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Programming & Scripting
Python is a big deal. It is one of the fastest growing and most in-demand programming languages in the world today. Python is so flexible and versatile that it is used for nearly every job that a programming language can do.

Python powers desktop applications, is used for Linux system scripting and automation, acts as a glue language between Linux applications, is a supplemental scripting language in large programs like GIMP, Blender, and Autodesk Maya, performs crucial scientific and mathematical calculations, and runs some of the web's largest sites like Quora, Reddit, and Dropbox.

Python is also very easy to learn and read. Top computer science programs like the one at MIT rely on Python to teach fundamental computer science and programming concepts to their students. Python can be read a lot like plain English and its structures and flow are consistent with many other programming languages. Essentially, it is the perfect balance between readability and user friendliness and programming power.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Code would quickly become an ugly and unruly mess if there wasn't a way to easily repeat and reuse it. You've already seen some of that with loops. They're great for repeating the same task multiple times right away. What if you wanted to reuse a block of code whenever you wanted? Well, that's where functions come in.

Here's another trip back to math class. If you remember, functions took in a number, did something to it, then outputted the new value. They were often represented in tables with the input on one side and the output on the other. Functions in programming are similar. Sometimes they take input. Sometimes they don't. Much of the time they return a value as well, but they don't always have to. In every case, they are used to repeat an operation whenever they are used, and that's the greatest similarity with the math concept.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

You've already gotten acquainted with dictionaries, but just like the other data structures Python supports, there are methods and more powerful ways to use them. There aren't as many methods for working with dictionaries as there are for lists, but that's because dictionaries just don't need them. Plus, many of the ones that do exist, work to break down dictionaries into lists and tuples to make them easier to manage. So, those list methods can be used in conjunction with the dictionary ones to create an efficient machine for handling data.

Dictionary Methods

Items, Keys, and Values

These methods work to break down dictionaries into other data structures to make working with them much more manageable. Doing so also gives access to the methods of those data structures. Through these combinations of methods and loops, you can access and manipulate data with ease.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Somebody hit lists with gamma rays. Okay, so Dictionaries aren't the Incredible Hulk, but they are supercharged in what they can do. In other languages, dictionaries are referred to as hashes, associative arrays, and associative lists. It's probably best to think of them as associative lists because that's exactly what they are. Dictionaries are lists that associate two values with one another. To think of it in terms of an actual dictionary, they associate a word, or key with a definition, or value. They function sort of like a list with custom indexes.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

There is yet another type of loop. That loop is designed for iterating sets of data. That's right, lists. Unlike while loops, these for loops have a defined length based on the data set that they are iterating over.

Generally, for loops are used to access and modify each element in a list. To do this, they temporarily represent each element as a new variable used only within the loop.

for loops have a slightly different structure than while loops do. They begin with the word for, which is followed by the temporary variable being created for the loop. Then there is the keyword in specifying the set of data being used, followed by the data set itself and, ultimately, a colon.

For With Range

There is a method called range() that either takes a single number and behaves like a list of numbers going from zero until the number before the one specified or takes two numbers separated by a comma and acts like a slice starting at the first number and listing all numbers until the number before the last one.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Many times in programming, you will need to repeat the same task many times. In fact, looping through and repeating an operation is one of the cornerstones of programming. After all, one of the things that computers are way better than humans at is performing repetitive tasks without getting tired or making mistakes.

One of the simplest ways to make a program repeat the same task is to use a while loop. A while loop repeats the same block of code while a condition is true. When that condition becomes false, the loop will break, and the regular flow of code will resume.

The structure of a while loop is similar to what you encountered in the last guide with if. A while loop begins with the word while followed by parenthesis containing the condition of the loop and a colon. The following lines are indented and will execute in the loop.

Infinite While

Check out this while loop. Try it yourself in your interpreter to see exactly what it does. You might be somewhat surprised. 
# Import time for sleep
import time

# While loop
while(True):
	print("looping...")
	time.sleep(2)
What happened? Rather, what is happening? If you haven't figured out how to stop it yet, just press Ctrl+C. A while loop will run indefinitely as long as the condition that it is given remains True. The loop above was given True as its condition, which will never not be true.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

How can a program make a decision? Can a program choose between two or more options. Actually, it can. This isn't some kind of advanced AI concept, it's just a matter of evaluating whether or not certain conditions have been met and choosing a response.

The way that a program can evaluate a condition comes down to true and false. If something is true, do this. If it isn't true do, that. The if statement is the structure for a program to pose these questions and evaluate whether or not they are true. if statements can check multiple conditions and provide multiple responses. They can be used to divert code down one path or another and control the overall flow of a program. They can also be used as a gating mechanism to determine whether certain blocks of code run. Have you ever gotten a message telling you that you needed to log in to continue? That was the result of if.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

If you've been following along, you're probably tired of hearing about lists right about now. Well, this guide has nothing to do with lists! Remember back when you first leaned about variables; how there was one that just held True or False called a Boolean? There hasn't been a guide on them because Booleans are actually that simple. However, there are symbols called Boolean Operators that are used to evaluate whether a statement is true or false. They compare statements and return either true or false. It sounds simple, and in a way it is, but it can get more complex when more comparisons get added.

