Getting Started with Python

Harness the power of Python objects and data structures to implement algorithms for analyzing your data and efficiently extracting information

Key Features

• Turn your designs into working software by learning the Python syntax
• Write robust code with a solid understanding of Python data structures
• Understand when to use the functional or the OOP approach

Book Description

This Learning Path helps you get comfortable with the world of Python. It starts with a thorough and practical introduction to Python. You’ll quickly start writing programs, building websites, and working with data by harnessing Python’s renowned data science libraries. With the power of linked lists, binary searches, and sorting algorithms, you’ll easily create complex data structures, such as graphs, stacks, and queues. After understanding cooperative inheritance, you’ll expertly raise, handle, and manipulate exceptions. You will effortlessly integrate the object-oriented and not-so-object-oriented aspects of Python, and create maintainable applications using higher level design patterns. Once you’ve covered core topics, you’ll understand the joy of unit testing and just how easy it is to create unit tests.

By the end of this Learning Path, you will have built components that are easy to understand, debug, and can be used across different applications.

This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products:

• Learn Python Programming – Second Edition by Fabrizio Romano
• Python Data Structures and Algorithms by Benjamin Baka
• Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming by Dusty Phillips

What you will learn

• Use data structures and control flow to write code
• Use functions to bundle together a sequence of instructions
• Implement objects in Python by creating classes and defining methods
• Design public interfaces using abstraction, encapsulation and information hiding
• Raise, define, and manipulate exceptions using special error objects
• Create bulletproof and reliable software by writing unit tests
• Learn the common programming patterns and algorithms used in Python

Who this book is for

If you are relatively new to coding and want to write scripts or programs to accomplish tasks using Python, or if you are an object-oriented programmer for other languages and seeking a leg up in the world of Python, then this Learning Path is for you. Though not essential, it will help you to have basic knowledge of programming and OOP.

Table of Contents

1. A Gentle Introduction to Python
2. Built-in Data Types
3. Iterating and Making Decisions
4. Functions, the Building Blocks of Code
5. Saving Time and Memory
6. Files and Data Persistence
7. Principles of Algorithm Design
8. Lists and Pointer Structures
9. Stacks and Queues
10. Trees
11. Hashing and Symbol Tables
12. Graphs and Other Algorithms
13. Searching
14. Sorting
15. Selection Algorithms
16. Design Techniques and Strategies
17. Object-Oriented Design
18. Objects in Python
19. When Objects Are Alike
20. Expecting the Unexpected
21. When to Use Object-Oriented Programming
22. Python Object-Oriented Shortcuts
23. Strings and Serialization
24. The Iterator Pattern
25. Python Design Patterns I
26. Python Design Patterns II
27. Testing Object-Oriented Programs