to assign a name “BOB” to a variable name .In JAVA we

have to first specify the type of the variable as String. After that we assign value BOB
to variable name and put a semicolon at the end to indicate ending of a line.

String name=”BOB”;

In order to print it out we use [Link](“name”); and put a semi colon at

the end.

But

In Python

We write name=”BOB”

In order to print it out we use simply print(name)

 We do not need to specify the type and put semicolon to indicate the ending of a
line. This syntax makes Python code more easier to read and Learn.

• Dynamic Typed Language – As specified above, in python we don’t have to specify

the type when declaring a variable. It skip the headache of type casting and
declaring types when declaring a variable.

In JAVA,

int x=1;

x=(int)x/2;

In order to store integer values to a variable x first we have to declare its type as
int. it means that x always store integer values .In the first line we assign value 1 to
integer variable x.

If we take x=x/2; the value of x becomes ½. x can never equal 0.5. So first we have to
cast the result into type integer using (int) function. Now the result becomes 0.

In python,

x=1

x=x/2

In this case, Python itself take care of type management we don’t need to worry
about it.

If we write x=1 at this point type of x is int because we assign integer value to x. if we
write x=x/2 now x equals 0.5 and the type of x at this point is float. We don’t need
to explicitly type cast the result into float. According to the type of values we store to
a variable its type is decided by the interpreter at runtime. We don’t need to worry
about it.

• Databases - Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases like

POSTGRES, MY SQL, SQLITE.
 • GUI Programming- Python supports GUI applications. Python provides Tk GUI library
to develop user interface in python based application.

• Free and Open-Source-Python is developed under an OSI-approved open source

license. Hence, it is completely free to use, even for commercial purposes. It doesn't
cost anything to download Python or to include it in your application. It can also be
freely modified and re-distributed. Python can be downloaded from the official
Python website.

• Robust Standard Library-Python has an extensive standard library available for

anyone to use. This means that programmers don’t have to write their code for
every single thing unlike other programming languages. There are libraries for image
manipulation, databases, unit-testing, expressions and a lot of other functionalities.

• Large Community Support-Python was founded around 30 years ago and so it has a
vast community of efficient developers. These developers are constantly helping out
the beginners through their constant support and in-depth journals. There is plenty
of documentation and guides that the newbie programmers could learn and
enhance their Python.

Setting up of Environment

In order to use python first it must be installed on our computer, Follow these steps

1).Go to the Python website [Link] and click the Download menu choice.

2). Next , Download the Python 3.10 or Python 3.9 installer.

3).When the download is completed, double-click the file and follow the instructions to
install it.

First Python Program

Let us execute the programs in different modes of programming.

• Interactive Mode Programming.

 Python provides Interactive Shell to execute code immediately and produce
output instantly. To test a short amount of code in python sometimes it is quickest
and easiest not to write the code in a file. This is made possible because Python can
be run as a command line itself.

Type the following text at the Python prompt and press Enter –

>>> print ("Hello, Python!")

This produces the following result –

>>>Hello, Python!

• Script Mode Programming

Using Script Mode, we can write our Python code in a separate file of any
editor in our Operating System. Let us write a simple Python program in a script.
Python files have the extension .py. Type the following source code in a [Link] file –

print ("Hello, Python!")

Now open Command prompt and execute it by :

>>> python [Link]

This produces the following result –

>>>Hello, Python!

• USING IDLE

When Python is installed, a program called IDLE is also installed along with it.
It provides graphical user interface to work with Python.

Open IDLE, copy the following code below and press enter.

>>>print("Hello, World!")

Or

To create a file in IDLE, go to File > New Window (Shortcut: Ctrl+N).

 Write Python code (you can copy the code below for now) and save (Shortcut:
Ctrl+S) with .py file extension like: [Link] or [Link]

print("Hello, World!")

Go to Run > Run module (Shortcut: F5) and we can see the output.

IDENTIFIERS

• Identifier is the name given to entities like class, functions, variables etc. in Python. It
helps differentiating one entity from another.

Rules for writing identifiers Identifiers can be a combination of letters in lowercase (a to z)

or uppercase (A to Z) or digits (0 to 9) or an underscore (_). Names like myClass, var_1 and
print_this_to_screen, all are valid example.

• An identifier cannot start with a digit. 1variable is invalid, but variable1 is perfectly
fine.

• Keywords cannot be used as identifiers.

