Python for Absolute Beginners: Learn Python in a Week!

Learn to download and install Python on Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu Linux, use IDLE, and keep the latest version since the system Python is pre-installed and out of date.

Install Python on Windows, Mac OS, or Ubuntu with official installers or apt, open Idle to write and run programs, and consider Visual Studio Code as an alternative editor.

Compare code editors and IDEs, noting autocompletion, debugging, and testing features that boost productivity. The lecture highlights vscode, atom, sublime, pycharm, idle, and code.visualstudio.com to enhance IDE capabilities.

Write your first Python script in IDLE, run code, and distinguish interactive from script windows. Declare and inspect variables with the assignment operator, and write comments following pep 8 guidelines.

Practice making mistakes to understand syntax errors and runtime errors in Python. Learn to read traceback, fix string literals with proper quotes, and anticipate name errors.

Learn to add comments that document code, using the hash symbol for block and inline notes, and follow Pep eight to keep notes concise.

Practice interactive coding by using Idle to run a simple print statement in the Python shell, observe prompts, and handle common syntax errors.

Learn how variables name values and use the assignment operator, identify syntax errors and runtime errors with their tracebacks, and understand how comments document code.

Explore strings and string methods in Python, manipulate text with upper and lower cases, handle user input, convert numbers to strings, and format output with f-strings, indexing, and slicing.

Learn how strings represent text in Python, distinguish between single and double quotes, and use escape sequences, raw strings, and multi-line strings.

Learn Python string concepts through hands-on exercises that train you to write, read, and compare solutions, creating strings with embedded quotes, apostrophes, and multiline formats.

Learn to print strings with quotes in Python, using single quotes to include double quotes, handle apostrophes, and create multi-line strings with triple quotes or escaping newlines.

Learn to manipulate Python strings using methods such as lower, upper, and strip, understand case sensitivity and immutability, and practice with startswith and endswith in interactive exercises.

practice changing string case in python by converting strings to lowercase, then uppercase, and printing each result on its own line using string methods.

Learn to change string case in Python by defining four strings, converting them to lowercase and then to uppercase using the lower() and upper() methods, and printing results.

Develop a practical Python skill by removing whitespace from strings and printing the results, using a restaurant menu scenario to practice left, right, and both sides whitespace removal.

Learn how to clean strings by removing whitespace in Python using strip, lstrip, and rstrip, and apply left or right side trimming to each string.

Discover how Python string indexing works, using zero-based indices from zero to length minus one, with negative indices for access. Explore the Len function and string slicing to grab ranges.

Explore string slicing in Python by using the colon syntax to extract substrings, with positive and negative indices, omitted ends, and optional steps or strides.

Practice string slicing in Python by printing the substring Rat Rattata from the string crate using slice notation to specify the correct character range.

Learn Python string slicing with 0-based indices and the start:stop syntax, extracting 'rat' from 'crate' using word[1:4] and word[1:-1], including negative indices.

Learn how strings concatenate with the plus sign, joining Apple, banana, and cherry. Use the asterisk to repeat strings; integers only, negative results yield empty strings.

Create two strings, concatenate them, and print the result in Python. Explore adding a space between them using only concatenation, using bat and man as examples.

Learn string concatenation in Python by defining two string variables and using the plus operator to join them, first without a space and then with a space.

Explore string formatting in Python by using the % operator and the format method, with examples of placeholders, positions, and format specifiers like s and d.

Discover how f strings offer readable, concise, and fast string formatting in Python, outperforming percent formatting and str.format, with placeholders, indexing, and multi-line support.

Practice printing strings in Python using concatenation, dot format, and f-strings. Explore building the 0.2kg weight of an animal through three formatting methods.

Learn to print a sentence in Python by combining a float and a string using three methods: string concatenation with explicit float-to-string conversion, the dot format method, and f-strings.

Learn how to obtain user input with Python's input function and display results, including prompts and type conversion to ints, floats, or complex numbers, then practice with interactive exercises.

Interact with user input by creating a Python program that takes input, converts it to lowercase, and displays it back. Display the input length.

Learn to collect user input, convert it to lowercase, print it, and display its length with Len, testing a reusable script in Idle or Repl.

Explore how Python treats numeric strings: perform operations like concatenation and repetition, understand type errors, and convert between strings and numbers using int, float, and str.

Practice getting two numbers from user input, convert them with int and float, multiply to produce a floating point result, and display the product using string conversion.

Collect two user inputs as strings, convert them to floats, and multiply to display the result; illustrate type errors when multiplying strings and the use of str for output.

Learn to find a substring in a string with the find method, returning the first index or -1 if not found, and replace all occurrences with the replace method.

