Python Fundamentals: Hello World!

Eric Shook
Department of Geography
Kent State University
The Python Programming Language
 Python is an Open Source programming language
 It is easy to use and easy to learn how to program

Python website: https://www.python.org/
 Additional links:
 Documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/
 Tutorial: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html
 Reference Manual: https://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html
 Many online resources:
 Google will help
A Python Statement

mystring = "Hello World!"

Statement Breakdown

mystring = "Hello World!"

Variable

Variables can hold values

(think back to math class).
They can be referred by a
name such as x, name or
this_is_a_variable
Statement Breakdown

mystring = "Hello World!"

Assignment

The equals sign assigns

the value:
"Hello World!"
to the variable:
mystring
Statement Breakdown

mystring = "Hello World!"

Value

Variable values can be:

strings such as "hello"
or
numbers such as 123 or 3.14
Statement Breakdown

mystring = "Hello World!"

Statement

A statement is a single command that

tells the computer (Python interpreter)
to do something.
Try it
helloworld.py

mystring = "Hello World!"

Command-line Terminal

$ nano helloworld.py

$ python helloworld.py
Try it
helloworld.py

mystring = "Hello World!"

Command-line Terminal

$ nano helloworld.py
Nothing? $ python helloworld.py
Print Function Statement Breakdown

print(mystring)

Function call Arguments

A function is a defined Arguments also known as

piece of Python code parameters are passed into
that can be called upon functions. This parameter is
such as a 'print' function a variable, but strings and
that prints information to numbers can also be
the screen: arguments.
function_name(arguments) (myvar, "string 1" , 2345, 3.14)
Try it
helloworld.py

mystring = "Hello World!"

print(mystring)

Command-line Terminal

$ nano helloworld.py

Success! $ python helloworld.py

Hello World!
 Case Sensitivity

Python is case-sensitive meaning that

uppercase and lowercase letters may
change the meaning of commands
Only 'print'
print can be used
to print information
Print to the screen

PRINT
pRINT
PrInT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_sensitivity
Bugs

Not these bugs

$ python helloworld.py
File "helloworld.py", line 4
These are
bugs and errors ^
that you will see SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Common Bugs
Attention to detail is vital when programming, because the
smallest error and cause hard-to-find bugs. Each of the lines
below contain one error. Can you spot them all?

mystring="Hello World!")

print(Hello World")

Print(mystring)

mystring="He said "hi" how are you"

Common Bugs Fixed
Attention to detail is vital when programming, because the
smallest error and cause hard-to-find bugs. Each of the lines
below contain one error. Can you spot them all?

mystring="Hello World!")

print("Hello World")

print(mystring)

mystring="He said 'hi' how are you"

Basic Data Types
Integer: 2, 10, -5, 1323455
Floating point: 3.14, 2.1111, -1.0
String: "Hello World!", "a", "I am tweeting #twitter"
Boolean: True, False
None This is a special type that uses the word
None to literally mean there is nothing
here. None is different than "", 0, and 0.0,
which indicate a value for the other types.
Expressions
Variables and numbers can be combined in mathematical
expressions that will be evaluated or calculated. Mathematical
expressions combined with logical statements enable Python to
be used for spatial data processing
Expression Value
x = 2 + 2 the variable x is equal to the value 4
y = x * 3 if x is equal to 4 then the value of y is 12
x = x + 2 if x is equal to 4 then the new value of x is 6
x = 4 – 2 the variable x is now equal to the value 2
x = 4 / 2 the variable x is equal to the value 2
Comments

i=0 # This is a comment

# i=1
print "i=",i # Write the value of i

Comments The Result

Comments allow programmers to i=0

leave plain text explanations of
code. Comments are started with
a hash tag (#) and everything after
the '#' is ignored by Python.
Try It
1. Create a Python program with 5 variables. Each variable should be
a different basic type
2. Print the value of each variable
3. Try printing a string and a variable like this:
x=5
print("x=",x)
4. Create 3 mathematical expressions and print out the result. Check
to make sure the result is correct.
5. Create 2 variables that have values that are strings. Add the
variables together and print out the result. Is it what you expect? If
the result is unexpected look in the manual to understand the result.
6. Add a comment to your program. Run it again to see if anything
changed.