Book Image

Dancing with Python

By : Robert S. Sutor
Book Image

Dancing with Python

By: Robert S. Sutor

Overview of this book

Dancing with Python helps you learn Python and quantum computing in a practical way. It will help you explore how to work with numbers, strings, collections, iterators, and files. The book goes beyond functions and classes and teaches you to use Python and Qiskit to create gates and circuits for classical and quantum computing. Learn how quantum extends traditional techniques using the Grover Search Algorithm and the code that implements it. Dive into some advanced and widely used applications of Python and revisit strings with more sophisticated tools, such as regular expressions and basic natural language processing (NLP). The final chapters introduce you to data analysis, visualizations, and supervised and unsupervised machine learning. By the end of the book, you will be proficient in programming the latest and most powerful quantum computers, the Pythonic way.
Table of Contents (29 chapters)
2
Part I: Getting to Know Python
10
PART II: Algorithms and Circuits
14
PART III: Advanced Features and Libraries
19
References
20
Other Books You May Enjoy
Appendices
Appendix C: The Complete UniPoly Class
Appendix D: The Complete Guitar Class Hierarchy
Appendix F: Production Notes

15.1 What is machine learning?

Consider my complete product browsing and purchase history with an online retailer. This data represents my experience of buying from the seller and their experience selling to me. How can the data and my new purchases help the retailer sell me additional products and services?

Machine learning is a large set of techniques where computer algorithms learn from existing data rather than having hardcoded decisions built into them. Such an algorithm improves its accuracy as it receives new data. It might also get better when humans or processes intervene to judge the correctness and quality of previous results.

In unsupervised learning, an algorithm looks for patterns in the data that may help users gain insight. An unsupervised algorithm may help the retailer see that I have increased interests in cooking, travel, or home repair during certain seasons. The seller can then...