Write a Python program that uses input to get a word or sentence and a letter, then displays the result of whether the letter appears in the string.

Create a Python script that collects text input and a character to search for, uses text.find to return the index of the first occurrence or -1 if absent.

Master string manipulation in Python by using string methods, splitting, concatenating, and joining, plus f-strings and multi-line strings, while handling user input and numbers as strings, with indexing and slicing.

Build a basic receipt printing program in Python using variables, operators, and string manipulation. Implement top and bottom borders, headers, and currency-formatted totals to display a clear receipt.

Learn the core numeric types in Python—integers, floats, and complex numbers—and perform arithmetic while understanding floating-point errors, formatting and displaying numbers as strings, and number methods.

Explore built-in numeric types in Python—int, float, complex, and bool—and their ranges, precision, and practical uses, including why floats are unsuitable for currency and how decimals and fractions offer alternatives.

Explore the int type in Python using decimal, binary, hexadecimal, and octal literals, including negative numbers and underscores. Convert strings to integers with int and optional bases.

Create a Python program that defines two variables, num1 and num2, assigned the integer literals 25_000_001 and 25000001 respectively, then print them on separate lines.

Define two integer variables in Python, using underscores in one literal and a plain form in the other, then print both to show equal values of 25 million.

Explore Python floating point numbers by using literals with decimals, underscores for grouping, and scientific notation; convert values with float(), and handle infinity and NaN.

Explore floating point representation error, contrast fixed point and floating point numbers, and learn why Python’s 0.1 plus 0.2 isn’t exact, and when to use the decimal type.

Explore Python's core number functions, including round with ties to even, abs for absolute values, and the power function, plus methods like is_integer and as_integer_ratio.

Master formatting numbers as strings with f-strings and placeholders to inject values into text. Use Python's format mini language to show two decimal places, thousands separators, and percentages.

Master formatting numbers in Python by converting a decimal fraction to a percentage with no decimal places in this final exercise. Finish with confidence; you got this.

Format a division result as a percentage using the percent format specifier, and prepend a dot and a zero for zero decimals, using the same syntax in an f-string.

Explore how Python handles complex numbers, creating them with the complex function or literals using j, accessing real and imaginary parts, and performing add, subtract, multiply, divide, power, and conjugate.

Explore how the remainder (modulus) operator works in Python and use integer division and modulus to convert 11,700 seconds into 3 hours, 15 minutes, and 30 seconds.

Learn how the input function returns strings and converts them to numbers with int and float, using nested calls and basic exception handling for invalid inputs.

Explore integers, floating point, and complex numbers in python, perform arithmetic with plus, minus, multiplication, division, and floor division, and learn rounding with round and formatting with pep eight guidelines.

Learn to handle percentage inputs by converting the percent to a decimal, compute a 20% discount on the original price, and display the sale price.

Learn to compute an average in Python by adding three scores and dividing by three, with proper parentheses to ensure correct order, and display the result.

Convert a math formula to Python code to compute the present value needed for a future value, using the rate and years in an executable algorithm with a practical example.

Explore functions and loops in Python, learn how to call and document functions, and compare while and for loops with practical resources and exercises.

Explore Python built-in functions like print, len, and round, and how to call them with arguments. Learn that functions return values or none and can have side effects.

Create a user defined function named shout_and_return that takes one input_string, prints it in uppercase, and returns the value. Maintain consistent indentation and place the return statement at the end.

Write a greet function that takes a name string and displays 'Hello, {name}!' for example 'Hello, Oscar!', practicing the exercise before moving to the solution.

Define a greet function, print hello, and format the name with an f-string to greet someone in Python.

Document Python functions with a docstring at the top of the function body, use help to inspect built-ins like len, and describe your shout and return function that prints uppercase.

Write a cube function that takes one number and returns that number raised to the third power, then test it by calling it on a few numbers and displaying results.

Define a Python cube function that takes num and returns num**3 or pow(num,3), then test by printing cube(1), cube(2), cube(3) to display 1, 8, 27.

Learn how to use while and for loops in Python to repeat actions, control flow with conditions, iterate over strings with range, avoid infinite loops, and nest loops.

Learn to use a for loop and the range function to print integers from two to ten, each on a new line, in Python.

write a for loop using range to print integers from two to ten, adjusting start and stop values to include ten, and run the module to verify output.

Learn how to define and call Python functions with parameters and arguments, format strings with first and last names, and understand required versus optional parameters.

Identify two types of functions: those that perform a task by printing and those that return a value; none is the default return value.

