LEARN

PYTHON
IN
24 HOURS
FOR
BEGINNERS

A beginner’s guide to Python Programming Language

Copyright © 2021 S Basu
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
The information and materials presented here are for educational purposes
only. Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as
accurate as possible but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information
provided is on an "as is" basis. The ideas and opinions expressed are of
the author's own imagination and the author is not affiliated to any
organization, school or educational discipline and will not be held
accountable or liable for any inadvertent misrepresentation.
Contents
Chapter 1 : Introduction & Installation
Chapter 2 : Python module
Chapter 3 : Python variables, Datatypes & Operators
3.1: Python String
3.1.1: What is String Slicing in Python?
3.1.2: Important and commonly used String methods
3.1.3: String formatting
3.2: Python List
3.2.1: Important and commonly used List methods
3.3: Python Tuple
3.3.1: What is unpacking a tuple mean?
3.4: Python Dictionary
3.4.1: Important Dictionary operations and methods
3.5: Python Operators
3.5.1: Commonly used Arithmetic operators
3.5.2: Commonly used Comparison Operators
3.5.3: Commonly used Logical Operators
3.5.4: Commonly used Assignment Operators
Chapter 4 : Python Control Statements
4.1: Python If ..Elif ..Else
4.2: Python For Loop
4.2.1: Nested for loop
4.3: Python While loop
4.4: Python Break and Continue
Chapter 5 : Python functions.
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
 Example 4:
Example 5:
Chapter 6 : Python class
Chapter 7 : Python Inheritance
Chapter 8 : Python Try Except Block
Chapter 9 : Other Important Topics
9.1: range ( ) function
9.2: How to get date, time and time zone in Python
9.3: Python Logging
9.4: What does the line if__name__ == __main__ mean in Python?
Chapter 1 : Introduction & Installation
Python is the most popular and widely used scripting language. Its syntax is
easy to use and is written to make coding easy.

Python Installation

Step 1: Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/ and download the latest

Python version available.

Step 2: Click on Customize installation.

For your Python download, it is important to give your own desirable path
location which is short and easy to remember. This is because we will be
using this path location again for installation of any Python web framework.
Step 3: Click Next

Step 4: Then browse for your install location.

Step 5: Click install

Step 6: Now go to Control panel -> System and Security -> System ->
Advanced system settings -> Environment Variables -> Add Python
Installation location into your PATH variables.
Step 7: Open command prompt and with the help of python command check
whether installation is done correctly or not.

Now let’s code..

Chapter 2 : Python module
Python module is a Python file that contains functions, classes,
and variables that group a logical functionality together.

Modules can be imported to be used in code.

Let’s create a simple Python file or module,

Open Notepad++ and create a new file (hello_world) and save the
file with .py extension

Inside hello_world.py file, write one line of code:

What is print( ) function in Python?

print( ) function displays the output to the screen

Now let’s run the above piece of code.

Open command prompt -> Go to the hello_world.py file location and
write the following command:
python file_name.py

The output displays

Now let’s create another Python file and name it test.py

In test.py file, simply just import the hello_world module created

above.

Now run this file.

Open command prompt -> Go to the test.py file location and write the
following command:
python test.py
We see that the test module prints out “Hello World” output from
hello_world module.

What is import statement in Python?

import statement in Python allows a Python file or module to access all the
codes present in another Python file or module.
Chapter 3 : Python variables, Datatypes &
Operators
Important points to note are:

Python variables are used to hold data.

In most programming languages, you need to declare the data type

of a variable. For example: int x = 5, String y = “John” etc, where
int refers to an integer value and String refers to a sequence of
character value.

But in Python, you do not have to declare the data type of a variable.
Python understands the data type of any variable simply from its value.

Let us consider the example below:

Output

When we run the above piece of code, Python shows the data types of
variable x, y and z.

What is type( ) function?

type( ) function is used to determine the data type of a variable.

Apart from data types like int, float and string, Python also has list, tuple
and dictionaries.

3.1: Python String

Important points to note are:

Python string is a sequence of characters.

Python string is immutable meaning that once a string is created it

cannot be modified.

3.1.1: What is String Slicing in Python?

Python String slicing is the process of obtaining a sub string of the given
string.
Syntax:
string [ index_number_start (including its value) : index_number_stop
(excluding its value) ]

Example:
Open Notepad++ and create a new python file and write the following lines
of code.
Now run the above piece of code:

Code explanation:

Let’s look into the message “Health is wealth”.

Index number always starts from 0. Letter H is present at index number 0,
letter e is present at index number 1, letter a is present at index number 2,
letter l is present at index number 3, letter t is present at index number 4,
letter h is present at index number 5. Then whitespace is present at index
number 6. Letter i is present at index number 7, letter s is present at index
number 8. Then again whitespace is present at index number 9. Letter w is
present at index number 10, Letter e is present at index number 11, Letter a is
present at index number 12, Letter l is present at index number 13, Letter t is
present at index number 14, Letter h is present at index number 15.