>>> global = 1

File "<interactive input>", line 1

global = 1

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

• We cannot use special symbols like !, @, #, $, % etc. in our identifier.

>>> a@ = 0

File "<interactive input>", line 1

a@ = 0
 ^

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

• Identifier can be of any length.

• Python is a case-sensitive language. This means, Variable and variable are not the
same. Always name identifiers that make sense.

Python Keywords

Keywords are the reserved words in Python. We cannot use a keyword as variable
name, function name or any other identifier. They are used to define the syntax and
structure of the Python language. In Python, keywords are case sensitive. All the keywords
except True, False and None are in lowercase and they must be written as it is. The list of all
the keywords are given below.

True False None and as

Asset Def Class continue break
Else Finally Elif del except
Global For If from import
Raise Try or return pass
nonlocal In not is lambda

Lines and Indentation

Python does not use braces ({}) to indicate blocks of code for class and function
definitions or flow control. Blocks of code are denoted by line indentation, which is rigidly
enforced. The number of spaces in the indentation is variable, but all statements within the
block must be indented the same amount. For example −

if (True):

print ("True")

else:
 print ("False")

Multi-Line Statements

Statements in Python typically end with a new line. Python, however, allows the use
of the line continuation character (\) to denote that the line should continue. For example
−

total = item_one + \

item_two + \

item_three

The statements contained within the [], {}, or () brackets do not need to use the line
continuation character. For example −

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

Quotation in Python

Python accepts single ('), double (") and triple (''' or """) quotes to denote string
literals, as long as the same type of quote starts and ends the string. The triple quotes are
used to span the string across multiple lines. For example, all the following are legal −

word = 'word'

sentence = "This is a sentence."

paragraph = """This is a paragraph. It is

made up of multiple lines and sentences."""

Comments in Python

Python supports two types of comments:

1) Single lined comment:

In case user wants to specify a single line comment, then comment must start with #
eg: # This is single line comment.

2) Multi lined Comment:

Multi lined comment can be given inside triple quotes.

eg: ''''' This

Is

Multipline comment'''

Multiple Statements on a Single Line

The semicolon ( ; ) allows multiple statements on a single line given that no

statement starts a new code block

For eg:

If(a>b);print(“a is greater than b”)

Variables

Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store values. It means that
when you create a variable, you reserve some space in the memory. Based on the data type
of a variable, the interpreter allocates memory and decides what can be stored in the
reserved memory. Therefore, by assigning different data types to the variables, you can
store integers, decimals or characters in these variables.

Assigning Values to Variables

Python variables do not need explicit declaration to reserve memory space.

The declaration happens automatically when you assign a value to a variable. The equal sign
(=) is used to assign values to variables.

c = 100 # An integer assignment

m = 1000.0 # A floating point

name = "John" # A string

print (c)
print (m)

print (name) Output: 100

1000.0

John

Multiple Assignment

Python allows us to assign a single value to several variables simultaneously.

For example −

a=b=c=1
Here, an integer object is created with the value 1, and all the three variables are assigned
to the same memory location. We can also assign multiple objects to multiple variables.

For example −

a, b, c = 1, 2, "john"
Here, two integer objects with values 1 and 2 are assigned to the variables a and b
respectively, and one string object with the value "john" is assigned to the variable c.

Standard Data Types

The data stored in memory can be of many types.

Python provides following data types −

Numeric Types: int, float, complex

Text Type: str

Sequence Types: list, tuple

Mapping Type: dict

Set Type: set

Boolean Type: bool

None Type: NoneType

Python Numbers

Number data types store numeric values. Number objects are created when you
assign a value to them. For example −

var1 = 1
We can also delete the reference to a number object by using the del statement.
The syntax of the del statement is −

del var1[,var2[,var3[....,varN]]]]
You can delete a single object or multiple objects by using the del statement.

For example −

del var

Python supports three different numerical types −

• int (signed integers)

• float (floating point real values)

• complex (complex numbers)

A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating-point numbers denoted by x +

yj, where x and y are real numbers and j is the imaginary unit.

Python Strings

Strings in Python are identified as a contiguous set of characters represented in the

quotation marks. Python allows either pair of single or double quotes.

Subsets of strings can be taken using the slice operator ([ ] and [:] ) with indexes starting at
0 in the beginning of the string and working their way from -1 to the end.

