UNIT 2:

INTRODUCTION TO
PYTHON

Prachi Surlakar
Assistant Professor
Computer Engineering Department
Goa College of Engineering
INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON

• Python is a programming language that combines features of C and Java

• C: elegant style of developing programs
• Java: Classes and objects like Java
• Python will have very few lines of code compared to C and Java.

• Example: Python Program to add two numbers

a=b=10 # take two variables and store 10 into them

print(“Sum= ”,(a+b)) #display their sum

• Few lines of code and easy to understand

• Developed by Guido Van Rossum in 1991
• Open source software: anybody can freely download it
INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON : FEATURES OF PYTHON
❖ Simple: Python is a simple programming language. When we read a python program we feel
like reading English sentences. Hence developing and understanding is easier.
❖ Easy to learn: Uses very few keywords. Simple structure. Resembles C language.
Migrating from C to python is easy.
❖ Open source: No need to pay for python software. Python can be freely downloaded from
[Link] website.
❖ High level language: Programming languages are of two types: low level and high level
High level languages use English words to develop programs. Python is high level language.
❖ Dynamically typed: we do not declare anything. If a name is assigned to an object of one
type, it may later be assigned to an object of different type.
❖ Platform independent: Python programs are not dependent on any specific operating
system. Python can be used on almost all operating systems like UNIX,Linux, Windows,Mac.
❖ Portable: Python programs yields the same result on any computer in the world as they are
platform independent
❖ Procedure and object oriented: procedure oriented uses functions and procedures(eg: C)
object oriented: uses classes and objects(eg: C++ and Java)
INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON : FEATURES OF PYTHON
❖ Interpreted: Python program is called source code. After writing python program we
should compile the source code using python compiler.
❖ Extensible: Programs written in C and C++ can be integrated into python and executed
using PVM(Python virtual machine)
❖ Embeddable: We can insert python programs into C or C++ programs.
❖ Huge library: Python has a big library which can be used on any operating systems
❖ Database connectivity: Python uses interfaces to connect its programs to all major
databases.
❖ Scalable: Python programs are scalable since they can run on any platform and use
features of new platform
❖ Batteries included: Huge library of python contains several small applications which are
already developed and immediately available for programmers.
numpy : is a package for processing arrays
w3lib: is a package of web related functions
EXECUTION OF A PYTHON PROGRAM

• We write a python program(source code) with the name [Link]

• Compiler converts python program into byte code
• Byte code instructions are contained in the file [Link]
• PVM converts byte code to machine code(0s and 1s) using interpreter.
• Machine code instructions are executed by processor and results displayed.
• Interpreter translates the program source line by line and hence slow.
• To rectify this problem sometimes a Just in time compiler is added to improve the speed.
• Source code→byte code→machine code→ output are internally completed and then
the final result is displayed.
PYTHON VIRTUAL MACHINE

• Program source code→ byte code→ machine code

• Byte code fixed set of instructions representing all operations. Size of each
instruction is 1 byte.
• Byte code instructions are in .pyc file.
• Python virtual machine( PVM) converts byte code to machine code
• PVM uses interpreter to convert byte code to machine code and sends machine
code to computer processor for execution.
Memory management in python
• In C the programmer should allocate or deallocate memory dynamically( using functions
like malloc( ) , free( ).
• In python memory allocation and deallocation are done automatically by python
virtual machine(PVM).
• Everything is considered as an object in [Link]: strings , functions are objects.
• Memory manager inside PVM allocates memory required for objects created in a
python program.
• Objects are stored in heap.
• Size of the heap depends on the random access memory(RAM) of our computer
and can increase/decrease based on requirement of the program.
Memory management in python

• Operating system: Memory(RAM) for any program is allocated by the operating system.
• Raw memory allocator: oversees whether enough memory is available to it for storing objects.
• Object specific allocators: implement different types of memory management policies depending
on the type of objects. E.g. integer number should be stored in memory in one way and a string should
be stored in a different way.
Garbage collection in Python

• Garbage collector is a module in python that is useful to delete objects from memory,
which are not used in the program.
• The module that represents the garbage collector is named as gc.
• Garbage collector is the simplest way to maintain count for each object regarding how
many times the object is referenced(or used).
• When object has some count, garbage collector will not remove it from memory.
• When an object is found with reference count 0, it will be deleted from the memory.
• Garbage collector can detect reference cycles and remove objects in the cycle.
Garbage collection in Python

• Garbage collector classifies object into three generations.

• Newly created objects are considered as generation 0 objects.
• When garbage collector examines the object in memory and does remove an object from
memory due(because it is used by a program) then that object is placed into the next
generation that is generation 1.
• When garbage collector intends to delete the objects for the second time and the object
survives for the second time, then it is placed in generation 2.
• Older objects belongs to generation 2.
• Garbage collector tries to delete younger objects which are not referenced in the program
rather than the old objects.
• Garbage collector run automatically. Python schedules garbage collector depending on a
number called as threshold.
• In some cases where reference cycles are found in the program, it is better to run the
garbage collector manually.
 COMPARISON BETWEEN C AND PYTHON

C PYTHON

C is a procedure oriented programming language. Python is object oriented programming

It does not contain features like classes , objects , language. It contains features like classes objects
inheritance etc. inheritance, polymorphism etc.

C programs execute faster Slower as compared to C

It is compulsory to declare the datatypes of Type declaration is not required in python

variables arrays etc in C
C language type discipline is static and weak Python type discipline is dynamic and strong

Pointers concept is available in C Python does not use pointers.

C does not have exception handling Python handles exceptions and hence it is robust

C has do while, while and for loops Python has while and for loops
 COMPARISON BETWEEN C AND PYTHON
C PYTHON

C has switch statement Python does not have switch statements

The variable in for loop does dot increment Variable in for loop increments automatically
automatically.
Programmer should allocate and deallocate Memory allocation and deallocation done by
memory using malloc( ), calloc( ), free( ) and PVM
realloc( )
C supports single and multidimentional arrays Python supports only single dimentional arrays.
To work with multidimentional arrays we should
use third part applications like numpy
Array index should be a positive integer Array index can be positive or negative
[Link] index represents locations from
the end of the array.
Indentation of statements is not necessary in C Indentation is required to represent a block of
statements
Semicolon is used to terminate the statements New line indicates end of statements
COMPARISON BETWEEN JAVA AND PYTHON
THANK YOU☺

by PRACHI SURLAKAR