Content
Module 1: Control and Evaluations
Objectives covered by the module:
· basic concepts: interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the compiler, language elements, lexis, syntax and semantics, Python keywords, instructions, indenting
· literals: Boolean, integer, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings
· operators: unary and binary, priorities and binding
· numeric operators: ** * / % // + –
· bitwise operators: ~ & ^ | << >>
· string operators: * +
· Boolean operators: not and or
· relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), building complex Boolean expressions
· assignments and shortcut operators
· accuracy of floating-point numbers
· basic input and output: input(), print(), int(), float(), str() functions
· formatting print() output with end= and sep= arguments
· conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif, if-elif-else
· the pass instruction
· simple lists: constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function
· simple strings: constructing, assigning, indexing, slicing comparing, immutability
· building loops: while, for, range(), in, iterating through sequences
· expanding loops: while-else, for-else, nesting loops and conditional statements
· controlling loop execution: break, continue
Module 2: Data Aggregates
Objectives covered by the module:
· strings in detail: ASCII, UNICODE, UTF-8, immutability, escaping using the \ character, quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multiline strings, copying vs. cloning, advanced slicing, string vs. string, string vs. non-string, basic string methods (upper(), lower(), isxxx(), capitalize(), split(), join(), etc.) and functions (len(), chr(), ord()), escape characters
· lists in detail: indexing, slicing, basic methods (append(), insert(), index()) and functions (len(), sorted(), etc.), del instruction, iterating lists with the for loop, initializing, in and not in operators, list comprehension, copying and cloning
· lists in lists: matrices and cubes
· tuples: indexing, slicing, building, immutability
· tuples vs. lists: similarities and differences, lists inside tuples and tuples inside lists
· dictionaries: building, indexing, adding and removing keys, iterating through dictionaries as well as their keys and values, checking key existence, keys(), items() and values() methods
Module 3: Functions and Modules
Objectives covered by the module:
· defining and invoking your own functions and generators
· return and yield keywords, returning results, the None keyword, recursion
· parameters vs. arguments, positional keyword and mixed argument passing, default parameter values
· converting generator objects into lists using the list() function
· name scopes, name hiding (shadowing), the global keyword
· lambda functions, defining and using
· map(), filter(), reduce(), reversed(), sorted() functions and the sort() method
· the if operator
· import directives, qualifying entities with module names, initializing modules
· writing and using modules, the __name variable
· pyc file creation and usage
· constructing and distributing packages, packages vs. directories, the role of the
init .py file
· hiding module entities
· Python hashbangs, using multiline strings as module documentation
Module 4: Classes, Objects, and Exceptions
Objectives covered by the module:
· defining your own classes, superclasses, subclasses, inheritance, searching for missing class components, creating objects
· class attributes: class variables and instance variables, defining, adding and removing attributes, explicit constructor invocation
· class methods: defining and using, the self parameter meaning and usage
· inheritance and overriding, finding class/object components
· single inheritance vs. multiple inheritance
· name mangling
· invoking methods, passing and using the self argument/parameter
· the init method
· the role of the str__ method
· introspection: dict , name__, module__, bases properties, examining class/object structure
· writing and using constructors
· hasattr(), type(), issubclass(), isinstance(), super() functions
· using predefined exceptions and defining your own ones
· the try-except-else-finally block, the raise statement, the except-as variant
· exceptions hierarchy, assigning more than one exception to one except branch
· adding your own exceptions to an existing hierarchy
· assertions
· the anatomy of an exception object
· input/output basics: opening files with the open() function, stream objects, binary vs. text files, newline character translation, reading and writing files, bytearray objects
· read(), readinto(), readline(), write(), close() methods