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)

Iterators

The Pythonic secret that enables comprehensions to find all of the entries in a list, range, or other collection is an iterator. Supporting iterators in your own classes opens them up for use in comprehensions, for…in loops, and anywhere that Python works with collections. Your collection must implement a method called __iter__(), which returns the iterator.

The iterator itself is also a Python object with a simple contract. It must provide a single method, __next__(). Each time __next__() is called, the iterator returns the next value in the collection. When the iterator reaches the end of the collection, __next__() raises StopIteration to signal that the iteration should terminate.

If you've used exceptions in other programming languages, you may be surprised by this use of an exception to signal a fairly commonplace situation. After all, plenty of loops reach an end, so it's not exactly an exceptional circumstance. Python is not so dogmatic about...