The plus (+) sign is the string concatenation operator and the asterisk (*) is the repetition
operator.

str = 'Hello World!'

print (str) # Prints complete string

print (str[0]) # Prints first character of the string

print (str[2:5]) # Prints characters starting from 3rd to 5th

print (str[2:]) # Prints string starting from 3rd character

print (str * 2) # Prints string two times

print (str + "TEST") # Prints concatenated string

print (str [ -1]) # Prints Last character of the string

OUTPUT:

Hello World!
H
llo
llo World!
Hello World!Hello World!
Hello World!TEST
!

Python Lists

Lists are the most versatile of Python's compound data types. A list contains items
separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets ([]). To some extent, lists are
similar to arrays in C. One of the differences between them is that all the items belonging
to a list can be of different data type.

The values stored in a list can be accessed using the slice operator ([ ] and [:]) with indexes
starting at 0 in the beginning of the list and working their way to end -1. The plus (+) sign is
the list concatenation operator, and the asterisk (*) is the repetition operator.

For example −
list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

tinylist = [123, 'john']

print (list) # Prints complete list

print (list[0]) # Prints first element of the list

print (list[1:3]) # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd

print (list[2:]) # Prints elements starting from 3rd element

print (tinylist * 2) # Prints list two times

print (list + tinylist) # Prints concatenated lists

OUTPUT:

['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003]

abcd
[786, 2.23]
[2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003]
[123, 'john', 123, 'john']
['abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003, 123, 'john']

Python Tuples

A tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to the list. A tuple consists of a
number of values separated by commas. Unlike lists, however, tuples are enclosed within
parenthesis.

The main difference between lists and tuples are − Lists are enclosed in brackets ( [ ] )
and their elements and size can be changed, while tuples are enclosed in parentheses ( ( )
) and cannot be updated. Tuples can be thought of as read-only lists.

For example −

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

tinytuple = (123, 'john')

print (tuple) # Prints complete tuple

print (tuple[0]) # Prints first element of the tuple

print (tuple[1:3]) # Prints elements starting from 2nd till 3rd

print (tuple[2:]) # Prints elements starting from 3rd element

print (tinytuple * 2) # Prints tuple two times

print (tuple + tinytuple) # Prints concatenated tuple

OUTPUT:

('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003)

abcd
(786, 2.23)
(2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003)
(123, 'john', 123, 'john')
('abcd', 786, 2.23, 'john', 70.200000000000003, 123, 'john')
The following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple, which is
not allowed. Similar case is possible with lists −

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 )

list = [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

tuple[2] = 1000 # Invalid syntax with tuple

list[2] = 1000 # Valid syntax with l

Python Dictionary

They work like associative arrays or hashes found in Perl and consist of key-value
pairs. A dictionary key can be almost any Python type, but are usually numbers or strings.
Values, on the other hand, can be any arbitrary Python object.
Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces ({ }) and values can be assigned and accessed
using square braces ([]).

For example −

dict = {}

dict['one'] = "This is one"

dict[2] = "This is two"

tinydict = {'name': 'john','code':6734, 'dept': 'sales'}

print (dict['one']) # Prints value for 'one' key

print (dict[2]) # Prints value for 2 key

print (tinydict) # Prints complete dictionary

print ([Link]()) # Prints all the keys

print ([Link]()) # Prints all the values

OUTPUT−

This is one
This is two
{'name': 'john', 'dept': 'sales', 'code': 6734}
dict_keys(['name', 'dept', 'code'])
dict_values(['john', 'sales', 6734])

Dictionaries have no concept of order among the elements. It is incorrect to say that the
elements are "out of order"; they are simply unordered.

Set

A set is an unordered collection of items. Every element is unique (no duplicates)

and must be immutable (which cannot be changed). However, the set itself is mutable.
We can add or remove items from it. Sets can be used to perform mathematical set
operations like union, intersection, symmetric difference etc.

A set is created by placing all the items (elements) inside curly braces {}, separated by
comma or by using the built-in function set().It can have any number of items and they may
be of different types (integer, float, tuple, string etc.). But a set cannot have a mutable
element, like list, set or dictionary, as its element.

For eg:

my_set = {1, 2, 3}

print(my_set) Output:{1,2,3}

my_set = {1.0, "Hello", (1, 2, 3)}

print(my_set) Output:{1.0,”Hello”,(1,2,3)}

* Set do not have duplicates

my_set = {1,2,3,4,3,2}

print(my_set) Output:{1,2,2,4}

*Set cannot have mutable items

my_set = {1, 2

, [3, 4]} Output: Type Error: unhashable type: 'list'

*Using set() Function

my_set = set([1,2,3,2])

print(my_set) Output: {1, 2, 3}

* Creating an empty set

Empty curly braces {} will make an empty dictionary in Python. To make a set
without any elements we use the set() function without any argument.

