COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

(EGR2313)
LECTURE week 2 : Python Basics

Amir A. Bature
aabature.ele@buk.edu.ng
Nabila Ahmad Rufa’i
narufai.ele@buk.edu.ng
Department of Electrical Engineering
Bayero University, Kano
2021

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Week 2 Lecture:
Python Basics
1. Installation/IDE
2. Operations and Libraries
3. Strings
4. List
5. Dictionary
6. Numpy Library

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 INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON
o Python programming language is a high level language
that is useful for all kinds of scientific and engineering
tasks.
o It may also be used in web-based applications, data
analytics.
o You can also use it to Numerically solve science and
engineering problems that are difficult or even
impossible to solve analytically.
o It is similar to Matlab and IDL: all are used in scientific
and engineering applications.
o They also do not require compilers, as they are
interpreted languages.
o However, unlike Matlab and IDL, Python is free.
INSTALLING Python on your PC
o Visit www.anaconda.com and download the free
Python distribution package.
o Storage Requirement for Software: 457 MB
(Windows); 435 MB (MacOS); 529 MB (Linux).

Figure 1: Canopy window

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Python spyder ide

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 Working with Python
o The default Canopy window consists of: the code editor,
the interactive Python pane (IPython) and the file
browser pane.
o Interactive Python pane (IPython): is the primary
means of interacting with Python. It is used to perform
tasks such as navigating computer file directories and
performing mathematical operations. With IPython,
programmers can run codes directly on the Python shell
without the need to create a new file (also known as a
script).
o The default input prompt of IPython is:
In [1]:
o Code editor: to write and edit Python programs (or
scripts).
o File browser pane: to navigate a computer’s file directory
system in order to view and retrieve files on the computer.

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 Navigation with IPython
The following magic commands are used to perform
various useful tasks in IPYTHON:
o cd ~ sets the computer to its home (default) directory.
o pwd returns the path of the current directory on the
computer
o cd .. moves the IPython shell up one directory in the
directory tree. For example:
o ls lists the names of the files and subdirectories in the
current directory.
o %run filename
o %hist lists the recent commands issued to the IPython
terminal.
o %edit opens a new empty file in the code editor
window.
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CALCULATIONS WITH IPython
IPython shell can be used to form simple mathematical
operations.
Example 1:
In [1]: (20/4)*3
Out[1]: 15.0
Example 2:
In [2]: 4*3+7
Out[2]: 19
Example 3:
In [3]: 4*(3+7)
Out[3]: 40
Note the effect of parenthesis in Examples 2 and 3. In the
absence of parenthesis, multiplication would be performed
first before addition. The order of arithmetic operations are:
exponential, multiplication and division, addition and
subtraction from left to right.
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CALCULATIONS WITH IPython
Mathematics Operations in Python

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CALCULATIONS WITH IPython
Binary Operations in Python

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 Number types
3 basic number types: integers (plain and long), floating
point numbers and complex numbers:
❑Integers: zero, positive or negative whole numbers
without a fractional part, e.g. 0, -1000, 2459871, etc. They
may have binary, octal, and hexadecimal values. To
convert a number into an integer, the int command may
be used:
In [1]: int (60.5)
Out[1]: 60
❑Floating point numbers: are positive and negative real
numbers with a fractional part e.g. 123.4, 3.142, -5.75.
❑Complex numbers: are written in Python as a sum of a
real and imaginary part.
 In [2]: (2+3j)*(-4+9j)
 Out[2]: (-35+6j)

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 PYTHON LIBRARIES
Themost useful Python libraries for scientific
computing are:
o NumPy: useful for working with arrays. It has functions
for working in domains of linear algebra, Fourier
transform and matrices, amongst others.
SciPy: useful in performing various scientific and
mathematical operations including optimization, linear
algebra, integration, interpolation, special
functions, FFT, signal and image processing.
MatPlotLib: a plotting library in Python useful in
plotting 2-D and 3-D plots.

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PYTHON LIBRARIES: numpy
o The array object in NumPy is called ndarray.
o The following lines of code describe how Numpy arrays
can be created and modified:
Input:
import numpy as np
a = np.array([1, 2, 3]) # Create a rank 1
array
print(a[0], a[1], a[2]) # Prints "1 2 3"
a[0] = 5 # Change an element of the array
print(a) # Prints "[5, 2, 3]"
Output:
1 2 3
[5 2 3]

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 PYTHON LIBRARIES: numpy
o Some NumPy functions are captured in
the table below.

