Introduction to Python

Programming Languages
Fall 2003
Adapted from Tutorial by
Mark Hammond
Skippi-Net, Melbourne, Australia
mhammond@skippinet.com.au
http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond
 What Is Python?
 Created in 1990 by Guido van Rossum
 While at CWI, Amsterdam
 Now hosted by centre for national research
initiatives, Reston, VA, USA
 Free, open source
 And with an amazing community
 Object oriented language
 “Everything is an object”
 Why Python?
 Designed to be easy to learn and master
 Clean, clear syntax
 Very few keywords

 Highly portable
 Runs almost anywhere - high end servers and
workstations, down to windows CE
 Uses machine independent byte-codes

 Extensible
 Designed to be extensible using C/C++, allowing
access to many external libraries
 Python: a modern hybrid
 A language for scripting and prototyping
 Balance between extensibility and powerful
built-in data structures
 genealogy:
 Setl (NYU, J.Schwartz et al. 1969-1980)
 ABC (Amsterdam, Meertens et al. 1980-)
 Python (Van Rossum et all. 1996-)
 Very active open-source community
 Prototyping
 Emphasis on experimental programming:
 Interactive (like LISP, ML, etc).
 Translation to bytecode (like Java)
 Dynamic typing (like LISP, SETL, APL)
 Higher-order function (LISP, ML)
 Garbage-collected, no ptrs
(LISP, SNOBOL4)
 Prototyping
 Emphasis on experimental programming:
 Uniform treatment of indexable structures
(like SETL)
 Built-in associative structures (like
SETL, SNOBOL4, Postscript)
 Light syntax, indentation is significant
(from ABC)
 Most obvious and notorious
features
 Clean syntax plus high-level data types
 Leads to fast coding
 Uses white-space to delimit blocks
 Humans generally do, so why not the
language?
 Try it, you will end up liking it

 Variables do not need declaration

 Although not a type-less language
 A Digression on Block Structure
 There are three ways of dealing with IF
structures
 Sequences of statements with explicit end
(Algol-68, Ada, COBOL)
 Single statement
(Algol-60, Pascal, C)
 Indentation (ABC, Python)
 Sequence of Statements
 IF condition THEN
stm;
stm;
..
ELSIF condition THEN
stm;
..
ELSE
stm;
..
END IF;
next statement;
 Single Statement
 IF condition THEN
BEGIN
stm;
stm;
END ..
ELSE IF condition THEN
BEGIN
stm;
..
END;
ELSE
BEGIN
stm;
..
END;
next-statement;
 Indentation
 IF condition:
stm;
stm;
..
ELSIF condition:
stm;
..
ELSE:
stm;
..
next-statement
 Pythonwin
 These examples use Pythonwin
 Only available on Windows
 GUI toolkit using Tkinter available for most
platforms
 Standard console Python available on all
platforms
 Has interactive mode for quick testing of
code
 Includes debugger and Python editor
 Interactive Python
 Starting Python.exe, or any of the GUI
environments present an interactive mode
>>> prompt indicates start of a statement
or expression
 If incomplete, ... prompt indicates second
and subsequent lines
 All expression results printed back to
interactive console
 Variables and Types (1 of 3)
 Variables need no declaration
 >>> a=1
>>>
 As a variable assignment is a statement, there
is no printed result
 >>> a
1
 Variable name alone is an expression, so the
result is printed
 Variables and Types (2 of 3)
 Variables must be created before they can
be used
 >>> b
Traceback (innermost last):
File "<interactive input>", line
1, in ?
NameError: b
>>>
 Python uses exceptions - more detail later
 Variables and Types (3 of 3)
 Objects always have a type
 >>> a = 1
>>> type(a)
<type 'int'>
>>> a = "Hello"
>>> type(a)
<type 'string'>
>>> type(1.0)
<type 'float'>
 Assignment versus Equality
Testing
 Assignment performed with single =
 Equality testing done with double = (==)
 Sensible type promotions are defined
 Identity tested with is operator.

 >>> 1==1
1
>>> 1.0==1
1
>>> "1"==1
0
 Simple Data Types
 Strings
 May hold any data, including embedded NULLs
 Declared using either single, double, or triple
quotes
 >>> s = "Hi there"
>>> s
'Hi there'
>>> s = "Embedded 'quote'"
>>> s
"Embedded 'quote'"
 Simple Data Types
 Triple
quotes useful for multi-line strings
 >>> s = """ a long
... string with "quotes" or
anything else"""
>>> s
' a long\012string with "quotes"
or anything else'
>>> len(s)
45
 Simple Data Types
 Integer objects implemented using C
longs
 Like
C, integer division returns the floor
 >>> 5/2
2
 Float types implemented using C doubles
 No point in having single precision since
execution overhead is large anyway
 Simple Data Types

 Long Integers have unlimited size

 Limited
only by available memory
 >>> long = 1L << 64
>>> long ** 5
2135987035920910082395021706169552114602704522
3566527699470416078222197257806405500229620869
36576L
 High Level Data Types
 Lists hold a sequence of items
 May hold any object
 Declared using square brackets

 >>> l = []# An empty list

>>> l.append(1)
>>> l.append("Hi there")
>>> len(l)
2
 High Level Data Types
 >>> l
[1, 'Hi there']
>>>
>>> l = ["Hi there", 1, 2]
>>> l
['Hi there', 1, 2]
>>> l.sort()
>>> l
[1, 2, 'Hi there']
 High Level Data Types
 Tuples are similar to lists
 Sequence of items
 Key difference is they are immutable
 Often used in place of simple structures

