1/30/24, 4:29 PM Introduction To Python - GeeksforGeeks

Introduction To Python
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Python is a widely used general-purpose, high level programming language.

It was created by Guido van Rossum in 1991 and further developed by the
Python Software Foundation. It was designed with an emphasis on code
readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express their concepts in
fewer lines of code.

Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate
systems more efficiently.

There are two major Python versions: Python 2 and Python 3. Both are
quite different.

Beginning with Python programming:

1) Finding an Interpreter:

Before we start Python programming, we need to have an interpreter to

interpret and run our programs. There are certain online interpreters like
https://ide.geeksforgeeks.org/ that can be used to run Python programs
without installing an interpreter.

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Windows: There are many interpreters available freely to run Python scripts
like IDLE (Integrated Development Environment) that comes bundled with
the Python software downloaded from http://python.org/.

Linux: Python comes preinstalled with popular Linux distros such as Ubuntu
and Fedora. To check which version of Python you’re running, type “python”
in the terminal emulator. The interpreter should start and print the version
number.

macOS: Generally, Python 2.7 comes bundled with macOS. You’ll have to
manually install Python 3 from http://python.org/.

2) Writing our first program:

Just type in the following code after you start the interpreter.

# Script Begins

print("GeeksQuiz")

# Scripts Ends

Output:

GeeksQuiz

Let’s analyze the script line by line.

Line 1: [# Script Begins] In Python, comments begin with a #. This

statement is ignored by the interpreter and serves as documentation for our
code.

Line 2: [print(“GeeksQuiz”)] To print something on the console, print()

function is used. This function also adds a newline after our message is
printed(unlike in C). Note that in Python 2, “print” is not a function but a
keyword and therefore can be used without parentheses. However, in
Python 3, it is a function and must be invoked with parentheses.

Line 3: [# Script Ends] This is just another comment like in Line 1.

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van Rossum our website. By using a widely used
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Prerequisites:

Knowledge of any programming language can be a plus.

Reason for increasing popularity

1. Emphasis on code readability, shorter codes, ease of writing

2. Programmers can express logical concepts in fewer lines of code in
comparison to languages such as C++ or Java.
3. Python supports multiple programming paradigms, like object-oriented,
imperative and functional programming or procedural.
4. There exists inbuilt functions for almost all of the frequently used
concepts.
5. Philosophy is “Simplicity is the best”.

LANGUAGE FEATURES

Interpreted
There are no separate compilation and execution steps like C and C++.
Directly run the program from the source code.
Internally, Python converts the source code into an intermediate form
called bytecodes which is then translated into native language of
specific computer to run it.
No need to worry about linking and loading with libraries, etc.
Platform Independent
Python programs can be developed and executed on multiple
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Python can be used on Linux, Windows, Macintosh, Solaris and many

more.
Free and Open Source; Redistributable
High-level Language
In Python, no need to take care about low-level details such as
managing the memory used by the program.
Simple
Closer to English language;Easy to Learn
More emphasis on the solution to the problem rather than the syntax
Embeddable
Python can be used within C/C++ program to give scripting capabilities
for the program’s users.
Robust:
Exceptional handling features
Memory management techniques in built
Rich Library Support
The Python Standard Library is very vast.
Known as the “batteries included” philosophy of Python ;It can help
do various things involving regular expressions, documentation
generation, unit testing, threading, databases, web browsers, CGI,
email, XML, HTML, WAV files, cryptography, GUI and many more.
Besides the standard library, there are various other high-quality
libraries such as the Python Imaging Library which is an amazingly
simple image manipulation library.

Python vs JAVA

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Python Java

Statically Typed
Dynamically Typed
All variable names (along with their
No need to declare anything. An
types) must be explicitly declared.
assignment statement binds a
Attempting to assign an object of the
name to an object, and the
wrong type to a variable name triggers a
object can be of any type.
type exception.
No type casting is required
Type casting is required when using
when using container objects
container objects.