Learn how to define an increment function, call it with a number and print the result, then improve readability by using a keyword argument to clarify parameter names.

Make a function parameter optional by assigning a default value. Place optional parameters after required ones to avoid the error 'parameter without a default follows parameter with a default'.

Define a function with a number of arguments using an asterisk, pack into collection, and compute the product by iterating; compare lists and tuples and ensure indentation and return placement.

Learn how to pass arbitrary keyword arguments with double asterisks in Python, packaging them into a dictionary, and access values like name and id using dictionary notation.

Master the basics of functions and loops in Python by creating your functions, documenting them with docstrings, using function arguments and default values, and looping with while and for loops.

Explore Python scope and how names and namespaces resolve variables from local to global. Learn the leg rule and the global statement, plus best practices to prevent scope pitfalls.

Explore how Python uses scopes and namespaces to look up variables, using dictionaries to implement global scope and revealing how names like total map to values.

Explore how Python resolves names with the LEGB rule across local, enclosing, global, and built in scopes for absolute beginners.

Explore the local, enclosing, and global scopes in Python by defining variables inside and outside functions, and see how inner functions access the enclosing scope while avoiding name conflicts.

Explore Python's built-in scope, loaded by the builtins module, and learn how the Leitgeb rule resolves names across local, enclosing, global, and built-in namespaces, including the print function.

Explore how the global statement resolves scope issues in Python by allowing a function to modify a global counter, reveal unbound local errors, and why global usage is often discouraged.

Refactor Python code to master scopes by using local names, unique object names, self-contained functions, and avoiding global variable modifications, demonstrated through a safe update counter example.

Explore Python scopes and how names map to objects across local, enclosing, global, and built-in contexts, using the Leitgeb rule to resolve names and minimize name collisions, avoid global statements.

Explore conditional logic and control flow in Python to perform actions based on conditions, with functions, loops, and error handling. See how true/false tests drive branches and robust execution.

Explore conditional logic in Python by comparing values to true or false, using boolean comparators, conditional statements, and operator precedence with and, or, and not.

Work through how to evaluate complex expressions with boolean comparators, logical operators, and operator precedence, breaking them into parts and using variables to build fluency through practice.

Learn to control the flow of Python programs using if, elif, and else to create branches based on true or false conditions, with proper indentation and colon usage.

Create nested branches to evaluate the winner in sports by checking the sport and scores. Use if, elif, else and lower() for input handling and refactor for clearer logic.

Learn to use Python for loops with range to repeat tasks, iterate numbers from zero to two, and generate messages like attempting number one while counting and repeating strings.

Break out of loops with break and continue in Python, applying them to for and while loops while summing even numbers from 0 to 100 using range and modulo.

Explore errors and exceptions in Python, distinguish syntax errors from recoverable exceptions, and learn how value errors, type errors, and name errors can be caught and handled, including custom errors.

Learn how to use the try and except keywords to handle exceptions gracefully in Python, catch value errors and other types with multiple except blocks, and avoid unhelpful tracebacks.

Learn how to use the if statement in Python, with relational and equality comparisons, else blocks, and nesting to create menu-driven decisions.

Build a string for loop to process each character and count letters. Use break and else clauses to stop when a condition is met or when the string is empty.

In this project, the computer picks a random number and the player guesses it, using input, int conversion, and a loop with break, plus high or low feedback.

Learn how to improve a guessing game by using functions, including a function stub with docstring and calling it inside a loop; explore random number generation and local variable scope.

Enhance the Python guessing game by adding a score, an easier quit option, and tracking total rounds and total guesses to compute the average per round with float arithmetic.

Learn how to safely quit a Python guessing game by typing q, with a confirm quit prompt, a minus-one quit code, and a main loop that shows stats.

Explore basic methods for printing lists in Python, including the splat operator to unpack items and the print function with separators. Discover right-justified output with rjust and formatted strings.

Explore tuple packing and unpacking by assigning a literal tuple to a single object and unpacking into variables with matching counts, including the pythonic swap.

Learn how Python sets store unique, unordered elements, and how hackable, immutable types differ from unhackable lists and dictionaries for membership and operations.

Explore stacks by using Python lists as a stack, performing push and pop in lifo order, tracking the top, and handling full or empty stack errors in a simple example.

Learn how to search and sort lists in Python by building a loop that checks for item presence, counts occurrences, and demonstrates sorting, reversing, and basic error handling.

Learn how to simulate a switch statement in Python using a dictionary that maps color options to actions, with a user input loop and range checks.

Learn to count item occurrences quickly with the counter object from collections, counting repetitions in a list, displaying elements with counts using items, and retrieving individual counts with get.