INTRODUCTION TO

PYTHON PROGRAMMING
FISSION REACTOR PHYSICS 1
Prof. Antonio Cammi ; Carolina Introini
[email protected] ; [email protected]
WHY PYTHON
• General purpose code
• Open source and lightweight
• Many packages also for data science
• Many applications and fields
• Download:
• Site: https://www.python.org/downloads
• Terminal (Ubuntu): sudo apt-get install python3
• Also includes the Python package manager (pip3)
• Programming can be done directly into the terminal
• iPython shell: sudo apt-get install ipython3

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QUICK SETUP
• iPython shell: (in terminal) ipython3
• To close the shell: exit
• You can run terminal commands (mkdir, cd, ls) from within the shell
• Python scripts (extension .py)
• How to run in terminal: python3 filename.py
• Use print() to generate the desired output from the script
• Within the shell, use run filename.py to execute a Python script
• Within the shell, use edit filename.py to modify a Python script
• Anaconda suite (https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual)
• Python: https://anaconda.org/anaconda/python

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QUICK SETUP
• We are going to use Google Colab (https://colab.research.google.com/)
• No download required
• Interactive environment (write & run)
• Integration with Google Drive / GitHub

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FLOWCHART IN PROGRAMMING
• Flowchart = diagrammatic
representation of an algorithm
• Useful to organise the logic steps of
the program we want to write and to
easily explain it to others in a
straightforward way
• Easy way to draw flowcharts: draw.io
(Google Drive Add-on)

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FLOWCHART IN PROGRAMMING

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FLOWCHART IN PROGRAMMING

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PYTHON VARIABLES
• Specific, case-sensitive name
• Call up value through variable name
• Assignment: VariableName = value

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PYTHON VARIABLES - TYPES
• Specific, case-sensitive name
• Call up value through variable name
• Different types = different behaviour
• To check variable type: type(VariableName)

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PYTHON VARIABLES - TYPES
• Specific, case-sensitive name
• Call up value through variable name
• Variable type conversion: str(), int(), float(), bool()

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PYTHON VARIABLES – BASIC OPERATIONS

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PYTHON VARIABLES – MATH OPERATIONS
• For complex mathematical operations, use the math module
• Includes math constants pi, e, tau, infinity, NaN
• Arithmetic functions (factorials)
• Power, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric functions

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PYTHON LISTS
• Collection of values
• Each variable represents a single value
• May contain any type
• When we have multiple data, not
convenient to use single variables • Even different types

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PYTHON LISTS
• Specific functionality and behaviour
• Compound data type
• Lists can contain other lists!

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PYTHON LISTS - SUBSETTING
• Python index starts from 0!
• ListName[-1] = last value of the list (count backwards)

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PYTHON LISTS - SUBSETTING
• Elements of the list are variables, so we can perform operations on them

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PYTHON LISTS - SUBSETTING
• List slicing: [start : end] (start inclusive, end exclusive)
• Not specifying the ‘start’ index means starting from the beginning
• Not specifying the ‘end’ index means going up to the last element
• Remember: start counting from 0

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PYTHON LISTS - SUBSETTING
• Subset a list of lists: first index indicates the list, second one the element

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PYTHON LISTS - MANIPULATION
• Warning! When creating a copy of a list, any modification done on the copy
is reflected on the original!
• What is happening: both lists actually points at the same list!

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PYTHON LISTS - MANIPULATION
• Correct method to copy lists: CopyList = list()

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PYTHON LISTS - MANIPULATION
• Change list elements

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PYTHON LISTS - MANIPULATION
• Add / remove (del()) list elements
• Note: add can only add elements at the end of the list
• Note: when deleting an element, the indexes after change!

