Python Made Easy: A Beginner's Guide to Coding, Data Structures, and Practical Applications

Declarations....5 Contents....6 About the Author....10 About the Technical Reviewer....11 Introduction....12 1 About Python....14 The REPL....14 Advantages and Drawbacks of Python....16 Importing Libraries....16 Style Guides....17 Software Engineering Made Easy....18 The Zen of Python....18 2 Naming....20 Naming Rules....22 Naming Conventions....22 Writing Readable Names....23 3 Components of Code....25 Mutable and Immutable Objects....25 Assignments....26 Types....27 Variables....27 Global Variables....28 None....28 Numbers....29 Floating Point Numbers....29 Integers....30 Strings and Numbers....31 Booleans....31 Lists....32 Creating Lists....32 List Comprehensions....33 Accessing Lists....34 Accessing Sublists....36 Multidimensional Lists....37 Sorting lists....38 Merging Lists....39 How to Continue....39 Strings....40 Various Types of Strings....41 String Operations....42 Dicts....42 Tuples....44 Tuples vs. Lists....45 Enums....46 Rarely Used Data Structures....47 Sets....47 Exceptions....47 Try, Catch, Else, Finally....48 When to Use Exceptions....49 Pitfalls....49 Custom Exceptions....50 Code Structure....51 Coupling and Cohesion....52 4 Loops and If Statements....54 Loops....54 Nested Loops....55 If Statements....55 Nested If Statements....56 Boolean Logic....57 Return, Break, and Continue....57 Return....58 Break....58 Continue....58 5 Basic Mathematics....59 Basic Mathematics with Python....59 Arithmetic Operations....59 The Math Module....60 NumPy....61 Matrices....61 Images....62 Advanced Filtering....63 Random Numbers....65 Calculating Pi....66 6 Functions and Methods....67 Keyword Arguments....68 Default Arguments....69 args and kwargs....70 Function Overloading....71 Control Flow....72 Function Definition Order....72 Cyclic Dependencies....73 Recursion....73 Trees....74 7 Classes....76 Classes and Objects....78 Special Methods....79 Example....80 Inheritance....84 Implementation Inheritance....84 Interface Inheritance....86 Encapsulation....87 Abstraction....88 8 Python Modules and Packages....89 Modules and Imports....89 Regular Packages....89 Namespace Packages....90 Installing Packages with Pip....91 The Virtual Environment....92 9 Util....93 Files....93 CSV....93 JSON and Co....94 HDF5....95 SQL....95 Summary....96 CSV....96 JSON....96 HDF5....97 SQL....97 Time....97 Timing Functions....97 10 Unit Tests....99 Why Tests?....99 How to Write Tests....100 What to Test....102 Test-Driven Development....102 Example of TDD....103 Dependency Injection....105 Mocking....109 Faking....109 11 Matplotlib....110 Simple Plots....110 Labeling....112 Histograms....112 Curve Fitting....113 Local Minima of Curve Fitting....115 12 Pandas....116 Pandas Example....116 13 Numerical Mathematics....122 Numerical Integration....123 Mathematical Derivation....123 Geometric Interpretation....124 Higher Order Integration....125 Estimating the Accuracy....126 Monte Carlo Integration....126 Numerical Solution of Differential Equations....127 Differential Equations....127 Coupled Differential Equations....129 14 Some Examples....131 Percolation....131