Introduction to Computing with Python - Lecture 2 Basic Components of CodeFile

Today 

•     Constants, Variables, Identifiers
•     Types
•     Type Casting
•     Expressions, Operators
•     Assignments, Statements

CONSTANTS, VARIALBES, IDENTIFIERS 

Reminder: Cashier Program 

•     Write a program which receives a series of purchases, prints the 
current total and tells the cashier to go home when the total reaches 
over $1000. 

1.  Define and initialize a counter, which keeps track 
of the current sum.
2.  While the counter did not reach 1000:
        1.  Get the cost as input
        2.  Add the cost to the sum
        3.  Display the sum
3.  Display “Go Home!” 

sum = 0
while sum < 1000:
    x = int(input("Enter cost: ")) 
    sum += x
    print("Current Total:", sum) 
print("Go Home!")

 

Elements of Code: Constants 

•     Number:
        • 5
        • -10
        • 17.5

• Boolean:
        • True
        • False 

 •     String:
        • “Hello World”
        • ‘Some String’

 •     List:
        • [1, 2, 3]
        • [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’]

Constants: Examples 

sum = 0
while sum < 1000:
    x = int(input("Enter cost: ")) 
    sum += x
    print("Current Total:", sum) 
print("Go Home!")

Elements of Code: Variables 

• Holds a value inside
• Its contents can be changed (variable – it “varies”) 

Variables: Examples 

• Note: each variable is marked the first time it appears in the code. 

Elements of Code: Identifiers 

• Refers to components inside the code, like a name.
• Enables us to use the component.
• Examples to such components:
        • Variables
        • Reserved words
        • Functions 

Reserved Words: Examples 

Constants, Variables, Identifiers 

>>> a = 3 
>>> b = 1 
>>> c = 9 

Rules for Identifiers 

 Identifiers are like names, but not every name is acceptable. 
Rules for Identifiers in Python 3:
1. Must contain non-empty sequence of characters.
2. Only English letters (lowercase or UPPERCASE), digits or 
underscore (_)
3. Cannot start with a digit
4. Cannot be a reserved word

Identifiers: Examples 

Meaningful Identifiers 

• It is important to give meaningful names for identifiers.
•     Good naming will help make your code more readable!
•     Compare these examples:
t = p * tr 
sA = gr + fff

tax  =  price * tax_rate
grade_of_semester_A = test_grade + factor 

Reserved Words  

• These are special identifiers reserved for built-in Python components.
• Cannot be used as identifiers for variables! 

•     These special keywords are a part of the Python language and 
cannot be used as identifiers:

>>> False = 4
File "<stdin>", line 1
SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword

TYPES 

•     Every value in Python has a Type. 
        >>> type(5)
        int
        >>> type("Hello World") 
        str
        >>> type(True) 
        bool
        >>> type(1.0) 
        float
•     What is a type in Python?

•     The type defines what are the relevant operations that can be done 
with the value:
        >>> 5 * 5 
        25
        >>> 'hi' * 5 
        'hihihihihi' 
        >>> 'hi' * 'hi'
        Traceback (most recent call last):  File 
        "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
        TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'str'

        >>> 'hi' + 'hi' 
        'hihi'
        >>> 5 + 'hi'
        Traceback (most recent call last):  File 
        "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
        TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'        

Type Casting 

•     Python has special functions that convert values from one type to 
another. This explicit way of changing the type of a value is called Type 
Casting.
•     Examples:
>>>   int('17') 
17
>>>   str(20) 
'20'
>>>   float(1) 
1.0
>>>   int(2.5)
2
>>>   int(2.3)
2
>>>   str(float(1)) 
'1.0'

•     We saw that already. Back to our Cashier problem:

•     The input function always receives a string as keyboard input from 
the user. Type casting is used to convert the string to a number we can 
add to sum. 

Types and Variables 

 •     A variable at one point can store a value of one type and later store 
a value of another type:
        >>> x = 5 
        >>> type(x) 
        int
        >>> x  = "hello" 
        >>> type(x) 
        str

PYTHON TYPES 

Integer

•     Integers (whole numbers) are numbers without fractions.
•     Integers are represented in Python by the type int.
•     In contrast with other programming languages, there isn’t a limit on how large a number you can store in Python (apart for the size of computer memory…)
>>> 2**300
203703597633448608626844568840937816105146839366 
5936250636140449354381299763336706183397376 

Float 

•     Real numbers are stored as type float.
•     The representation of these numbers in memory is implemented by the Floating-Point       Method.
•     Does not guarantee to always be 100% accurate: 

 

Complex Number 

•     Python also supports Complex Numbers.
•     Those numbers are of type complex.
•     Defined with the letter j (lower or uppercase).
•     All the relevant arithmetic operations are implemented in Python: 
        >>> x = 2 + 7j
        >>> (1+2j)* (2+3j) 
        (-4+7j)

String 

•     A String is a sequence of characters.
•     Each character is represented by a special numerical value according to the Unicode       Standard. Will be discussed later in the course.
•     Python identifies strings by double quotes and single-quotes:
•      Double Quotes:   my_string = “Hello”
•      Single Quotes:     my_string = ‘hello’ 

 Basic Python Types

•     Numbers:
•     int – whole numbers
0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 100, 2352, -100….
•     float – real numbers 
4.3, 0.5, 4e7, .4
•     complex – complex numbers 
0j, 2+8j, 1j, 1J
•    Strings:
•     ‘I am a string’
•     ‘‘
•     “Another string    “

EXPRESSIONS, OPERATORS 

 Expressions

 •     For expressions we can use constants, variables and operators.
• It is possible to create complex expressions by combining multiple operators:

        7
        ‘this_is_a_string’ 
        y=x+9
        x=3

•     There are different types of operators: 

•      Unary:        -x
•      Binary:        a*b
•      Trinary:       a if (a>0) else -a

Arithmetic Operators 

 •     Operators on numbers: +, -, *, /
•     Contrary to many other programming languages, dividing two numbers always returns a real         number (float).   

        >>>   x  =  4/2 
        2.0
        >>>   type(x) 
        <class    'float'> 
        >>>   7/4
        1.75 

Special Arithmetic Operators 

•     Power operator: ** 

>>>   2**7 
128 

• Modulo – operator for remainder of division: % 

>>>   128   %  10 
8
>>>   11     %    3 
2 

•     Floor division – operator for rounded-down division: // 

>>>   7/4 
1.75
>>>   7//4 
1 

 Arithmetic Operators Priority

ASSINGMENT, STATEMENTS 

Assignment Operator 

 •     The value of the expression on the right is saved in the variable on 
the left.

        >>>   x  =  3
        >>> y = x + 9 

•     First, the expression on the right is evaluated. Then it is saved in the 
variable on the left. 

        >>>   y  =  y  +  3 

•     Assignment can appear more than once in an expression. 
For example, all variables get the same value of 0: 

        >>>   a  =  b  =  c  =  0 

Assignment 

•     Special syntax for combining assignment with an arithmetic 
operation: 

Exercise: Solution 

Write a program which receives a 3-digit number as input from the user 
and calculates the sum of its digits. 

        >>> dsum  = 0
        >>> x = int(input("Enter a number between 100 and 999")) 
        >>> dsum  += x%10
        >>> x //= 10
        >>> dsum  += x%10 
        >>> x //= 10
        >>> dsum  += x%10