diff -r e78c284d644b -r 223044cf254f basic-data-type/script.rst --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/basic-data-type/script.rst Wed Oct 13 17:10:38 2010 +0530 @@ -0,0 +1,467 @@ +.. Objectives +.. ---------- + +.. Learn about Python Data Structures and Operators.(Remembering) +.. Use them to do basic operations.(Applying) + +.. Prerequisites +.. ------------- + + + +.. Author : Amit Sethi + Internal Reviewer : + External Reviewer : + Checklist OK? : [2010-10-05] +Hello friends and welcome to the tutorial on Basic Data types and operators in Python. +{{{ Show the slide containing title }}} + +{{{ Show the slide containing the outline slide }}} + +In this tutorial, we shall look at:: + + * Datatypes in Python + * Operators in Python + +with a little hands-on on how they can be applied to the different data types. + + + +First we will explore python data structures in the domain of numbers. +There are three built-in data types in python to represent numbers. + +{{{ A slide to make a memory note of this }}} + +These are: + + * Integers + * float and + * Complex + +Lets first talk about integers. :: + + a = 13 + a + + +Thats it, there we have our first integer variable a. + + + +If we now see :: + + type(a) + + +This means that a is a type of int. Being an int data structure +in python means that there are various functions that this variable +has to manipulate it different ways. You can explore these by doing, + + a. + + + +Lets see the limits of this int. + + b = 99999999999999999999 + b + +As you can see even when we put a value of 9 repeated 20 times +python did not complain. However when you asked python to print +the number again it put a capital L at the end. Now if you check +the type of this variable b, :: + + type(b) + + + +The reason for this is that python recognizes large integer numbers +by the data type long. However long type and integer type share there +functions and properties. + +Lets now try out the second type in list called float. + +Decimal numbers in python are recognized by the term float :: + + p = 3.141592 + p + +If you notice the value of output of p isn't exactly equal to p. This +is because computer saves floating point values in a specific +format. There is always an aproximationation. This is why we should +never rely on equality of floating point numbers in a program. + +The last data type in the list is complex number :: + + c = 3.2+4.6j + +as simple as that so essentialy its just a combination of two floats the +imaginary part being defined by j notation instead of i. Complex numbers have a lot of functions specific to them. +Lets check these :: + + c. + +Lets try some of them :: + + c.real + c.imag + +c.real gives the real part of the number and c.imag the imaginary. + +We can get the absolute value using the function :: + + abs(c) + + + +{{ Slide for memory aid }} + +Python also has Boolean as a built-in type. + +Try it out just type :: + + t = True + +note that T in true is capitalized. + +You can apply different Boolean operations on t now for example :: + + f = not t + f + f or t + f and t + + + +The results are explanotary in themselves. + +The usage of boolean brings us to an interesting question of precendence. +What if you want to apply one operator before another. + +Well you can use parenthesis for precedence. + +Lets write some piece of code to check this out. + + In[]: a=False + In[]: b=True + In[]: c=True + +To check how precedence changes with parenthesis. We will try two +expressions and their evaluation. + +one :: + + (a and b) or c + +This expression gives the value True + +where as the expression :: + + a and (b or c) + +gives the value False. + + +Lets now look at some operators available in Python to manipulate these data types. + + + +Python uses % for modulo operation :: + + 87 % 6 +and two stars for a exponent. :: + + 7**8 + + +In case one wishes to use the current value of variable in which the result is stored in the expression one can do that by putting the operator before `equal to`. :: + + a=73 + a*=34 + +is same as :: + + a=a*34 + +and :: + + a/=23 + +is same as :: + + a=a/23 + + +Lets now discuss sequence data stypes in python. Sequence +datatypes are those in which elements are kept in a sequential +order. All the elements accessed using index. + + +{{{ slide to for memory aid }}} + +The sequence datatypes in python are :: + + * list + * string + * tuple + +The list type is a container that holds a number of other +objects, in the given order. + +We create our first list by typing :: + + num_list = [1, 2, 3, 4] + num_list + + +Items enclosed in square brackets separated by comma +constitutes a list. + +Lists can store data of any type in them. + +We can have a list something like :: + + var_list = [1, 1.2, [1,2]] + var_list + + + +Now we will have a look at strings + +type :: + + In[]: greeting_string="hello" + + +greeting_string is now a string variable with the value "hello" + +{{{ Memory Aid Slide }}} + +Python strings can actually be defined in three different ways :: + + In[]: k='Single quote' + In[]: l="Double quote contain's single quote" + In[]: m='''"Contain's both"''' + +Thus, single quotes are used as delimiters usually. +When a string contains a single quote, double quotes are used as delimiters. +When a string quote contains both single and double quotes, triple quotes are +used as delimiters. + +The last in the list of sequence data types is tuple. + +To create a tuple we use normal brackets '(' +unlike '[' for