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 VARIABLES IN PYTHON
o A variable is a name that is used to store different
kinds of data.
For example:
In [1]: x = 27
o Note that the assignment variable works from
right to left. Therefore, the statement “27=x”
makes no sense in Python
o The statement, x = x+1 adds 1 to the current
value of x and assign the result to x. in the example
above, x is now stored as 28.

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 Reserved words
o Reserved words are specifically meant for special
purposes or functions.
o They therefore may not be used as variables
names.
o Reserved words in Python are listed in the table
below.

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 Comments
o # for single line comments
o multiple lines enclose comments with ‘‘‘ or “””

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 script files and programs
o IPython is useful for short lines of code.
o For longer codes that can be stored and
reused later, a script is usually employed.
o Scripts are written using Code Editor in the
Canopy window.
o After writing a script, the code is stored on a
computer with the extension: .py (which tells
the computer that it is a Python program).
 Scripting example 1


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Scripting example 1 continued
o Run the script by typing the following
command in IPython to see the result:
 In [10]: run twoPointDistance.py
 In [11]: dr
 Out[11]: 34.48

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Data Types:
1. Strings:
 Strings are lists of characters
 created by enclosing a sequence of characters within a pair of single or double
quotes; “ “ or ‘ ‘
 In [1]: a = "My dog’s name is"
 In [2]: b = "Bingo"
 Strings can be concatenated using the “+” operator:
 In [3]: c = a + " " + b
 In [4]: c
 Out[4]: "My dog’s name is Bingo"

Exercise:
In [5]: d = "927"
In [6]: e = 927
Try:
In [7]: d + e

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Data Types:
2. Lists:
 List contains of one or more elements in a single variable
 are defined by a pair of square brackets
 Individual elements are separated by commas
 indexed by an ordered sequence of integers starting from zero
 Examples:
 In [1]: a = [0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
 In [2]: b = [5., "girl", 2+0j, "horse", 21]
 a and b are lists.
 access by a[index], where index starts with 0.
 In [3]: b[0]
 Out[3]: 5.0

The last element of this array is b[4], because b has 5 elements. The last element
can also be accessed as b[-1], no matter how many elements b has, and the next-
to-last element of the list is b[-2], etc. Try it out:

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Data Types:
2. Lists:
 Individual elements of lists can be changed. For example:
 In [9]: b
 Out[9]: [5.0, ’girl’, (2+0j), ’horse’, 21]
 In [10]: b[0] = b[0]+2
 In [11]: b[3] = 3.14159
 In [12]: b
 Out[12]: [7.0, ’girl’, (2+0j), 3.14159, 21]
 Adding lists concatenates them, just as the “+” operator concatenates strings
 In [16]: a + a
 Out[16]: [0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
 Slicing lists
 In [19]: b[1:4]
 Out[19]: [’girls & boys’, (2+0j), 3.14159]
 In [20]: b[3:5]
 Out[20]: [3.14159, 21]

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Data Types:
 other useful slicing shortcuts:
 In [21]: b[2:]
 Out[21]: [(2+0j), 3.14159, 21]
 In [22]: b[:3]
 Out[22]: [10.0, ’girls & boys’, (2+0j)]
 In [23]: b[:]
 Out[23]: [10.0, ’girls & boys’, (2+0j), 3.14159, 21]

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Data Types:

 Creating and modifying lists

 The most useful is the range function, which can be used to
create a uniformly spaced sequence of integers.
 range([start,] stop[, step])
 In [26]: range(10) # makes a list of 10 integers from 0 to 9
 Out[26]: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
 In [27]: range(3,10) # makes a list of 10 integers from 3 to 9
 Out[27]: [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
 In [28]: range(0,10,2) # 10 integers from 0 to 9 with
increment 2
 Out[28]: [0, 2, 4, 6, 8]
 How do you insert elements into a list using slicing?
(Read on it) 25
Data Types:

 Tuples
 tuples are lists that are immutable (meaning
elements cannot be changed)
 enclosed in round parentheses ()
 In [37]: c = (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13)
 In [37]: c[4]
 Out[38]: 5
 In [39]: c[4] = 7
 Error output

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Data Types:
 Dictionaries
 collection of Python objects, just like a list, but one
that is indexed by strings or numbers
 enclosed in round parentheses {}
 In [1]: room = {"Emma":309, "Jacob":582, "Olivia":764}
 In [2]: room["Olivia"]
 Out[2]: 764
 In [3]: weird = {"tank":52, 846:"horse", "bones":[23,
 ...: "fox", "grass"], "phrase":"I am here"}
 In [4]: weird["tank"]
 Out[4]: 52