For eg:

a = set()

*We cannot access or change an element of set using indexing or slicing. Set does not
support it. We can add single element using the add() method and multiple elements using
the update() method. The update() method can take tuples, lists, strings or other sets as its
argument. In all cases, duplicates are avoided.

For eg:

my_set = {1,3}

print(my_set) Output:{1,3}

my_set.add(2)

print(my_set) Output:{1,2,3}

my_set.update([2,3,4])

print(my_set) Output:{1,2,3,4}

my_set.update(((4,5), 1,6,8}))

print(my_set) Output: {1, 2, 3, 4, (4,5), 6, 8}

*A particular item can be removed from set using methods, discard() and remove().
The only difference between the two is that, while using discard() if the item does not
exist in the set, it remains unchanged. But remove() will raise an error in such condition.

The following example will illustrate this.

# initialize my_set

my_set = {1, 3, 4, 5, 6}

print(my_set) Output: {1, 3, 4, 5, 6}

#discard an element

my_set.discard(4)

print(my_set) Output: {1, 3, 5, 6}

# remove an element

my_set.remove(6)

print(my_set) Output: {1, 3, 5}

# discard an element

# not present in my_set

my_set.discard(2)

print(my_set) Output: {1, 3, 5}

# remove an element

# not present in my_set

# we will get an error.

my_set.remove(2) Output: Key Error: 2

Python Booleans

Booleans represent one of two values: True or False.

Python None Type

None is a data type of its own (NoneType) and only None can be None.

The None keyword is used to define a null value, or no value at all. None is not the same as
0, False, or an empty string

Data Type Conversion

Sometimes, you may need to perform conversions between the built-in types. To
convert between types, you simply use the type-names as a function. There are several
built-in functions to perform conversion from one data type to another. These functions
return a new object representing the converted value.

[Link]. Function & Description

1 int(x [,base])

Converts x to an integer. The base specifies the base if x is a string.

2 float(x)

Converts x to a floating-point number.

3 complex(real [,imag])

Creates a complex number.

4 str(x)

Converts object x to a string representation.

5 repr(x)

Converts object x to an expression string.

6 eval(str)

Evaluates a string and returns an object.

7 tuple(s)
 Converts s to a tuple.

8 list(s)

Converts s to a list.

9 set(s)

Converts s to a set.

10 dict(d)

Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of (key,value) tuples.

11 frozenset(s)

Converts s to a frozen set.

12 chr(x)

Converts an integer to a character.

13 unichr(x)

Conv4erts an integer to a Unicode character.

14 ord(x)

Converts a single character to its integer value.

15 hex(x)

Converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.

16 oct(x)

Converts an integer to an octal string.

OPERATORS

Operators are the constructs, which can manipulate the value of operands.
Types of Operator

Python language supports the following types of operators −

• Arithmetic Operators

• Comparison (Relational) Operators

• Assignment Operators

• Logical Operators

• Bitwise Operators

• Membership Operators

• Identity Operators

Python Arithmetic Operators

Assume variable a holds the value 10 and variable b holds the value 21, then −

• Operator • Description Example

+ Addition Adds values on either side of the operator. a + b = 31

- Subtraction Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand. a – b = -

11

* Multiplication Multiplies values on either side of the operator a * b =

210

/ Division Divides left hand operand by right hand operand b / a = 2.1

% Modulus Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and b%a=1
returns remainder

** Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators a**b =10

to the
power 20

// Floor Division - The division of operands where the 9//2 = 4

result is the quotient in which the digits after the and
decimal point are removed. But if one of the operands is 9.0//2.0 =
negative, the result is floored, i.e., rounded away from 4.0, -
zero (towards negative infinity): 11//3 = -
4, -
 11.0//3 =
-4.0

Python Comparison Operators

These operators compare the values on either side of them and decide the relation among
them. They are also called Relational operators.

Assume variable a holds the value 10 and variable b holds the value 20, then −

Operator Description Example

== If the values of two operands are equal, then the condition (a == b) is

becomes true. not true.

!= If values of two operands are not equal, then condition (a!= b) is

becomes true. true.

