Book Image

The Python Workshop

By : Bird, Pons, Dr. Lau Cher Han, Mario Corchero Jiménez, Lee, Wade
Book Image

The Python Workshop

By: Bird, Pons, Dr. Lau Cher Han, Mario Corchero Jiménez, Lee, Wade

Overview of this book

Have you always wanted to learn Python, but never quite known how to start? More applications than we realize are being developed using Python because it is easy to learn, read, and write. You can now start learning the language quickly and effectively with the help of this interactive tutorial. The Python Workshop starts by showing you how to correctly apply Python syntax to write simple programs, and how to use appropriate Python structures to store and retrieve data. You'll see how to handle files, deal with errors, and use classes and methods to write concise, reusable, and efficient code. As you advance, you'll understand how to use the standard library, debug code to troubleshoot problems, and write unit tests to validate application behavior. You'll gain insights into using the pandas and NumPy libraries for analyzing data, and the graphical libraries of Matplotlib and Seaborn to create impactful data visualizations. By focusing on entry-level data science, you'll build your practical Python skills in a way that mirrors real-world development. Finally, you'll discover the key steps in building and using simple machine learning algorithms. By the end of this Python book, you'll have the knowledge, skills and confidence to creatively tackle your own ambitious projects with Python.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Properties

Properties are used to manage the attributes of objects. They are an important and powerful aspect of object-oriented programming but can be challenging to grasp at first. For example, suppose you have an object that has a height attribute and a width attribute. You might also want such an object to have an area property, which is simply the product of the height and width attributes. You would prefer not to save the area as an attribute of the shape because the area should update whenever the height or width changes. In this sort of scenario, you will want to use a property.

You will start by exploring the property decorator and then discuss the getter/setter paradigm.

The Property Decorator

The property decorator looks similar to the static methods and class methods that you have already encountered. It simply allows a method to be accessed as an attribute of an object rather than needing to call it like a function with ().

To understand the need for this...