Table of Contents

Sections and articles are listed in an approximate order of increasing complexity.

Python

  • Basic Python

    • Introduction to Python

      About Python - features, supported systems, philosophy.

    • Getting Started

      Downloading and installing Python, using the Python shell and executing your program.

    • Python Syntax

      The basic features of Python syntax - statement separation, comments and whitespace.

    • Variables and Types

      Integers, floating point numbers, strings and lists in Python.

    • String Manipulation

      An in-depth look at the string type in Python. Topics include immutability, finding the length of a string, concatenation, substrings and format strtings.

    • Using Lists and Tuples

      An in-depth look at lists and tuples in Python. Topics include constructing lists and tuples, finding the size of a list or tuple, accessing elements, slicing, concatenation, assigning to elements, unpacking values, using lists as stacks and queues.

    • Dictionaries

      An introduction to Python dictionaries including creating dictionaries and accessing elements.

    • Looping Constructs

      Python for and while loops. Counting with a for loop.

    • Conditionals

      If statements in Pytho - if, elif and else clauses.

    • Functions

      Defining Python function. Declaring parameters and returning value. Default parameter values, keyword arguments and variable-length argument lists.

  • Advanced Python

    • I/O

      Doing standard input/output and file input/output in Python.

    • Exception

      Exception generation and handling in Python - raise, try, except and finally.

    • Generators

      Iterators, iterables and generators. How to write a Python generator. An example Python generator for Fibonacci numbers.

    • Functional Programming

      Functional programming concept in Python. Using map, reduce, filter and lambda.

    • Object-oriented Programming

      Object-oriented basics in Python. Defining and instantiating classes. Fields and properties. Methods, static methods, class methods. Inheritance, multiple inheritance.

    • Decorators

      What are Python decorators and how are they used. Also looks at the common decorators @staticmethod and @classmethod as well as using a custom decorator.

    • Modules and Packages

      Python and packages modules. Grouping common code in a package. Modules and packages as namespaces.

  • References

    • Built-in Functions

      A complete list of the built-in functions provided by Python.

    • String Methods

      A complete list of public methods that may be called on any string object.

    • List Methods

      A complete list of the public methods that may be called on any list object.

    • Dictionary Methods

      A complete list of the public methods that may be called on any dictionary object.

  • Examples

    • Timeout a Function

      Define a custom decorator which when applied to any function will automatically time it out after a specified period of time.