The Python Workshop

Learn the fundamentals of clean, effective Python coding and build the practical skills to tackle your own software development or data science projects

Key Features

• Build key Python skills with engaging development tasks and challenging activities
• Implement useful algorithms and write programs to solve real-world problems
• Apply Python in realistic data science projects and create simple machine learning models

Book Description

Have you always wanted to learn Python, but never quite known how to start?

More applications than we realize are being developed using Python because it is easy to learn, read, and write. You can now start learning the language quickly and effectively with the help of this interactive tutorial.

The Python Workshop starts by showing you how to correctly apply Python syntax to write simple programs, and how to use appropriate Python structures to store and retrieve data. You'll see how to handle files, deal with errors, and use classes and methods to write concise, reusable, and efficient code.

As you advance, you'll understand how to use the standard library, debug code to troubleshoot problems, and write unit tests to validate application behavior.

You'll gain insights into using the pandas and NumPy libraries for analyzing data, and the graphical libraries of Matplotlib and Seaborn to create impactful data visualizations. By focusing on entry-level data science, you'll build your practical Python skills in a way that mirrors real-world development. Finally, you'll discover the key steps in building and using simple machine learning algorithms.

By the end of this Python book, you'll have the knowledge, skills and confidence to creatively tackle your own ambitious projects with Python.

What you will learn

• Write clean and well-commented code that is easy to maintain
• Automate essential day-to-day tasks with Python scripts
• Debug logical errors and handle exceptions in your programs
• Explore data science fundamentals and create engaging visualizations
• Get started with predictive machine learning
• Keep your development process bug-free with automated testing

Who this book is for

This book is designed for anyone who is new to the Python programming language. Whether you're an aspiring software engineer or data scientist, or are just curious about learning how to code with Python, this book is for you. No prior programming experience is required.

Table of Contents

1. Vital Python - Math, Strings, Conditionals, and Loops
2. Python Structures
3. Executing Python - Programs, Algorithms, and Functions
4. Extending Python, Files, Errors, and Graphs
5. Constructing Python - Classes and Methods
6. The Standard Library
7. Becoming Pythonic
8. Software Development
9. Practical Python - Advanced Topics
10. Data Analytics with pandas and NumPy
11. Machine Learning

Andrew Bird is the data and analytics manager for Vesparum Capital. He leads the software and data science teams at Vesparum, overseeing full stack web development in Django / React. He is an Australian actuary (FIAA, CERA), who has previously worked with Deloitte Consulting in financial services. Andrew also currently works as a full-stack developer for Draftable Pvt. Ltd. He manages ongoing development of the donation portal for Effective Altruism Australia website, on a voluntary basis.

Dr Lau Cher Han is a Chief data scientist, and currently the CEO of LEAD, an institution that provides programs on data science, full stack web development, and digital marketing. Well-versed in programming languages: JavaScript, Python, C# and so on he is experienced in web frameworks: MEAN Stack, ASP.NET, Python Django and is multilingual, speaking English, Chinese, Bahasa fluently. His knowledge of Chinese spreads even into its dialects: Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese.

Mario Corchero Jiménez is a senior software developer at Bloomberg. He leads the Python infrastructure team in London, enabling the company to work effectively in Python and building company-wide libraries and tools. His professional experience is mainly in C++ and Python, and he has contributed some patches to multiple Python open source projects. He is a PSF fellow, having received the Q3 2018 PSF Community Award, is vice president of Python Espaa (the Python Spain association), and has served as Chair of PyLondinium, PyConES17, and PyCon Charlas at PyCon 2018. Mario is passionate about the Python community, open source, and inner source.

Graham Lee is an experienced programmer and writer. He has written books including Professional Cocoa Application Security, Test-Driven iOS Development, APPropriate Behaviour and APPosite Concerns. He is a developer who's been programming for long enough to want to start telling other people about the mistakes he's made, in the hope that they'll avoid repeating them. In his case, this means having worked for about 12 years as a professional. His first programming experience can hardly be called professional at all: as it was in BASIC, on a Dragon 32 microcomputer.

Corey Wade, M.S. Mathematics, M.F.A. Writing & Consciousness, is the founder and director of Berkeley Coding Academy where he teaches Machine Learning and AI to teens from all over the world. Additionally, Corey chairs the Math Department at Berkeley Independent Study where he has received multiple grants to run after-school coding programs to help bridge the tech skills gap. Additional experiences include teaching Natural Language Processing with Hello World, developing Data Science curricula with Pathstream, and publishing statistics and machine learning models with Towards Data Science, Springboard, and Medium.