CM2015 – Programming with Data [SIM – UOL]

Topic 2
Variables, Control Flow and Functions

Learning Outcomes
After completing this topic and the recommended reading, you should be able
to:
• Import modules, and use them to compute basic statistics.
• Use logic and iteration.
• Identify and use correct syntax and explain the purpose of built-in
variable types int, float and list.

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1. Variables, Data Types and Structures in Python

Variables
• Variable is a named piece of memory whose value can change during the
running of the program; constant is a value which cannot change as the
program runs.
o Python doesn’t use constant
• Every variable in Python is an object.
• Variable can be rebind to another object of different data type.
• Most variables are immutable objects, i.e., new value is created and
rebind to variables, the old value became “garbage”.
• Example:

Variable Name
• We use variable names to represent objects (number, data structures,
functions, etc.) in our program, to make our program more readable.
o All variable names must be one word, spaces are never allowed.
o Can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores.
o Must start with a letter or the underscores character.
o Cannot begin with a number.
o Case-sensitive
o Standard way for most things named in Python is lower with under
§ Lower case with separate words joined by an underscore
• No use of reserved words.

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o if; else; for; def; etc.

Mutability
• Mutable: objects that can be modified.
o Python list and dictionary are mutable objects.
o Example:

• Immutable:
o Python tuple and others are immutable objects.
o Example:

Aliasing
• Assign a variable to another variable
• Object type: A reference/pointer is copied.
o Example:

• “Non-object” type: A duplicate is copied when changes is made.

o R program example:

• Make a copy of the object

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o Example:

o https://pythontutor.com/live.html#mode=edit

Comments
• Not processed by the computer, valued by other programmers.
• Header comments
o Appear at beginning of a program or a module
o Provide general information
• Step comments or in-line comments
o Appear throughout program
o Explain the purpose of specific portion of code
• Often comments delineated by
o // comment goes here
o /* comment goes here */
o # Python uses this

Python Operations
• Assignment Operator
o “=”
o Example:
§ a = 67890/12345
# compute the ratio, store the result in ram, assign to a
# the value of a is 5.499392
§ b=a
# b pointing to value of a

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• Output
o “print()”
o Example:
§ print(‘Hello World!’) # print the string literals
§ print(a) # print the value of a

Data Types in Python

• Declaration of variables in Python is not needed
o Use an assignment statement to create a variable

• Float
o Stores real numbers
o a = 4.6
o print(type(a))

• Integer
o Stores integers
o b = 10
o print(type(b))

• Conversion
o int(a) # convert float to int => 4
o float(b) # convert int to float => 10.0

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• Basic arithmetic operators

o 3+2 # Addition => 5
o 5–2 # Subtraction => 3
o 5 * -2 # Multiplication => -10
o 5 / 2.5 # Division => 2.0
o 2**2 # Exponentiation => 4
o 10 % 3 # Modulus => 1
o 10 // 3 # Floor Division => 3

• String
o Stores strings
o phrase = ‘All models are wrong, but some are useful.’
o phrase[0:3] # slicing character 0 up to 2
=> All
o phrase.find(‘models’) # find the starting index of word
=> 4
o phrase.find(‘right’) # word not found
=> -1
o phrase.lower() # set to lower case
=> ‘all models are wrong, but
some are useful.’
o phrase.upper() # set to upper case
=> ‘ALL MODELS ARE
WRONG, BUT SOME ARE
USEFUL.’
o phrase.split(‘,’) # split strings into list, base on delimiter
=> [‘All models are wrong’,
‘ but some are useful.’]

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• Boolean
o Stores logical or Boolean values of TRUE or FALSE
o k=1>3
o print(k)

o print(type(k))

• Logical operators
o Conjunction (AND): “and”
o Disjunction (OR): “or”
o Negation (NOT): “not”
a b a and b a or b not a
T T T T F
T F F T F
F T F T T
F F F F T

Data Structures in Python

• Tuples
o Store ordered collection of objects
o Immutable: elements cannot be modified, added or deleted
o Written with round brackets “( )”
§ tuple1 = (“apple”, “banana”, “cherry”, “orange”, “kiwi”,
“melon”, “mango”)
§ tuple2 = (“Handsome Koh”, 4896, 13.14, True)

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o Accessing elements by indexing

§ tuple1[0] # first element index => ‘apple’
§ tuple1[-1] # last element index => ‘mango’
§ tuple1[2:5] # range of elements => (‘cherry’, ‘orange’,
‘kiwi’)

• Lists
o Store ordered collection of objects; mutable
o Written with square brackets “[ ]”
§ list1 = [“apple”, “banana”, “cherry”]
§ list2 = [“Handsome Koh”, 4896, 13.14, True]
o Changing elements
§ list1.append(“orange”) # add to last position
=> [‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘cherry’,
‘orange’]
§ list1[2] = “coconut” # modify index element
=> [‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘coconut’,
‘orange’]
§ list1.remove(“apple”) # delete elements
=> [‘banana’, ‘coconut’, ‘orange’]
§ list1.insert(2, “durian”) # insert element at position
=> [‘banana’, ‘coconut’, ‘durian’,
‘orange’]

