Book Image

Learn Python by Building Data Science Applications

By : Philipp Kats, David Katz
Book Image

Learn Python by Building Data Science Applications

By: Philipp Kats, David Katz

Overview of this book

Python is the most widely used programming language for building data science applications. Complete with step-by-step instructions, this book contains easy-to-follow tutorials to help you learn Python and develop real-world data science projects. The “secret sauce” of the book is its curated list of topics and solutions, put together using a range of real-world projects, covering initial data collection, data analysis, and production. This Python book starts by taking you through the basics of programming, right from variables and data types to classes and functions. You’ll learn how to write idiomatic code and test and debug it, and discover how you can create packages or use the range of built-in ones. You’ll also be introduced to the extensive ecosystem of Python data science packages, including NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, Altair, and Datashader. Furthermore, you’ll be able to perform data analysis, train models, and interpret and communicate the results. Finally, you’ll get to grips with structuring and scheduling scripts using Luigi and sharing your machine learning models with the world as a microservice. By the end of the book, you’ll have learned not only how to implement Python in data science projects, but also how to maintain and design them to meet high programming standards.
Table of Contents (26 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Getting Started with Python
11
Section 2: Hands-On with Data
17
Section 3: Moving to Production

Chapter 8

What are classes? When should we use them?

Classes represent a way in which we can create complex objects, with the corresponding data (attributes) and functions (methods). Classes are a useful concept to represent any entity, such as a database connection, file object, algorithm, and so on. There's also a set of special methods and variables that's used by Python to change the behavior of certain instances.

Can we compare two instances of a class or use arithmetic operations with them?

Yes—this is one of the use cases for special methods. For example, in order for us to check instances for equality, we need to set the __eq__ method of the class. Here, we are checking whether the instance is greater, smaller, and so on—there is a corresponding special method for each operation.

When should we use inheritance?

Inheritance is an important property...