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Data Types:
 Dictionaries
 In [5]: weird[846]
 Out[5]: ’horse’
 In [6]: weird["bones"]
 Out[6]: [23, ’fox’, ’grass’]
 In [7]: weird["phrase"]
 Out[7]: ’I am here’

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 Data Types:
 Dictionaries
 Dictionaries can be built up and added to in a straightforward
manner
 In [8]: d = {}
 In [9]: d["last name"] = "Alberts"
 In [10]: d["first name"] = "Marie"
 In [11]: d["birthday"] = "January 27"
 In [12]: d
 Out[12]: {’birthday’: ’January 27’, ’first name’: ’Marie’, ’last name’: ’Alberts’}

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Data Types:
 Dictionaries
 You can get a list of all the keys or values of a
dictionary by typing the dictionary name
 followed by .keys() or .values().

 In [13]: d.keys()
 Out[13]: [’last name’, ’first name’, ’birthday’]
 In [14]: d.values()
 Out[14]: [’Alberts’, ’Marie’, ’January 27’]

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NUMPY
 NumPy, which stands for Numerical Python, is a
library consisting of multidimensional array objects and a
collection of routines for processing arrays
 mathematical and logical operations on arrays can be
performed
 We will look at numpy array manupilation
 Aalready Anaconda installation came with numpy

To use we import the library

In [1]: import numpy as np

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/numpy/index.htm
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NUMPY
 Numpy Array
 To create converts a list to an array:
 In [1]: a = [0, 0, 1, 4, 7, 16, 31, 64, 127]
 In [2]: b = np. array(a)
 In [3]: b
 Out[3]: array([ 0, 0, 1, 4, 7, 16, 31, 64, 127])
 In [4]: c = np. array([1, 4., -2, 7])
 In [5]: c
 Out[5]: array([ 1., 4., -2., 7.])

 arrays contains same elements throughout!

 The orders of preference are:
◦ Strings
◦ Float
◦ Integer
◦ Boolean

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NUMPY
 Numpy Array
We can use NumPy linspace or logspace
 linspace(start, stop, N)
 If the third argument N is omitted, then N=50
 In [6]: np. linspace(0, 10, 5)
 Out[6]: array([ 0. , 2.5, 5. , 7.5, 10. ])
We can use NumPy arange
 arange(start, stop, step)
 If the third argument step is omitted, then step=1
 In [9]: np.arange(0, 10, 2)
 Out[9]: array([0, 2, 4, 6, 8])
 In [10]: np. arange(0., 10, 2)
 Out[10]: array([ 0., 2., 4., 6., 8.])
 In [11]: np. arange(0, 10, 1.5)
 Out[11]: array([ 0. , 1.5, 3. , 4.5, 6. , 7.5, 9. ])
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NUMPY
 Numpy Array
 We can use ones and zeros to create an array:
 In [12]: np.zeros(6)
 Out[12]: array([ 0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0.])
 In [13]: np.ones(8)
 Out[13]: array([ 1., 1., 1., 1., 1., 1., 1., 1.])
 In [14]: np.ones(8, dtype=int)
 Out[14]: array([1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1])

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NUMPY
 Mathematical operations with arrays
 In [15]: a = np.linspace(-1., 5, 7)
 In [16]: a
 Out[16]: array([-1., 0., 1., 2., 3., 4., 5.])
 In [17]: a*6
 Out[17]: array([ -6., 0., 6., 12., 18., 24., 30.])

 In [18]: a/5
 Out[18]: array([-0.2, 0. , 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1. ])
 In [19]: a**3
 Out[19]: array([ -1., 0., 1., 8., 27., 64., 125.])
 In [20]: a+4
 Out[20]: array([ 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 9.])

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NUMPY
 Mathematical operations with arrays
 In [23]: np.sin(a)
 Out[23]: array([-0.84147098, 0. , 0.84147098, 0.90929743,
 0.14112001, -0.7568025 , -0.95892427])
 In [24]: np. exp(-a)
 Out[24]: array([ 2.71828183, 1. , 0.36787944, 0.13533528,
 0.04978707, 0.01831564, 0.00673795])
 In [25]: 1. + np. exp(-a)
 Out[25]: array([ 3.71828183, 2. , 1.36787944, 1.13533528,
 1.04978707, 1.01831564, 1.00673795])
 In [26]: b = 5* np. ones(8)
 In [27]: b
 Out[27]: array([ 5., 5., 5., 5., 5., 5., 5., 5.])

