«Everybody should learn to program a computer,
because it teaches you how to think»
– Steve Jobs

Alberto Clerici, Maurizio De Pra, M. Chiara Debernardi, Davide Tosi

 

Contents

 

1 Introduction to computer programming

1.1 Same logics, different languages

1.2 Computer and data recording

1.3 How a program works

1.4 Evolution of languages

1.5 The program development cycle

1.6 Algorithms and flow charts

1.7 Why Python?

 

2 Introduction to Python

2.1 What is Python?

2.2 How to install Python

2.3 IDLE: editor and shell

2.4 Writing, saving and running a program

2.5 First notions of Python syntax

2.6 Comments and docstring

2.7 Escape codes

2.8 Built-in functions

2.9 Help and other kinds of support

 

3 Calculations and data output

3.1 Math operators and calculations

3.2 Parentheses and operator precedence

3.3 Mathematical formulas

3.4 Data output

3.5 Functions for calculations

 

4 Variables and data types

4.1 Variables and assignment statements

4.2 Variables naming conventions

4.3 Reassignment

4.4 Data types

4.5 Mixed data types expressions

4.6 Type conversion functions

4.7 The input function

 

5 Decision-making structures and Boolean expressions

5.1 The if statement

5.2 Boolean expressions and relational operators

5.3 The if-else statements

5.4 The if-elif-else statements

5.5 The logical operators and, or, not

5.6 The pass statement

 

6 Iterative constructs

6.1 Introduction to loops

6.2 The while loop

6.3 The for loop

6.4 The range function

6.5 Nested loops

6.6 The break and continue statements

 

7 Functions

7.1 Introduction to functions

7.2 Defining and calling a function

7.3 Function arguments

7.4 Productive functions

7.5 Local variables and global variables

7.6 The docstring

7.7 Functions with loops and conditional statements

 

8 Strings and lists

8.1 Sequences

8.2 Strings

8.3 Operations on strings

8.4 Lists

8.5 Operations on lists

8.6 Indexing

8.7 Slicing

8.8 Functions and methods of strings

8.9 List functions

8.10 List methods

8.11 Traversing of strings and lists

8.12 Two-dimensional lists (lists of lists)

 

9 tuples and dictionaries

9.1 Tuples

9.2 Tuple operators, functions and methods

9.3 Traversing tuples

9.4 Dictionaries

9.5 Dictionary operators, functions and methods

 

10 File access and error handling

10.1 File access

10.2 Reading data from a file

10.3 Writing data in a file

10.4 Error handling in Python

10.5 The statements try… except

10.6 Debugging

 

11 Python libraries

11.1 Definition of module

11.2 The Python standard library

11.3 Building our own modules

11.4 Third-party libraries

11.5 Expanding the potential of Python

 

12 Classes, attributes and methods

12.1 Object-oriented programming

12.2 The objects: classes and instances

12.3 Working with custom classes

12.4 Inheritance

 

Acknowledgements

 

Selected bibliography