• Sets
o Store unordered, unindexed, nonduplicates collection of objects
o Written with square brackets “{ }”
§ set1 = {“apple”, “banana”, “cherry”}
§ set2 = {“apple”, “samsung”}

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o Set operations
§ set1.union(set2) # Union both sets
=> {‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘cherry’,
‘samsung’}
§ set1.intersection(set2) # Intersect both sets
=> {‘apple’}

• Dictionaries
o Store unordered collection of objects
o Written with square brackets “{ }”, and “key:value” pair
§ thisdict = {“brand”: “Ford”, “model”: “Mustang”,
“year”: 1964}
o Accessing/modifying elements by key name
§ thisdict[“model”] => ‘Mustang’
§ thisdist[“year”] = 2018 => {‘brand’: ‘Ford’,
thisdist[“color”] = “red” ‘model’: ‘Mustang’,
‘year’: 2018,
‘color’: ‘red’}

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2. Condition/Decision/Selection/Branching in Python

• A selection (or decision) structure allows a program to perform specific

actions only under certain conditions.
o Evaluate one or more alternatives.
o Selectively execute statements.
o Requires a condition (to test if it is true or false) to determine
when to execute statements, or to decide on the path to be taken.
• Single alternative
o A single block of statements to be executed or skipped.
o Example: if

• Dual alternative
o Two blocks of statements, one of which is to be executed, while
the other one is to be skipped.
o Example: if…then…else

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• Multiple alternative
o More than two blocks of statements, only one of which is to be
executed and the rest skipped.
o Example: if…then…else if…else; switch case

Control Flow Structures in Python

• No parentheses are needed to enclose the control flow structures
• : is needed after the if, elif, else, for, while statements
• Indentation is required for the block after the control flow statement

Conditional Statements
• Single alternative

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o Python syntax:

o Example:

• Dual alternative
o Python syntax:

o Example:

• Multiple alternative (nested if)

o Python syntax:

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o Example:

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3. Iteration/Repetition/Loop in Python

• A repetition (or loop) structure causes a statement or set of statements to

execute repeatedly, under some conditions.
o Repeat statements more than once.
o Needs a stop condition, i.e., the program will continue to loop until
some condition is met.
à Be careful not to create infinite loops
• Allow a programmer to avoid duplicate code.
o Duplicate code makes a program large.
o Write a long sequence of statements is time consuming.
o If part of the duplicate code must be corrected or change, then the
changes must be done many times.
• Condition-controlled loops
o Test condition before/after performing an iteration.
o Condition tested for true or false value.
o Example: while loop; repeat loop
• Count-controlled loops
o Iterates a specific number of times, moving through all the
elements of data structure.
o Example: for loop
• Nested loops
o All loops can be nested, that is, a loop contained inside of another
loop.
o Inner loop goes through all its iterations for each iteration of outer
loop.
o Inner loops complete their iterations faster than outer loops.
o Often used to step through two-dimensional arrays.

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Iteration Structures in Python

• Count-controlled Loop
o Python syntax:

o Example:

• Terminating early
o continue: stops the current iteration and moves to next iteration.
o break: stops the loop entirely.
eval( ) - changes the type based on the input

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o Example:

• Condition-controlled Loop
o Python syntax:

o Example:

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4. Functions in Python
create pipeline for the data cleaning and machine learning processes. ** more intelligent code

Writing a user-defined Functions

• Arguments are the inputs to the function module.
• Return statement are the output from the function module.
• Function Definition
o Python syntax: Header comment for the function. no need to write docstring in the midterm

o Example:

Scope of Function
• Global scope
o Variables from global scope is available everywhere.
o Variables created outside of a function can be used by any
functions.

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o Example:

• Local scope
o Variables from local scope is not available elsewhere.
o Variables created inside of a function cannot be used outside of the
function.
o Example:

• LEGB Rule
o Local à Enclosing à Global à Built-in scope
o Example:

o https://pythontutor.com/live.html#mode=edit

Functions with Mutable Object

• Pass as reference
o A pointer to the object is passed to the arguments of function.
o Changes made in function modified the original object.

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o Example:

• Make a copy
o A new copy of the reference object is made, changes will not
modify the original object.
o Example:

o https://pythontutor.com/live.html#mode=edit

Libraries
• SciPy
o Python library used for scientific computing
o Contains modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration,
interpolation, etc
• NumPy
o Python library used for working with arrays
o Performs numerical processing
• Pandas
o Python library used for data manipulation and analysis
o Work with heterogenous data, as data frame

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5. Exercises

2.205 Programming Exercise

• Write a piece of code that can compute the highest of two values as a
Jupyter Notebook.

2.403 Functions and Libraries

• Refers to “2.403 Topic 2 – lab 1.html”

2.405 Date and Time Data

• Refers to “2.405 Topic 2 – lab 2 datetime.html”

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6. Practice Quiz
• Work on Practice Quiz 02 posted on Canvas.

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Useful Resources
•
o http://

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