 Automatic unpacking
 >>> point = 2,3
>>> x, y = point
>>> x
2
 High Level Data Types
 Tuples are particularly useful to return
multiple values from a function
 >>> x, y = GetPoint()
 As Python has no concept of byref
parameters, this technique is used widely
 High Level Data Types
 Dictionaries hold key-value pairs
 Often called maps or hashes. Implemented
using hash-tables
 Keys may be any immutable object, values
may be any object
 Declared using braces

 >>> d={}
>>> d[0] = "Hi there"
>>> d["foo"] = 1
 High Level Data Types
 Dictionaries (cont.)
 >>> len(d)
2
>>> d[0]
'Hi there'
>>> d = {0 : "Hi there", 1 :
"Hello"}
>>> len(d)
2
 Blocks
 Blocks are delimited by indentation
 Colon used to start a block
 Tabs or spaces may be used
 Mixing tabs and spaces works, but is discouraged

 >>> if 1:
... print "True"
...
True
>>>
 Blocks
 Many hate this when they first see it
 Most Python programmers come to love it
 Humans use indentation when reading
code to determine block structure
 Everbeen bitten by the C code?:
 if (1)
printf("True");
CallSomething();
 Looping
 The for statement loops over sequences
 >>> for ch in "Hello":
... print ch
...
H
e
l
l
o
>>>
 Looping
 Built-in function range() used to build
sequences of integers
 >>> for i in range(3):
... print i
...
0
1
2
>>>
 Looping
 while statement for more traditional
loops
 >>> i = 0
>>> while i < 2:
... print i
... i = i + 1
...
0
1
>>>
 Functions
 Functions are defined with the def
statement:
 >>> def foo(bar):
... return bar
>>>
 This defines a trivial function named foo
that takes a single parameter bar
 Functions
 A function definition simply places a
function object in the namespace
 >>> foo
<function foo at fac680>
>>>
 And the function object can obviously be
called:
 >>> foo(3)
3
>>>
 Classes
 Classes are defined using the class
statement
 >>> class Foo:
... def __init__(self):
... self.member = 1
... def GetMember(self):
... return self.member
...
>>>
 Classes
 A few things are worth pointing out in the
previous example:
 The constructor has a special name __init__,
while a destructor (not shown) uses __del__
 The self parameter is the instance (ie, the
this in C++). In Python, the self parameter is
explicit (c.f. C++, where it is implicit)
 The name self is not required - simply a
convention
 Classes
 Like functions, a class statement simply
adds a class object to the namespace
 >>> Foo
<class __main__.Foo at 1000960>
>>>
 Classes are instantiated using call syntax
 >>> f=Foo()
>>> f.GetMember()
1
 Modules
 Most of Python’s power comes from modules
 Modules can be implemented either in
Python, or in C/C++
 import statement makes a module available
 >>> import string
>>> string.join( ["Hi", "there"] )
'Hi there'
>>>
 Exceptions
 Python uses exceptions for errors
 try/ except block can handle exceptions
 >>> try:
... 1/0
... except ZeroDivisionError:
... print "Eeek"
...
Eeek
>>>
 Exceptions
 try / finally block can guarantee
execute of code even in the face of
exceptions
 >>> try:
... 1/0
... finally:
... print "Doing this anyway"
...
Doing this anyway
Traceback (innermost last): File "<interactive
input>", line 2, in ?
ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo
>>>
 Threads
 Number of ways to implement threads
 Highest level interface modelled after Java
 >>> class DemoThread(threading.Thread):
... def run(self):
... for i in range(3):
... time.sleep(3)
... print i
...
>>> t = DemoThread()
>>> t.start()
>>> t.join()
0
1 <etc>
 Standard Library
 Python comes standard with a set of
modules, known as the “standard library”
 Incredibly rich and diverse functionality
available from the standard library
 Allcommon internet protocols, sockets, CGI, OS
services, GUI services (via Tcl/Tk), database,
Berkeley style databases, calendar, Python
parser, file globbing/searching, debugger,
profiler, threading and synchronisation,
persistency, etc
 External library
 Many modules are available externally
covering almost every piece of
functionality you could ever desire
 Imaging, numerical analysis, OS specific
functionality, SQL databases, Fortran
interfaces, XML, Corba, COM, Win32 API, etc
 Way too many to give the list any justice
 Python Programs
 Python programs and modules are written
as text files with traditionally a .py
extension
 Each Python module has its own discrete
namespace
 Name space within a Python module is a
global one.
 Python Programs
 Python modules and programs are
differentiated only by the way they are
called
 .py files executed directly are programs (often
referred to as scripts)
 .py files referenced via the import statement
are modules
 Python Programs
 Thus, the same .py file can be a
program/script, or a module
 This feature is often used to provide
regression tests for modules
 When module is executed as a program, the
regression test is executed
 When module is imported, test functionality is
not executed
 More Information on Python
 Can’t do Python justice in this short time
frame
 But hopefully have given you a taste of the
language
 Comes with extensive documentation,
including tutorials and library reference
 Also a number of Python books available
 Visit www.python.org for more details
 Can find python tutorial and reference manual
 Scripting Languages
 What are they?
 Beats me 
 Apparently they are programming languages
used for building the equivalent of shell
scripts, i.e. doing the sort of things that shell
scripts have traditionally been used for.
 But any language can be used this way
 So it is a matter of convenience
 Characteristics of Scripting
Languages
 Typically interpretive
 But that’s an implementation detail
 Typically have high level data structures
 But rich libraries can substitute for this
 For example, look at GNAT.Spitbol

 Powerful flexible string handling

 Typically have rich libraries
 But any language can meet this requirement
 Is Python A Scripting Language?
 Usually thought of as one
 But this is mainly a marketing issue
 People think of scripting languages as being
easy to learn, and useful.
 But Python is a well worked out coherent
dynamic programming language
 And there is no reason not to use it for a wide
range of applications.