And

The first comparison operator is and. You can use and to test in one statement and another statement are both true. 
is_it_true = (3 * 4 > 10) and (5 + 5 >= 10)
print(is_it_true)
The code prints out True because both 3 * 4 > 10 and 5 + 5 >= 10 are true.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Tuples are immutable data sets made up of data of different types. While tuples are very similar to lists, they are different in those key ways.

Tuples cannot be changed once they are created. The data they hold can be passed to a different tuple, but the original tuple cannot be changed. This means that tuples don't have methods for manipulating them like lists do because they cannot be manipulated.

Like lists, tuples can also contain data of different types. Tuples can contain strings, integers, floats, booleans, and even lists. Because tuples are immutable, they aren't meant to be manipulated, so data types don't matter nearly as much.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Now it's time to take lists to a new dimension. No, you don't need to learn how to code in "The Upside Down," but there are additional degrees of complexity to lists. Lists are used to hold data, but they are also used to categorize it. Values inside a list can be further broken down into other sets. That's essentially what a multidimensional list is.

Two Dimensional Lists

What is a list that holds lists? That's all a two dimensional list is. The list below consists of three lists. Each of the three lists has five elements. Don't worry about numbers quite yet. Just focus on the top level elements, the lists. You can access them the way you would any element in a normal list. 
number_sets = [[2, 4, 6, 8, 10], [3, 6, 9, 12, 15], [4, 8, 12, 16, 20]]
print(number_sets[1])

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Using methods with lists gives you the power to manipulate the data stored in the lists quickly and effectively. Many of these methods are concerned with finding, adding, and removing pieces of data stored within the list they are being called on. Others are more concerned with the structure of the list itself.

In any case, they will make your experience using lists a lot less frustrating by saving you time and effort writing and rewriting the same code.

Finding the Length

Yes, this does start off with some more overlap with strings. The len() method works on lists as well. So, in order to find the amount of elements in a list, just place it in the len() method. 
linux_distros = ['Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Fedora', 'CentOS', 'OpenSUSE', 'Arch', 'Gentoo']
print(len(linux_distros))
Again, keep in mind that the result is the number of elements in the list. The last element is available at the index of six. You can also use the len() method to access elements in the list, if you have to. 
linux_distros = ['Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Fedora', 'CentOS', 'OpenSUSE', 'Arch', 'Gentoo']
print(linux_distros[len(linux_distros) - 1])
Adding the - 1 at the end is necessary, because there is no index of seven, since the list starts counting at zero. Using this method is another way to access elements based on the length of the list. In some cases, it may be preferable to using the negative numbers.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Lists are a big deal. It really can't be overemphasized what a big deal they are. Lists are not only used for iterating through data, but they are also a popular data storage and categorization method used for handling data as a program is running. For anyone who's programmed in another language, lists are often known as arrays.

Lists may be either very simple or very complex, but they all follow the same rules. Lists may contain different types of data, but be careful when working with it. If you create a list that mixes, say, strings and floats, be sure not to try to call a string method on a list item containing a float.

Remember when the string guides said that strings were just a list of characters. Well, now's the time to be glad that you paid attention to strings. You can do many of the same things that you did with strings with lists, and you can do them in the same way. So, some of this is going to feel like a repeat of the string guide, but don't break focus. There are differences, and there are list specific methods, so assuming that strings and lists are the exact same this will get you into trouble.

Creating a List

Creating a list is a bit different than the other variables that you've learned about so far. You can create a list with absolutely no values in it at all. This is useful for situations where you don't exactly know what will be added to the list because the data isn't in the program yet. There will also be plenty of situations where you won't be sure how many entries will be in a list, so again, creating an empty one and adding data later is the right move.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

This guide isn't about programming. In fact, there is no new code involved at all. However, it does have everything to do with making sure that the code that you write is understandable to both yourself and anyone else that might look at it down the line.

If you've looked at any open source projects, you've probably noticed notes placed in by the programmers. Those notes are just plain text. The programming language doesn't compile or interpret them in any way. It just ignores them. It knows that those comments are for humans, not computers.

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

In the previous guide, you learned the basics of handling strings in Python. In this guide, you will explore some of the more complex things that strings are capable of. There are tools built into Python, called string methods, that help you to handle strings and do some very powerful things. Through the use of string methods, you can masterfully manipulate text and use it to its fullest potential without writing a ton of code.

Navigating a String

Strings aren't words. They aren't sentences, phrases, and believe it or not, they aren't even a collection of text. Strings are just a lists of characters. Those characters can be letter, numbers, symbols, spaces, and escape characters. Python sees strings by their parts(the characters) and uses those parts to manipulate strings. This is actually true of almost any programming language. So, that means that you can select individual characters out of a string. Try this: 
phrase_string = "This phrase is a string!"
print(phrase_string[0])

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Programming & Scripting

Introduction

Strings are called what they are because they are strings of characters. It doesn't matter if those characters are letters, numbers, symbols or spaces. They are all taken literally and not processed within a string. That's why strings are sometimes referred to as string literals.

String Basics

If you've been following along with the previous guides, you've already experimented with some strings. You've typed in some, and you've printed them back out. What about getting user input when the Python script runs? Python has built in functionality to take in user input and assign it to a variable. Try it out. 
user_input = input("Please enter some text: ")
print(user_input)

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