> If the value of left operand is greater than the value of right (a > b) is
operand, then condition becomes true. not true.

< If the value of left operand is less than the value of right (a < b) is
operand, then condition becomes true. true.

>= If the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the (a >= b) is
value of right operand, then condition becomes true. not true.

<= If the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value (a <= b) is
of right operand, then condition becomes true. true.

Python Assignment Operators

Assume variable a holds the value 10 and variable b holds the value 20, then −

Operator Description Example

= Assigns values from right side operands to left side c = a + b

operand assigns
value of a +
 b into c

+= Add AND It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the c += a is
result to left operand equivalent
to c = c + a

-= Subtract AND It subtracts right operand from the left operand and c -= a is
assign the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c - a

*= Multiply It multiplies right operand with the left operand and c *= a is

AND assign the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c * a

/= Divide AND It divides left operand with the right operand and assign c /= a is
the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c /
ac /= a is
equivalent
to c = c / a

%= Modulus It takes modulus using two operands and assign the c %= a is

AND result to left operand equivalent
to c = c % a

**= Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators c **= a is

AND and assign value to the left operand equivalent
to c = c ** a

//= Floor It performs floor division on operators and assign value c //= a is
Division to the left operand equivalent
to c = c // a

Python Bitwise Operators

13; Now in binary format they will be as follows −

Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit-by-bit operation. Assume if a = 60; and b =

a = 0011 1100
b = 0000 1101

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

a&b = 0000 1100

a|b = 0011 1101

a^b = 0011 0001

~a = 1100 0011

Python's built-in function bin() can be used to obtain binary representation of an integer
number.

The following Bitwise operators are supported by Python language −

Operator Description Example

& Binary AND Operator copies a bit, to the result, if it exists in (a & b) (means
both operands 0000 1100)

| Binary OR It copies a bit, if it exists in either operand. (a | b) = 61

(means 0011
1101)

^ Binary XOR It copies the bit, if it is set in one operand but (a ^ b) = 49

not both. (means 0011
0001)

~ Binary Ones (~a ) = -61

Complement (means 1100
0011 in 2's
It is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits. complement
form due to a
signed binary
number.

<< Binary Left Shift The left operand's value is moved left by the a << = 240
number of bits specified by the right operand. (means 1111
0000)

>> Binary Right Shift The left operand's value is moved right by the a >> = 15
number of bits specified by the right operand. (means 0000
1111)

Python Logical Operators

The following logical operators are supported by Python language. Assume

variable a holds True and variable b holds False then −
 Operator Description Example

and Logical If both the operands are true then condition becomes (a and b)
AND true. is False.

or Logical OR If any of the two operands are non-zero then condition (a or b) is

becomes true. True.

not Logical NOT Used to reverse the logical state of its operand. Not (a
and b) is
True.

Python Membership Operators

Python’s membership operators test for membership in a sequence, such as strings,

lists, or tuples. There are two membership operators as explained below −

Operator Description Example

In Evaluates to true if it finds a variable in the specified x in y, here

sequence and false otherwise. in results
in a 1 if x is
a member
of
sequence
y.

not in Evaluates to true if it does not finds a variable in the x not in y,

specified sequence and false otherwise. here not in
results in a
1 if x is not
a member
of
sequence
y.

Python Identity Operators

Identity operators compare the memory locations of two objects. There are two
Identity operators as explained below −
 Operator Description Example

Is Evaluates to true if the variables on either side of the x is y,

operator point to the same object and false otherwise. here is results
in 1 if id(x)
equals id(y).

is not Evaluates to false if the variables on either side of the x is not y,

operator point to the same object and true otherwise. here is not
results in 1 if
id(x) is not
equal to id(y).

Python Operators Precedence

The following table lists all operators from highest precedence to the lowest.

[Link]. Operator & Description

1 **

Exponentiation (raise to the power)

2 ~+-

Complement, unary plus and minus (method names for the last two are +@
and -@)

3 * / % //

Multiply, divide, modulo and floor division

4 +-

Addition and subtraction

5 >> <<

Right and left bitwise shift

6 &

Bitwise 'AND'

7 ^|

Bitwise exclusive `OR' and regular `OR'

8 <= < a> >=

Comparison operators

9 <> == !=

Equality operators

10 = %= /= //= -= += *= **=

Assignment operators

11 is is not

Identity operators

12 in not in

Membership operators

13 not or and

Logical operators