Best Python Tutorial for Beginners: Basic Data Types

As you know with the growth in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, the future of the industry will be dependent on AI-based applications. Python is the stepping stone to start your career in automation and data science.

Few real-time application of Python:

  1. Web Scraping
  2. Image Processing
  3. Machine Learning & AI
  4. Automate excel & CSV files
  5. Scientific & Numeric Computing
  6. Email Automation
  7. Data Analysis
  8. Data Visualization
  9. Web Development using Django
  10. Gaming development

Benefits of using Python over other programming languages:

  • Open Source (No license required to buy software) & supports Community development
  • Extensively Support multiple Libraries
  • Data Analysis is done using Pandas
  • Numerical Calculation is done using NumPy
  • Object-Oriented programming language
  • Python is easier than C, C++, Java, .Net, etc.
  • High-performance speed
  • Better productivity
  • User-friendly data-structures

All top companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Youtube, Quora, Yahoo, Salesforce are currently using Python.

This tutorial will cover:-

  1. Python Installation
  2. Python Data Types
  • Numbers
  • Strings
  • List
  • Tuple
  • Dictionary
  • Sets
  1. Operators
  2. Conditionals Statements
  3. Loops
  4. Functions
  5. File Handling

How to install Python 

  1. Download python latest version from anaconda.com/download/
  2. Complete setup installation
  3. Install visual studio code from code.visualstudio.com
  4. Start using Jupyter notebook

Variables

Python stores data/ values in memory using a variable. A variable is a name given by you, to which you assign a piece of data that is stored in an area of the computer’s memory, allowing you to refer to that data when you need to later in the program

a = 10

b = ‘Welcome to Gyansetu!’

c = 10.11

print(a,b,c)

## output:

## 10 Welcome to Gyansetu! 10.11

Here the variables are a, b, c

Python Data Types

Numbers:

There are 3 types of Numbers:

  1. Integer
  2. Float
  3. Complex
    1. Integer (int): Integer is a non-decimal number formed by the combination of 0 – 9 digits.
    2. Float (float): A float is a decimal number that can be represented on a number line.
    3. Complex (complex): They are the numbers consist of an imaginary number and a real number.

Different types of numbers 

a = 10   #integer
b = 43.49     #float

c = 1 + 2j       #complex

To accept values from user input

x = input("Enter any number : ")

y = input("Enter any number : ")

z = input("Enter any number : ")

print(x,y,z) ## output: ## Enter any number : 2 ## Enter any number : 3 ## Enter any number : 1 ## 2 3 1

To know the type of data:

print(type(x))

print(type(y))

print(type(z))
 ## output: ## ## ##

String

A string in Python consists of a series or sequence of characters – letters, numbers, and special characters.

Strings can be indexed – often synonymously called subscripted as well. Similar to C, the first character of a string has the index 0.

How to print a string 

a = "sahil"

b = 20

c = 30

print("%d-%d-%d" % (a,b,c))


## output:

## This will give error because %d is used in print for a and a is a string, %d is used for integer values

### Another way to solve the error

a = "sahil"

b = 20

c = 30

print("%s-%d-%d" % (a,b,c))



## output:

## sahil-20-30

## %s is used for string values

How to print a string using .format

a = "sahil"

b = 20

c = 30

print("{}-{}-{}".format(a,b,c))



## output:

## sahil-20-30

Indexing in Python:

Indexing # starts from 0 to n – 1 where n is the length of string use []

Example to understand indexing:

s = "Hello World!"

print(s[2])

print(s[6])



## output:

## l

## s

Slicing in Python:

Slicing # used to make sub-strings from strings used with start, end, and step variable

# s[start:end:step]

s = "Hello World!"

x = s[3:11]

y =  s[:]

z = s[:6]

p = s[6:]

print(x)

print(y)

print(z)

print(p)

print(s)



## output:

## lo World

## Hello World!

## Hello

## World!

## Hello World!

Basic String Functions: –

swapcase, upper, lower, strip, lstrip, rstrip, find, replace, format, center

Swapcase:- used to change uppercase letters into lowercase letters and vice versa

Upper:- It changes all letters into uppercase and returns the string

Lower:- It changes all letters into lowercase and return the string

Strip:- strip is used to remove all leading and trailing spaces from the string

Lstrip:- It is used to remove left space

Rstrip:- It is used to remove the right space

Example to understand string functions:

s = input("Enter a String : ")

print(s)

print("Swapcase : ",s.swapcase())

print("Upper : ",s.upper())

print("Lower : ",s.lower())

print("Strip : ",s.strip())

print("LStrip : ",s.lstrip())

print("RStrip : ",s.rstrip())



## output:

## Enter a String : iclass gyansetu

## iclass gyansetu

## Swapcase :  ICLASS GYANSETU

## Upper :  ICLASS GYANSETU

## Lower :  iclass gyansetu

## Strip :  iclass gyansetu

## LStrip :  iclass gyansetu

## RStrip :  iclass gyansetu

Lists

  • Lists are one of the most powerful tools in Python.
  • They are just like the arrays declared in other languages.
  • But the most powerful thing is that list need not be always homogeneous.
  • A single list can contain strings, integers, as well as objects.
  • Lists can also be used for implementing stacks and queues.
  • Lists are mutable, i.e., they can be altered once declared.

Declaring a list:

L = [1, "a" , "string" , 1+2]

print(L)



## output : [1, 'a', 'string', 3]

Homogeneous & Non-Homogeneous List

Homogeneous List contains all elements of same data type.

Non- Homogeneous List contains elements of different data type.

l = [ 'hello','hi','how are you' ]

print(l)

print(l[2])



l = [ 56,23,45,12,67,12,43,1,6,8,6,33,12]

print("Homogeneous List :",l)

print(l[5])



l = [ 'hello','hi', 3, 4.5 ]

print("Non-Homogeneous List : ",l)

print(l[-3])



## output:

## ['hello', 'hi', 'how are you']

## how are you

## Homogeneous List : [56, 23, 45, 12, 67, 12, 43, 1, 6, 8, 6, 33, 12]

## 12

## Non-Homogeneous List :  ['hello', 'hi', 3, 4.5]

## hi

Tuple

  • A Tuple is a collection of Python objects separated by commas.
  • In someway a tuple is similar to a list in terms of indexing, nested objects, and repetition but a tuple is immutable, unlike lists which are mutable.

Declaring a Tuple

tup = 'python', 'gyansetu'

print(tup)  



## output: ('python', 'gyansetu')
### Another way for doing the same

tup = ('python', 'gyansetu')

print(tup)



## output: ('python', 'gyansetu')

Dictionary

  • It consists of key-value pairs.
  • The value can be accessed by a unique key in the dictionary.

Dictionary Example with Key-Value pair

mydict = {

    'name':'python',

    'build_year':1991,

    'Father of Python':"Guido Van Rossum",

    'Frame_works':['Django','Flask','Web2PY','Torando','kivi'],

    'versions' : [1.0,2.0,3.0],

    'latest_version':3.6}

print(mydict)

print("Name : ", mydict['name']) #returns the value of the key 'name'

print("Frame Works : ", mydict['Frame_works'])



## output:



## {'name': 'python', 'build_year': 1991, 'Father of Python': 'Guido Van Rossum', 'Frame_works': ['Django', 'Flask', 'Web2PY', 'Torando', 'kivi'], 'versions': [1.0, 2.0, 3.0], 'latest_version': 3.6}

## Name :  python

## Frame Works :  ['Django', 'Flask', 'Web2PY', 'Torando', 'kivi']

Operators in Python