Python Intro: Glossary

The best way to learn to code is by actually writing code to solve a problem.

You don’t have to remember every single detail of each episode or exercise.

Spyder is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that makes it easier to write and debug code

You can write code one line at a time in the console or write longer scripts in the Editor window

Code should be written in an IDE like Spyder or by using a plain text editor

Creating variables allows you to “reuse” a number or value in multiple locations in your code

Python stores different kinds of information (text, numbers, decimal numbers, and others) as different “types” of variables

You should give your variables descriptive names! This will make your code easier to read!

A script is a file that contains multiple lines of code

A script can be run all at once rather than writing and running one line at a time

A script can be reused over and over again

Lists can be used to group numbers (ints or floats), strings, lists, or other kinds of values together in one variable

Lists are ordered- objects stay in the order you add them

Lists are indexed using 0-based indexing

You can use square bracket notation to return a single item in a list or subset of items

Loops require careful attention to spacing and indentation

The loop variable takes on the value of each item in the object we are looping over, one at a time

You must refer to the loop variable in the code written under the for loop statement

If/elif/else statements allow your program to do different things if different conditions are met

If/elif/else blocks require careful attention to indentation

In an if/elif/else block, the code underneath the first condition that is true will be executed

Code under other conditions will not be executed, even if they are also true

Opening and reading a file is a multistep process: Defining the filename, opening the file, and reading the data

Data stored in files can be read in using a variety of commands

Writing data to a file requires attention to data types and formatting that isn’t necessary with a print() statement

Libraries contain specialized functions that can be imported and used in your code

The numpy library contains functions that allow you to easily read in a .csv-formatted data file and perform simple operations on rows and columns of the data

Function statements start with the keyword def, and must include a name, parameters, and a return statement

Functions must be called in order to use them

Functions can be imported to be used by other scripts using the import command