Concise Express much in limited

Verbose Contains more words
words

Compact Less Compact

Uses Indentation for structuring

Uses braces for structuring code
code

The classical Hello World program illustrating the relative verbosity of a

Java Program and Python Program
Java Code

public class HelloWorld

{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}

Python Code

print("Hello, world!")

Similarity with Java

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Can probably be compiled to executables without the runtime (this is

situational, none of them are designed to work this way)

LOOK and FEEL of the Python

GUI

Command Line interface

Softwares making use of Python

Python has been successfully embedded in a number of software products

as a scripting language.

1. GNU Debugger uses Python as a pretty printer to show complex

structures such as C++ containers.
2. Python has also been used in artificial intelligence
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Current Applications of Python

1. A number of Linux distributions use installers written in Python example

in Ubuntu we have the Ubiquity
2. Python has seen extensive use in the information security industry,
including in exploit development.
3. Raspberry Pi– single board computer uses Python as its principal user-
programming language.
4. Python is now being used Game Development areas also.

Pros:

1. Ease of use
2. Multi-paradigm Approach

Cons:

1. Slow speed of execution compared to C,C++

2. Absence from mobile computing and browsers
3. For the C,C++ programmers switching to python can be irritating as the
language requires proper indentation of code. Certain variable names
commonly used like sum are functions in python. So C, C++ programmers
have to look out for these.

Industrial Importance

Most of the companies are now looking for candidates who know about
Python Programming. Those having the knowledge of python may have
more chances of impressing the interviewing panel. So I would suggest that
beginners should start learning python and excel in it.

Python is a high-level, interpreted, and general-purpose dynamic

programming language that focuses on code readability. It has fewer steps
when compared to Java and C. It was founded in 1991 by developer Guido
Van Rossum. Python ranks among the most popular and fastest-growing
languages in the world. Python is a powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use
language. In addition, the community is very active there. It is used in many
organizations as it supports multiple programming paradigms. It also
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Advantages :

1. Presence of third-party modules

2. Extensive support libraries(NumPy for numerical calculations, Pandas for
data analytics etc)
3. Open source and community development
4. Versatile, Easy to read, learn and write
5. User-friendly data structures
6. High-level language
7. Dynamically typed language(No need to mention data type based on the
value assigned, it takes data type)
8. Object-oriented language
9. Portable and Interactive
10. Ideal for prototypes – provide more functionality with less coding
11. Highly Efficient(Python’s clean object-oriented design provides enhanced
process control, and the language is equipped with excellent text
processing and integration capabilities, as well as its own unit testing
framework, which makes it more efficient.)
12. (IoT)Internet of Things Opportunities
13. Interpreted Language
14. Portable across Operating systems

Applications :

1. GUI based desktop applications

2. Graphic design, image processing applications, Games, and Scientific/
computational Applications
3. Web frameworks and applications
4. Enterprise and Business applications
5. Operating Systems
6. Education
7. Database Access
8. Language Development
9. Prototyping
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Organizations using Python :

1. Google(Components of Google spider and Search Engine)

2. Yahoo(Maps)
3. YouTube
4. Mozilla
5. Dropbox
6. Microsoft
7. Cisco
8. Spotify
9. Quora

So before moving on further.. let’s do the most popular ‘HelloWorld’

tradition and hence compare Python’s Syntax with C, C++, Java ( I have
taken these 3 because they are most famous and mostly used languages).

# Python code for "Hello World"

# nothing else to type...see how simple is the syntax.

print("Hello World")

Note: Please note that Python for its scope doesn’t depend on the braces ( {
} ), instead it uses indentation for its scope.
Now moving on further Lets start our basics of Python . I will be covering
the basics in some small sections. Just go through them and trust me you’ll
learn the basics of Python very easily.