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NUMPY
 Mathematical operations with arrays
 create an x-y data set of y = cos x vs. x over the interval from -3.14 to 3.14
 In [30]: x = linspace(-3.14, 3.14, 21)
 In [31]: y = cos(x)
 In [32]: x
 Out[32]: array([-3.14 , -2.826, -2.512, -2.198, -1.884, -1.57 ,
 -1.256, -0.942, -0.628, -0.314, 0. , 0.314,
 0.628, 0.942, 1.256, 1.57 , 1.884, 2.198,
 2.512, 2.826, 3.14 ])
 In [33]: y
 Out[33]: array([ -1.000e+00, -9.506e-01, -8.083e-01,
 -5.869e-01, -3.081e-01, 7.963e-04,
 3.096e-01, 5.882e-01, 8.092e-01,
 9.511e-01, 1.000e+00, 9.511e-01,
 8.092e-01, 5.882e-01, 3.096e-01,
 7.963e-04, -3.081e-01, -5.869e-01,
 -8.083e-01, -9.506e-01, -1.000e+00])

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NUMPY
 Matrix Operations

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NUMPY
Matrix Operations
In [53]: a = np.ones((3,4), dtype=float)
In [54]: a
Out[54]: array([[ 1., 1., 1., 1.],
[ 1., 1., 1., 1.],
[ 1., 1., 1., 1.]])
In [55]: np.eye(4)
Out[55]: array([[ 1., 0., 0., 0.],
[ 0., 1., 0., 0.],
[ 0., 0., 1., 0.],
[ 0., 0., 0., 1.]])
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NUMPY
 Matrix Operations (reshape function)

 In [56]: c = np.arange(6)
 In [57]: c
 Out[57]: array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
 In [58]: c = np.reshape(c, (2,3))
 In [59]: c
 Out[59]: array([[0, 1, 2],
[3, 4, 5]])

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NUMPY
 Matrix Operations (dot function)

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NUMPY
 Matrix Operations (transpose, inv)

Matrix Inverse
In [60]: A = np.array([[1, -2, 4],[0, -2.4, 3],[7, 0, -4]])
In [61]: Ainv = np.linalg.inv(A)
In [62]: print(A.dot(Ainv))

Out[62]: [[ 1.00000000e+00 -2.22044605e-16 0.00000000e+00]

[ 0.00000000e+00 1.00000000e+00 0.00000000e+00]
[ 0.00000000e+00 1.00000000e+00]]
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MATPLOTLIB
 import numpy as np
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

 x = np.arange(-np.pi,np.pi,0.001)
 y = np.sin(x)

 plt.plot(x, y,'r')
 plt.ylabel("Sin (x)")
 plt.xlabel("x")
 plt.grid()
 plt.show()

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MATPLOTLIB
 Read on basics plotting properties:
 plt.figure(1, figsize = (6,4) )
 plt.plot(x, y, ’b-’, label=’theory’)
 plt.plot(xdata, ydata, ’ro’, label="data")
 plt.xlabel(’x’)
 plt.ylabel(’transverse displacement’)
 plt.legend(loc=’upper right’)
 plt.axhline(color = ’gray’, zorder=-1)
 plt.axvline(color = ’gray’, zorder=-1)
 plt.savefig(’WavyPulse.pdf’)

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Input and Output
input keyword is input from keyboard
In [1]: distance = input("Input distance in miles: ")
Input distance of trip in miles:
Distance is string.

To convert to integer:
 In [3]: distance = eval(distance)
 In [4]: distance
 Out[4]: 450
 To float
 In [7]: distance = float(distance)
 In [8]: distance
 Out[8]: 450.0

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Input and Output
print keyword is to output to monitor
Read section “4.2 Screen output” from
Introduction to Python for Science

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Reading data from a CSV file
 simplest and robust is to save the spreadsheet as a
CSV (“comma separated value”) file, a format which
all common spreadsheet programs can create and
read.
 Excel spreadsheet called MyData.xlsx, the CSV file
saved using Excel’s Save As command would by
default be MyData.csv

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Reading data from a CSV file

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Reading data from a CSV file

• esp32_300rpm_9600_ym.csv: filename (it

should be in the same folder that your py file is)
• skiprows: skip the first line at the top of file
• delimiter: tells loadtxt that the columns are
separated by commas instead of white space
(spaces or tabs), which is the default

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Conclusions
 It is a long week (in terms of the notes
and what we covered)
 Before answering the HW1 be sure to go
over Chapter 3, 4, and 5 of Introduction
to Python for Science
 Try all the examples and exercises given in the
end of each chapter.

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