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Courseware

Introduction to Python course manual

Here are the chapters included in this course manual (we use exactly the same manuals for our classroom and online Python courses).

Click here to download a sample of the first two chapters of this Introduction to Python manual, or review how to license our courseware.

Chapter 1 - INTRODUCING PYTHON▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
1.1	Installing Python		7
1.2	Choosing an Editor		8

Chapter 2 - VISUAL STUDIO CODE▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
2.1	Getting Started with VS Code	Installing Visual Studio Code Changing your Theme The Activity Bar	9
2.2	Installing Extensions	Installing the Python Extension	11
2.3	The Terminal Window	Viewing Terminal Windows Interactive Python Sessions	12
2.4	Files and Folders	Opening a Folder Creating Python Files	12
2.5	Running Programs	Clearing the Terminal Window Three Ways to Run a Program	14
2.6	Basic Debugging	Setting and Unsetting Breakpoints Debugging	15

Chapter 3 - BASIC CODING▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
3.1	Comments	Single-line Comments Multi-line Comments Commenting Out Lines (and Uncommenting)	16
3.2	Variables	Declaring Variables Variable Types Determining Type Assigning Values to Variables Deleting Variables	16
3.3	Rules of Arithmetic		20
3.4	Basic Strings	New Lines and Tabs Quotation Marks Backslash Characters Concatenating Text Converting Numbers to Text Getting Inputs from Users	21
3.5	Testing Conditions using If	Simple Conditions Multiple Conditions Testing for Equality Combining and Negating Conditions	23
3.6	Testing Conditions using Match	Testing a Discrete Set of Conditions Testing Ranges	25

Chapter 4 - CUSTOMISING VISUAL STUDIO CODE▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
4.1	Configuring VS Code Settings	Changing Settings using The Command Palette Changing Settings using the Menu Using Settings (JSON) Default Settings and JSON View Copying Default Settings to Customise Them Typical Default Settings	26
4.2	The Code Runner Extension	Installing the Extension Running Programs Changing the Run Key Combination Customising Code Runner	29
4.3	Other Useful VS Code Tips	Using Multiple Insertion Points Extending the Cursor Point Up or Down Selecting Rectangles of Code Global Changes using Multiple Insertion Points The Easiest Way to Rename Variables Using Zen Mode Expanding and Collapsing Code	32

Chapter 5 - JUPYTER NOTEBOOKS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
5.1	Introducing Jupyter Notebooks	What is a Jupyter Notebook? The Benefits of Jupyter Notebooks	35
5.2	Installing Jupyter Notebooks in VS Code	Step 1 - Instal the Jupyter Extension Step 2 - Create a Notebook Step 3 – Select a Kernel Step 4 – Trying to Install the JN Kernel Package Step 5 – Adding a Virtual Environment	36
5.3	Working with Cells	Adding Markdown Moving Cells Joining Cells Splitting Cells Deleting Cells	39
5.4	Running Code	Running a Cell’s Code Running All Cells’ Code	41
5.5	Debugging Code	Debugging a Cell Using Jupyter Variables View	42

Chapter 6 - VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
6.1	What Virtual Environments Are		43
6.2	Creating a Virtual Environment	Creating and Opening a Folder Creating a Virtual Environment Structure of a Virtual Environment Activating a Virtual Environment Selecting an Interpreter	44

Chapter 7 - IMPORTING MODULES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
7.1	Importing Modules	Importing a Module Giving Modules Aliases Importing Specific Functions Importing Functions and Using Aliases	48
7.2	Some Useful Built-In Modules		50
7.3	Using External Modules	Installing a Module Using Installed Modules Module Not Found Error Listing External Modules Viewing External Modules	51

Chapter 8 - FORMATTING TEXT AND NUMBERS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
8.1	Basic Ways to Format Output	Using the F Prefix Using the Format Function Placeholder Order can Vary or be Omitted	54
8.2	Formatting Numbers		56

Chapter 9 - RANGES AND LOOPS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
9.1	While Loops	Syntax of the While Command Example of a While Loop Using Else with While	57
9.2	Break, Continue and Pass		59
9.3	For Loops		60
9.4	Ranges		61

Chapter 10 - DEBUGGING▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
10.1	Overview		62
10.2	Preparing to Debug	Step 1 – Creating a Configuration File Step 2 - Setting a Breakpoint Step 3 – Turning off the JustMyCode Flag	63
10.3	Debugging		65
10.4	Viewing and/or Changing Variable Values	The Variables Pane Watching Variables and Expressions The Debug Console	66
10.5	Breakpoints	Conditional Breakpoints Disabling Breakpoints Deleting Breakpoints Removing or Disabling All Breakpoints	68
10.6	Debugging Function Calls	Stepping Into, Over and Out of Functions The Call Stack Function Breakpoints	70
10.7	Logging Breakpoints		72

