Book Image

The Python Workshop

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

The Python Workshop

By: Olivier Pons, Andrew Bird, Dr. Lau Cher Han, Mario Corchero Jiménez, Graham Lee, Corey 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)

Introduction

In the previous chapters, you saw how we can create our own classes incorporating logic and data. Yet, you often don't need to do that — you can rely on the standard library's functions and classes to do most of the work.

The Python standard library consists of modules that are available on all implementations of the language. Every installation of Python will have access to these without the need for any further steps for the modules defined in the standard library

While other famous languages don't have a standard library (such as JavaScript, which, as of 2019, is looking at implementing one), others have what seems to be an extensive set of tooling and functionality. Python goes a step further by including a vast number of basic utilities and protocol implementations as part of the default installation of the interpreter.

Standard libraries are useful and perform tasks such as unzipping files, speaking with other processes and the OS...