Introduction and Setup

1. If you are on Windows OS download Python by Clicking here and now

install from the setup and in the start menu type IDLE.IDLE, you can think
it as an Python’s IDE to run the Python Scripts.
It will look somehow this :

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2. If you are on Linux/Unix-like just open the terminal and on 99% linux OS
Python comes preinstalled with the OS.Just type ‘python3’ in terminal
and you are ready to go.
It will look like this :

The ” >>> ” represents the python shell and its ready to take python
commands and code.

Variables and Data Structures

In other programming languages like C, C++, and Java, you will need to
declare the type of variables but in Python you don’t need to do that. Just
type in the variable and when values will be given to it, then it will
automatically know whether the value given would be an int, float, or char
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# Python program to declare variables

myNumber = 3
print(myNumber)

myNumber2 = 4.5
print(myNumber2)

myNumber ="helloworld"
print(myNumber)

Output:

3
4.5
helloworld

See, how simple is it, just create a variable and assign it any value you want
and then use the print function to print it. Python have 4 types of built in
Data Structures namely List, Dictionary, Tuple and Set.

List is the most basic Data Structure in python. List is a mutable data
structure i.e items can be added to list later after the list creation. It’s like you
are going to shop at the local market and made a list of some items and later
on you can add more and more items to the list.
append() function is used to add data to the list.

# Python program to illustrate a list

# creates a empty list

nums = []

# appending data in list

nums.append(21)
nums.append(40.5)
nums.append("String")

print(nums)

Output:

[21, 40.5, String]

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# is used for single line comment in Python

""" this is a comment """ is used for multi line comments

Input and Output

In this section, we will learn how to take input from the user and hence
manipulate it or simply display it. input() function is used to take input from
the user.

# Python program to illustrate

# getting input from user
name = input("Enter your name: ")

# user entered the name 'harssh'

print("hello", name)

Output:

hello harssh

# Python3 program to get input from user

# accepting integer from the user

# the return type of input() function is string ,
# so we need to convert the input to integer
num1 = int(input("Enter num1: "))
num2 = int(input("Enter num2: "))

num3 = num1 * num2

print("Product is: ", num3)

Output:

Enter num1: 8 Enter num2: 6 ('Product is: ', 48)

Selection

Selection in Python is made using the two keywords ‘if’ and ‘elif’ and else
(elseif)

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num1 = 34
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if(num1>12):
print("Num1 is good")
elif(num1>35):
print("Num2 is not gooooo....")
else:
print("Num2 is great")

Output:

Num1 is good

Functions

You can think of functions like a bunch of code that is intended to do a

particular task in the whole Python script. Python used the keyword ‘def’ to
define a function.
Syntax:

def function-name(arguments):
#function body

# Python program to illustrate

# functions
def hello():
print("hello")
print("hello again")
hello()

# calling function
hello()

Output:

hello
hello again
hello
hello again

Now as we know any program starts from a ‘main’ function…lets create a

main function like in many other programming languages.

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def getInteger():

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result = int(input("Enter integer: "))

return result

def Main():
print("Started")

# calling the getInteger function and

# storing its returned value in the output variable
output = getInteger()
print(output)

# now we are required to tell Python

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'Main' function 3 Tutorial
existence Data Types Control Flow Functions List String Set
if __name__=="__main__":
Main()

Output:

Started
Enter integer: 5

Iteration (Looping)

As the name suggests it calls repeating things again and again. We will use
the most popular ‘for’ loop here.

# Python program to illustrate

# a simple for loop

for step in range(5):

print(step)

Output:

0
1
2
3
4

Modules

Python has a very rich module library that has several functions to do many
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‘import’ keyword is used to import a particular module into your python

code. For instance consider the following program.

# Python program to illustrate

# math module
import math

def Main():
num = -85

# fabs is used to get the absolute

# value of a decimal
num = math.fabs(num)
print(num)

if __name__=="__main__":
Main()

Output:

85.0

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