Chapter 11 - SEQUENCES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
11.1	Introduction to Sequences	Main Types of Sequences in Python Reminder of Iterating Over Sequences	73
11.2	Tuples versus Lists	Mutability (Lists versus Tuples)	74
11.3	Slicing Sequences	Examples of Slicing for Lists Examples of Slicing for Ranges Examples of Slicing for Strings Missing Items when Slicing (Step Values)	75
11.4	Joining and Splitting Sequences	Joining Sequences Together Concatenating Sequence Members Splitting Strings to Generate Sequences Splitting a String into Before and After Text	78
11.5	Unpacking Sequences		80
11.6	Working with Sequences	Getting the Length of a Sequence Getting the Number of Items of a Specific Value Aggregating a Sequence’s Items Getting the Index Number of an Item Returning Sequence Index Numbers and Values Mixing Data Types	81
11.7	Examples of Sequences	Listing the Files in a Folder (ListDir) Listing the Files in a Folder using Glob Dividing Text into Lists of Words or Phrases A Tuple Listing Built-In Module Names Scraping Websites for Links	84

Chapter 12 - MANIPULATING LISTS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
12.1	Adding and Removing Items	Inserting Items Appending to and Extending Lists Removing Items from Lists by Value Popping Items from a List by Position Clearing the Contents of Lists	87
12.2	Changing the Order of Lists	Sorting Lists Reversing Lists	90
12.3	Shallow and Deep Copying of Lists	Assigning is not Copying Shallow Copying Deep Copying	91

Chapter 13 - COMPREHENSIONS AND GENERATORS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
13.1	Comprehensions	Basic Comprehensions Comprehensions with Conditions Multiple Loops within Comprehensions	93
13.2	Generators	Disadvantages of Generators	95

Chapter 14 - FILES AND FOLDERS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
14.1	Writing to Text Files		96
14.2	Using With to Close Files Automatically		97
14.3	Reading Files	Checking if Files and Folders Exist Reading Line by Line or Reading Characters Reading All the Lines in a File using Readlines Reading All the Lines in a File by Looping	98
14.4	Looping Over Files	Looping Over Files in a Folder Processing Files in a Folder Looping Recursively	100

Chapter 15 - ERROR-HANDLING▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
15.1	Trapping for Errors	Error Types Trapping General Errors Trapping Specific Errors The Full Range of Commands	102
15.2	Raising Exceptions		104

Chapter 16 - NUMBERS, STRINGS AND DATES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
16.1	Overview		105
16.2	Working with Numbers	Mathematical Operators Built-in Numerical Functions Math Functions	106
16.3	Working with Boolean Values	Boolean Operators All and Any	108
16.4	Working with Dates (and Times)	Getting Dates (and Times) Formatting Dates Formatting Times Displaying Calendar Months Displaying Day and Month Names	109
16.5	Working with Strings	Escape Characters Avoiding Escape Characters Joining and Splitting Text Repeating Text Extracting Text (Slicing) Counting and Length Changing Case Padding Removing and Replacing Text Translating Text Finding Text Checking Text Content	112

Chapter 17 - SETS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
17.1	Some Set Concepts		118
17.2	Working with Sets	Creating Sets Set Operations	119
17.3	Converting between Sets and Lists	Converting Sets to Lists Converting Lists to Sets	120
17.4	Examples of the Use of Sets	Counting Unique Letters or Words Finding the Differences between Lists	122

Chapter 18 - DICTIONARIES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
18.1	Creating Dictionaries	What is a Dictionary? Creating Dictionaries	124
18.2	Using Dictionaries	Looking Up Items Looping Over Dictionary Items Adding. Editing and Deleting Items Sorting Dictionaries	125

Chapter 19 - WRITING FUNCTIONS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
19.1	The Need for Functions	Advantages of Using Functions	127
19.2	Writing a Function	Step 1 – Identifying the Input Arguments Step 2 – Specifying the Output Data Type Step 3 – Reviewing the Syntax Required Step 4 – Writing your Functions	128
19.3	Learning Points	Variable Names are Isolated Arguments can have Different Names Functions can be Declared in any Order Your Function could Crash in Many Ways Data Types are for Guidance Only	130
19.4	Ways to Pass Arguments	Arguments by Name or Position Forcing Positional or Named Arguments Optional Arguments	133
19.5	Arbitrary and Keyword Arguments	Passing an Unknown Number of Argument Values Passing an Arbitrary Set of Arguments	135
19.6	Using Modules for Functions		137
19.7	Modular Programming		138
19.8	Docstrings		139

Chapter 20 - WORKING WITH EXCEL▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
20.1	Getting Started with Openpyxl	Installing Openpyxl Getting Help with OpenPyXl	140
20.2	Working with Workbooks	Creating and Saving Workbooks Opening and Closing Workbooks	141
20.3	Working with Worksheets	Inserting Worksheets Our Example Workbook Getting a List of Worksheet Names Getting a Worksheet Itself Getting and Setting the Active Worksheet A Worked Example Looping over Worksheets	142
20.4	Working with Cells	Referring to Single Cells Useful Cell Properties	145
20.5	Looping over Cells	Looping over Row and/or Column Numbers Offsetting Cells	146

Chapter 21 - PYTHON CODING USING AI TOOLS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
21.1	Choosing an AI Tool		147
21.2	Generating Code	Our Example – Scraping a Website A Critique of the Code Generated Problems with the Code Simplifying the Code	148
21.3	Refactoring / Changing Code	Global Variable Changes Stylistic Changes	151
21.4	Optimising Code	Writing Code more Efficiently Changing the Algorithm	152
21.5	Debugging	Our Example – Reading a Shopping List What to Ask Listing the Bugs	153
21.6	Researching Modules		155

If you book a place on one of our courses you will automatically get access to the relevant courseware manual online, and also have the option to receive a paper copy of it.

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