lists.:: + + In[]: num_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) + +Because of their sequential property there are certain functions and +operations we can apply to all of them. + + + +The first one is accessing. + +They can be accessed using index numbers :: + + In[]: num_list[2] + In[]: num_list[-1] + In[]: greeting_string[1] + In[]: greeting_string[3] + In[]: greeting_string[-2] + In[]: num_tuple[2] + In[]: num_tuple[-3] + + +Indexing starts from 0 from left to right and from -1 when accessing +lists in reverse. Thus num_list[2] refers to the third element 3. +and greetings [-2] is the second element from the end , that is 'l'. + + + +Addition gives a new sequence containing both sequences :: + + In[]: num_list+var_list + In[]: a_string="another string" + In[]: greeting_string+a_string + In[]: t2=(3,4,6,7) + In[]: num_tuple+t2 + +len function gives the length :: + + In[]: len(num_list) + In[]: len(greeting_string) + In[]: len(num_tuple) + +Prints the length the variable. + +We can check the containership of an element using the 'in' keyword :: + + In[]: 3 in num_list + In[]: 'H' in greeting_string + In[]: 2 in num_tuple + +We see that it gives True and False accordingly. + +Find maximum using max function and minimum using min:: + + In[]: max(num_tuple) + In[]: min(greeting_string) + +Get a sorted list and reversed list using sorted and reversed function :: + + In[]: sorted(num_list) + In[]: reversed(greeting_string) + +As a consequence of the order one we access a group of elements together. +This is called slicing and striding. + +First Slicing + +Given a list :: + + In[]:j=[1,2,3,4,5,6] + +Lets say we want elements starting from 2 and ending in 5. + +For this we can do :: + + In[]: j[1:4] + +The syntax for slicing is sequence variable name square bracket +first element index, colon, second element index.The last element however is notincluded in the resultant list:: + + + In[]: j[:4] + +If first element is left blank default is from beginning and if last +element is left blank it means till the end. + + In[]: j[1:] + + In[]: j[:] + +This effectively is the whole list. + +Striding is similar to slicing except that the step size here is not one. + +Lets see by example :: + + new_num_list=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] + new_num_list[1:8:2] + [2, 4, 6, 8] + +The colon two added in the end signifies all the alternate elements. This is why we call this concept +striding because we move through the list with a particular stride or step. The step in this example +being 2. + +We have talked about many similar features of lists, strings and tuples. But there are many important +features in lists that differ from strings and tuples. Lets see this by example.:: + + In[]: new_num_list[1]=9 + In[]: greeting_string[1]='k' + +{{{ slide to show the error }}} + + + +As you can see while the first command executes with out a problem there is an error on the second one. + +Now lets try :: + + In[]: new_tuple[1]=5 + +Its the same error. This is because strings and tuples share the property of being immutable. +We cannot change the value at a particular index just by assigning a new value at that position. + + +We have looked at different types but we need to convert one data type into another. Well lets one +by one go through methods by which we can convert one data type to other: + +We can convert all the number data types to one another :: + + i=34 + d=float(i) + d + +Python has built in functions int, float and complex to convert one number type +data structure to another. + + dec=2.34 + dec_con=int(dec) + dec_con + + +As you can see the decimal part of the number is simply stripped to get the integer.:: + + com=2.3+4.2j + float(com) + com + +In case of complex number to floating point only the real value of complex number is taken. + +Similarly we can convert list to tuple and tuple to list :: + + lst=[3,4,5,6] + tup=tuple(lst) + tupl=(3,23,4,56) + lst=list(tuple) + +However string to list and list to string is an interesting problem. +Lets say we have a string :: + + In: somestring="Is there a way to split on these spaces." + In: somestring.split() + + +This produces a list with the string split at whitespace. +similarly we can split on some other character. + + In: otherstring="Tim,Amy,Stewy,Boss" + +How do we split on comma , simply pass it as argument :: + + In: otherstring.split(',') + +join function does the opposite. Joins a list to make a string.:: + + In[]:','.join['List','joined','on','commas'] + +Thus we get a list joined on commas. Similarly we can do spaces.:: + + In[]:' '.join['Now','on','spaces'] + +Note that the list has to be a list of strings to apply join operation. + +With this we come to the end of this tutorial . + +In this tutorial we have discussed + +1. Number Datatypes , integer,float and complex +2. Boolean and datatype and operators +3. Sequence data types ,List,String and Tuple +4. Accesing sequence +5. Slicing sequences +6. Finding length , sorting and reversing operations on sequences. +7. Immutability. + + + + +.. #[Nishanth]: string to list is fine. But list to string can be left for + string manipulations. Just say it requires some string + manipulations and leave it there. + +.. #[Nishanth]: Where is the summary + There are no exercises in the script + +{{{ Show the "sponsored by FOSSEE" slide }}} + +This tutorial was created as a part of FOSSEE project, NME ICT, MHRD India + +Hope you have enjoyed and found it useful. + +Thank You. + + +