Scribd
Upload
35 views13 pages

1 0 Introduction

Uploaded by

Jad Matta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
35 views13 pages

1 0 Introduction

Uploaded by

Jad Matta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

Get Started With Python

Python is one of the most popular programming languages,


often used for data analytics and machine learning
applications. This article will help you get started with
Python Programming language by installing it and running
your first program. Also, it will walk you through the
basics concepts.

Table of contents
 What is Python?
 Install Python
 Create and Run Your First Python Program
 Run Python Using IDLE
 Run Python on Command Line
 Execute Python File
 Syntax and Indentation in Python
 Using Blank Lines in code
 End-of-Line to Terminates a Statement
 Semicolumn to Seperate Multiple Statements
 Indentation
 Next Steps

What is Python?
Python is a general-purpose, high-level, interpreted,
object-oriented programming language used for a wide
variety of applications.

Python was developed by Guido Van Rossum in 1989 while


working at National Research Institute in the Netherlands.
But officially, Python was made available to the public in
1991.

Python code syntax uses English keywords, and that makes it


easy to understand. Therefore, Python is recommended as the
first programming language for beginners.
In addition, it includes high-level data structures,
dynamic typing, dynamic binding, and many more features
that make it very attractive for rapid application
development.

Python is simple, easy to learn. Syntax emphasizes


readability and therefore reduces the cost of program
maintenance. In addition, it supports modules and packages,
which encourages program modularity and code reuse.

The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library


are available in source or binary form for all major
platforms. In addition, it has a wide range of standard and
third-party libraries that helps in rapid application
development.

Install Python
It may be possible that some PCs and Macs will have Python
already installed. You can check which version of Python is
installed before proceeding to the installation.

Open the command line or terminal and type the below


command.

python --version

If you find Python is not installed, then start installing


it using the following instructions.

Installing or updating Python on your computer is the first


step to start with programming in Python. There are
multiple installation methods, such as installing Python
using an installer or a source code (.zip file)

Download the latest version of Python


from python.org(PyCharm). Once you’ve downloaded the
installer as per the operating system, Next run an
installer by double-clicking on the downloaded file and
follow the steps.
Install Python on macOS
Install Python on windows
After installation is completed, we will get a setup
successfully install message.

Let’s open the command line or terminal and type the below
command to check the version of Python.

python --version

Now it’s showing 3.9.6, which is the currently installed


version of Python on our machine when writing this
tutorial.

Create and Run Your First Python


Program
Now, the installation is completed, let’s see how to write
our first Python program.
We can run Python by using the following three ways

 Run Python using IDLE


 Run Python interactively using command line in immediate
mode
 Executing Python File
We will see each one by but before that, let’s see how to
write your first Python program.

Let’s write a simple statement in Python to print the


‘hello world’ on a screen.

 Use the print() function and write a message in its


opening and closing brackets shown below.
 A message is a string that is a sequence of characters.
In Python, strings are enclosed inside single quotes,
double quotes, or triple quotes.
Program:

print('Hello, World')

Run
Output:

Hello, World

Run Python Using IDLE


IDLE is an integrated development environment (IDE) for
Python. The Python installer contains the IDLE module by
default. Thus, when you install Python, IDLE gets installed
automatically.

Go to launchpad (for mac) and start icon (for Windows) and


type IDLE, to open it. IDLE is an interactive Python Shell
where you can write python commands and get the output
instantly.
IDLE Python Editor
Let’s see how to print ‘hello world’ in Python using IDLE.
Type print('Hello, World') and hit enter.

Hello world in Python


As you can see, we got the output after we executed
a print() function with a message.

IDLE has features like coding hinting, syntax highlighting,


checking, etc.
Also, we can create a new file, write Python code, and save
it with the .py extension. The .py is the python file
extension which denotes this is the Python script.

Let’s see how to create a Python script using IDLE.

 Go to the File Menu and select the new file option


 Type the same code (hello world message) in it
 Next, Go to the File menu to save it as hello.py

Create Python script


Next, To run the script, go to the Run > Run Module or
simply click F5.
Run Python
script in IDLE

Run Python on Command Line


We can also run Python on the command line.

 Type python command on the command line or terminal to


run Python interactively. It will invoke the interpreter
in immediate mode.
 Next, type Python code and press enter to get the
output.
Please find the below image for demonstration.
Run Python on the command line
To exit this mode, type quit() and press enter.

Execute Python File


Python is an interpreted programming language in which we
create a code file ( .py with extension) and pass it to the
Python interpreter to execute whenever required.

Open any text editor and type the below code in it, and
save it as a hello.py

print('Hello, World')

Run
Now, open the terminal or command line use the below
command to execute the message.py. You need to change the
directory where this file is present before executing it.

python message.py

Here python is the command and message.py is the file name you
want to execute.
Run
Python script using command line
You should get the following output.

Hello, World

Syntax and Indentation in Python


The syntax is the structure of language or set of
rules that defines how a Python program will be written and
interpreted.

Also, See: Python style guide

Using Blank Lines in code


A line containing only white space, possibly with
a comment or within a code, is known as a blank line, and
Python ignores it.

End-of-Line to Terminates a Statement


In Python end of the line terminate the statement. So you
don’t need to write any symbol to mark the end of the line
to indicate the statement termination. For example, in
other programming languages like Java and C, the statement
must end with a semicolon (;).

See: Statement in Python

Example

a = 20

Python statement ends with the token NEWLINE character (\n).


But we can extend the statement over multiple lines using
line continuation character (\). This is known as an
explicit continuation.

addition = 10 + 20 + \
30 + 40 + \
50 + 60 + 70
print(addition)
# Output: 280

Run

Semicolumn to Seperate Multiple Statements


In Python, we can add multiple statements on a single
line separated by semicolons, as follows:

# two statements in a single


l = 2; b = 6

# statement 3
print('Area of rectangle:', l * b)

# Output Area of rectangle: 12

Run
Most Python style guides don’t recommend adding multiple
statements on a single line, though occasionally, it
improves readability.

Indentation
Python indentation tells a Python interpreter that the
group of statements belongs to a particular block of code.
The indentation makes the code look neat, clean, and more
readable.

A block is a combination of all multiple statements. Inside


a code block, we group multiple statements for a specific
purpose.

In other programming languages like C or Java, use curly


braces { } to define a block of code. Python uses
indentation to denote the code block.

Whitespace is used for indentation in Python to define the


indentation level. Ideally, we should use 4 spaces per
indentation level. In Python, indented code blocks are
always preceded by a colon (:) on the previous line.

Take the example of the if-else statement in Python.

num1 = 50
num2 = 100
if num1 > num2:
print(num1, 'is greater than', num2)
elif num2 > num1:
print(num2, 'is greater than', num1)
else:
print('Both numbers are equal')

Run

Indentation in Python
If one code block is nested in another block, the child
code block should separate by 4 spaces from the parent code
block.

If a block has to be more deeply nested, it is simply


indented further to the right. You can understand it better
by looking at the following lines of code.

You might also like