Python I

Revision: TE6201_20080222

(6.44 KB) View, Download, or Print Catalog as a PDF.

Course Length:

4 Days

Course Description:

This course leads the student from the basics of writing and running Python scripts to more advanced features such as file operations, regular expressions, working with binary data, and using the extensive functionality of Python modules. Extra emphasis is placed on features unique to Python, such as tuples, array slices, and output formatting. This is a hands-on programming class. All concepts are reinforced by informal practice during the lecture followed by graduated lab exercises. Python Programming is a practical introduction to a working programming language, not an academic overview of syntax and grammar. Students will immediately be able to use Python to complete tasks in the real world.

Who Should Attend:

This course is appropriate for advanced users, system administrators and web site administrators who want to use Python to support their server installations, as well as anyone else who wants to automate or simplify common tasks with the use of Python scripts.

Benefits of Attendance:

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Write and run Python scripts.
• Use Python's more advanced features.

Prerequisites:

Students should already have a working, user-level knowledge of an operating system such as UNIX or Windows XP. While not mandatory, basic skills with at least one other programming language are desirable.

Course Outline:

• An overview of Python
  1. What is Python?
  2. Interpreted languages
  3. Advantages and disadvantages
  4. Downloading and installing
  5. Which version of Python
  6. Where to find documentation
• Running Python Scripts
  1. Structure of a Python program
  2. Using the interpreter interactively
  3. Running standalone scripts under Unix and Windows
• Getting Started
  1. Using variables
  2. String types: normal, raw, and Unicode
  3. String operators and expressions
  4. Numeric literals
  5. Math operators and expressions
  6. Writing to the screen
  7. Command line parameters
  8. Reading from the keyboard
• Flow Control
  1. About flow control
  2. Indenting is significant
  3. The if and elif
  4. while loops
  5. Using lists
  6. Using the for statement
  7. The range() function
• Sequence data
  1. list operations
  2. list methods
  3. Strings are special kinds of lists
  4. tuples
  5. sets
  6. dictionaries
• Defining functions
  1. Syntax of function definition
  2. Formal parameters
  3. Global versus local variables
  4. Passing parameters and returning values
• Working with files
  1. Text file I/O overview
  2. Opening a text file
  3. Reading text files
  4. Raw (binary) data
  5. Using the pickle module
  6. Writing to a text file
• Dictionaries and Sets
  1. Dictionary overview
  2. Creating dictionaries
  3. Dictionary functions
  4. Fetching keys or values
  5. Testing for existence of elements
  6. Deleting elements
• Errors and Exception Handling
  1. Dealing with syntax errors
  2. Exceptions
  3. Handling exceptions with try/except
  4. Cleaning up with finally
• Using Modules
  1. What is a module?
  2. The import statement
  3. Function aliases
  4. Packages
• Regular Expressions
  1. RE Objects
  2. Pattern matching
  3. Parsing data
  4. Subexpressions
  5. Complex substitutions
  6. RE tips and tricks
• Highlights of the Standard Library
  1. Working with the operating system
  2. Grabbing web pages
  3. Sending email
  4. Using glob for filename wildcards
  5. math and random
  6. Accessing dates and times with datetime
  7. Working with compressed files
• An Introduction to Python classes
  1. About o-o programming
  2. Defining classes
  3. Constructors
  4. Instance methods
  5. Instance data
  6. Class methods and data
  7. Destructors