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PYTHON FUNCTIONS
• Same as MATLAB functions
• Solve a particular task and are reusable
• Many pre-written functions exist (print, type, str, int)
• General syntax for calling a function: output = function_name(input)
• Function help(function_name) to open up the documentation (exit with ‘q’)

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PYTHON FUNCTIONS
• Function help() to open up the documentation (exit with ‘q’)
• For standard tasks, probably a pre-written function exists!
• Your best bet: check the Internet

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PYTHON FUNCTIONS
• Function help() to open up the documentation (exit with ‘q’)
• ‘ndigits=None’ means that if the argument ‘ndigits’ is not specified, it has
value ‘None’ (meaning that it is an optional argument)

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PYTHON FUNCTIONS
• How to create custom functions

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PYTHON METHODS
• Some functions are defined only for specific types of variables
• To check all methods available for a specific type: help(type)
• Example: function len() and round()

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PYTHON METHODS
• Methods are functions that belong to objects
• Example: list index method (return the index of the specified list element)

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PYTHON METHODS
• Other useful list methods
• list.count(element): get the number of times an element appears in the list
• list.remove(element): remove the first element of a list that matches the input
• list.reverse(): reverse the order of elements in the list
• help(list): open the documentation with all methods for type ‘list’

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PYTHON PACKAGES
• The default Python distribution has only an handful of generic functions
• Huge code base: messy and hard to find what you need
• Lots of code you won’t use
• Maintenance problem
• Packages collect specific functions, methods and types
• Thousands of packages available for many applications
• Numpy ; Matplotlib ; Scipy ; Math
• How to install packages:
• In terminal pip3 install packagename
• Already installed in Colab!

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PYTHON PACKAGES
• How to import and use packages

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PYTHON PACKAGES
• How to import and use packages

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THE NUMPY PACKAGE
• List have quite a significant limitation
• Many operations cannot be done on them

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THE NUMPY PACKAGE
• Solution: the NumPy package
• Numpy arrays as an alternative to Python lists
• Allows calculations over entire arrays (element-wise calculations)
• Installation: in terminal pip3 install numpy
• Already included in Colab, only to import

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THE NUMPY PACKAGE

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THE NUMPY PACKAGE
• Numpy arrays can contain only one type!
• If different types are detected, Python changes some types to obtain an
homogeneous array (bool -> int -> float -> str)
• Different behaviour between lists and numpy arrays!

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NUMPY - SUBSETTING
• Same as lists (index from 0, square brackets)

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NUMPY – 2D ARRAYS
• Creation syntax: np.array([[row #1], [row #2] …])

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NUMPY – 2D ARRAYS
• Subsetting of 2D Numpy arrays

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NUMPY – DOCUMENTATION
• All information are contained in the documentation

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Package Matplotlib
• Installation: in terminal pip3 install matplotlib
• For most applications, the sub-package pyplot is used

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G) approximate solution

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G)

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G) – scatter plot

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G) – plot customisation

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G) – plot customisation

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DATA VISUALISATION
• Example: point-kinetic equation (1G) – error bars

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LOGIC OPERATORS
• Comparison operators return a Boolean value (True / False)

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LOGIC OPERATORS
• When using numpy arrays: np.logical_and / np.logical_or / np.logical_not

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IF/ELSE STATEMENT

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LOOPS
• Loops are used to repeat statements, for example to repeat the if/else
statement over all elements of the array.
• Two types of loop: while loop and for loop
• While loop: repeat the instruction until the exit condition is met

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LOOPS
• Two types of loop: while loop and for loop
• For loop: repeat the instruction for a certain number of times

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DATA VISUALISATION + FOR LOOP
• Example: fission spectrum X(E) defined as:
• x(E)dE = average number of fission neutrons emitted with energy E in [E to E + dE] per
fission neutron

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DATA VISUALISATION + FOR LOOP
• Example: fission spectrum X(E) defined as:
• x(E)dE = average number of fission neutrons emitted with energy E in [E to E + dE] per
fission neutron

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DATA VISUALISATION + FOR LOOP
• Example: fission spectrum X(E) defined as:
• x(E)dE = average number of fission neutrons emitted with energy E in [E to E + dE] per
fission neutron

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 INTRODUCTION TO
PYTHON PROGRAMMING
FISSION REACTOR PHYSICS 1
Prof. Antonio Cammi ; Carolina Introini
[email protected] ; [email protected]

Receiving hours: Wednesday 16:00 – 18:00