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)

Itertools

Iterators are useful for describing sequences, such as Python lists and ranges, and sequence-like collections, such as your own data types, that provide ordered access to their contents. Iterators make it easy to work with these types in a Pythonic way. Python's library includes the itertools module, which has a selection of helpful functions for combining, manipulating, and otherwise working with iterators. In this section, you will use a couple of helpful tools from the module. There are plenty more available, so be sure to check out the official documentation for itertools.

One of the important uses of itertools is in dealing with infinite sequences. There are plenty of situations in which a sequence does not have an end: everything from infinite series in mathematics to the event loop in a graphical application. A graphical user interface is usually built around an event loop in which the program waits for an event (such as a keypress, a mouse click, a timer expiring...