In the above piece of code, the output of message[2:12] is : print values from
2 (including its value at index position 2) to 12 (excluding its value at index
position 12) alth is we
The output of message[:6] is : print values from start (index position 0,
including its value) to 6 (excluding its value at index position 6) Health

The output of message[7:] is : print values from 7 (including its value at

index position 7) to end is wealth

To print letters or values from the end of a string, minus sign is used. For
example: message[-1] will return h, message[-2] will return t and so on.

3.1.2: Important and commonly used String methods

1. len( ) function returns the length of the string.

Syntax: len(string)

2. lower( ) function returns the string with lower case characters.

Syntax: string.lower()

3. upper( ) function returns the string with upper case characters.

Syntax: string.upper()

4. strip( ) function gets rid of left or right whitespace.

Syntax: string.strip()

5. lstrip( ) function gets rid of left whitespace.

Syntax: string.lstrip()

6. rstrip( ) function gets rid of right whitespace.

Syntax: string.rstrip()

7. index( ) function returns the index number of the given element.

Syntax: string.index(element)

Output:

8. split( ) function returns the list of substrings separated by

whitespace.

Syntax: string.split( )

Output:

9. replace(old,new) function replaces the old with new.

Syntax: string.replace(old,new)

Output:
 10. join( ) string method returns a string by joining
all the elements of an iterable (lists, tuples and string) with the
delimiter.

Syntax: delimiter.join(iterable)

Output:

3.1.3: String formatting

format( ) method is used to format a string.

Rules for string formatting:

1. Create a placeholder with the help of curly brackets {}.

2. Call the format method and pass variables as parameters. When
program executes, the values passed to these parameters will
replace the curly brackets placeholders.

Example 1:
In the above example, the values passed to variable animal will fill the first
placeholder and the value passed to variable legs will fill the second
placeholder.

Output:

Example 2:
If you want to display a float number with two digits after the decimal dot,
formatting expression {:.2f} is used.

Output:
3.2: Python List
● A Python List is very similar to an Array. It contains a list of elements
separated by commas and its elements are written with square brackets
[ …. ].
● Python list are mutable meaning that we can modify list elements.
● A value from a List can be accessed from its index value.
Syntax for accessing the values from a List is:
List_name [ index_num ]

What is an Array?

An Array is a collection of items or elements all having the same datatype.

An element from an array can only be accessed from its index value.
Example:
Let’s create an array of cars.
cars = [“Kia”, “Toyota”, “Ford”, “Tesla”]

In order to get the value Ford as output, we need to write print ( cars[2] )
Example:
Create a new Python file (variables.py) and write the following lines of code:

After running the above piece of code, we get an output of:

Code explanation:
● In the above piece of code, fruits is a List containing 6 elements. The
value at position 0 is “apple”, at position 1 is “orange” and so on.

● x is a variable holding a string value. The value at position 0 is “t”, at

position 1 is “h” and so on.
● len( ) function is used to get the length of the list.

● In Line 4 and 5 we are performing Slicing operation.

print ( fruits [ 2 : 4] ) means print elements from position 2
(including its value) to position 4 (excluding its value ).

Output: [‘banana’, ‘mango’]

print ( x [ 2 : 8 ] ) means print the values of x (“this apple is
 tasty”) from position 2 (including its value ) to position 8
(excluding its value).

Output: is app
3.2.1: Important and commonly used List methods
1. append( ) method inserts the element at the end of the list.

Syntax: list.append(element)

Output:

2. insert( ) method inserts an element at the specified index number.

Syntax: list.index(index_num, element)

Output:

3. remove( ) method removes the first occurrence of element specified.

Syntax: list.remove(element)

Output:

3.3: Python Tuple

● A Tuple is very much like a List. It contains elements separated by
commas within open and close parenthesis ( …. ).
● Python tuple are immutable meaning once a tuple is declared, it cannot
be modified.

Difference between Tuple and List

Tuple List
Tuple contains elements within (… ) List contains elements within [ …]
parenthesis square brackets
Once a tuple is created, no item can List gives us the ability to add,
be added, updated or deleted update and delete items.

Example:
After running the above piece of code, we get an output of:

Code explanation:

del ( ) function is used to delete element from a certain position. When

applying delete function to fruits list, the value at position 1 (orange) was
deleted successfully. But in case of tuple, when we tried to delete an element
at position 2, it threw an error.

3.3.1: What is unpacking a tuple mean?

When we create a tuple and assign new values into it. This is called packing a
tuple.
When we extract those values and store them into a variable. This is called
unpacking a tuple.
Output:

3.4: Python Dictionary

Python dictionaries are used to store key - value pairs where the
key should be a unique value.

A dictionary is written within { … } curly braces.

Python dictionary are mutable meaning that its content can be

modified.
Example:
After running the above piece of code, we get an output of:

3.4.1: Important Dictionary operations and methods

1. Now let’s insert some new records.

To insert new records into the dictionary, the syntax is:
dictionary_name[key] = value

Output:

2. Update a record
To update a record, the syntax is same as insert a new record.
Output:

In the above piece of code, we see the new value (70) assigned to key John
replaces the old value (95).

3. Delete a record

To delete a record from a dictionary, del keyword is used. Syntax:

del dictionary_name[key]

Important Dictionary Methods:

1. To iterate through dictionary, items( ) method is used. Syntax:

dictionary.items( ) (example present in chapter 5)

2. To display only dictionary keys, key( ) method is used.

Syntax: dictionary.keys( )

3. To display only dictionary values, values( ) method is used.

Syntax: dictionary.values( ).

3.5: Python Operators

3.5.1: Commonly used Arithmetic operators

Operator Description
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
% Modulus. This sign returns the remainder.
Exponentiation. For example: 2 ** 3 means 2 to the power of 3
**
and that is equal to 8
Floor division. This operator returns only the whole integer
//
number. For example: 23 // 2 will give 11

3.5.2: Commonly used Comparison Operators

Operator Description
== Equals: x = = y
!= Not Equals: x != y
< Less than: x < y
<= Less than or equal to: x <= y
> Greater than: x > y
>= Greater than or equal to: x >= y
3.5.3: Commonly used Logical Operators

Operator Description
Example:
and x = 123 and y = “John” executes certain block of code if both
statements are TRUE
Example:
or x = 123 or y = “John” executes certain block of code if one of
the statements is TRUE
Example:
in x = [ 123 , 345 ]
if 123 in x returns TRUE, then executes certain block of code
Example:
x = [ 123 , 345 ]
not in
if 12 not in x returns TRUE, then executes certain block of
code

3.5.4: Commonly used Assignment Operators

Operator Description
= Example: x = 2, this means value 2 is assigned to x
+= This is same as x = x + 1. If value of x = 3, then the new
(x += 1) value of x is 3 + 1 = 4
-= This is same as x = x – 2. If value of x = 5, then the new value
(x -= 2) of x is 5 – 2 = 3
*= This is same as x = x * 5. If value of x = 2, then the new value
(x *= 5) of x is 2 * 5 = 10
/= This is same as x = x / 2. If value of x is 10, then the new
(x /= 2) value of x is 10 / 2 = 5
%= This is same as x = x % 2. If value of x is 10, then the new
(x %= 2) value of x is 10 % 2 = 0
Chapter 4 : Python Control Statements
The concept of control statements in Python is similar to any other
programming languages but it has some minor differences. They are:

1. The syntax is different.

2. In other programming languages, the control statements block of

codes is written within curly braces { …}, whereas in Python,
indentation marks the beginning and end of a block of code.

4.1: Python If ..Elif ..Else

if else block of code is used to check whether certain condition is
true or false. If the condition is satisfied the if block of code is
executed and if not satisfied the else block of code is executed.

Python elif means else if

The syntax is:

if condition :
……..
elif condition :
……..
else :
…………

Execution flow:
Example 1:
Create a new Python file (test.py) and write the following lines of code:

Python Indentation Explanation:

 colon( : ) marks the beginning of the block of codes.

You will notice that the above piece of code does not contain any
curly brackets. In Python indentation marks the beginning and end
of a block of code.

In the above example, after stating the if line of code (line 2), we
gave an indentation and wrote the line print("Output is Orange").
This indentation signifies that the print statement belongs to the if
block of code. Then after stating the elif line of code (line 4), we
gave an indentation and wrote the line print("Output is apple").
This one indentation again signifies that the print statement
belongs to the elif block of code. Then again we followed the same
process for else block of code.

Once the if condition is satisfied, the line print("Output is

Orange") executes. If for some reason, the if condition is not
satisfied, then elif condition is tested. If the elif condition is also
not satisfied then else block of code executes.

Now let’s run the above piece of code.

Open command prompt -> navigate to the Python file location and run the
script using python command.
Output

In the above Python code, fruits is a List of 4 elements. Since the value at
position 1 is indeed “orange”, the if statement is satisfied and the elif and else
block of code are not checked anymore.

Example 2:
Code explanation:
The Line 2 of the above piece of code checks whether there is value present
in stocks List or not. If TRUE, execute the if block of code, else execute the
else block of code.

Output

4.2: Python For Loop

Important points to note are :
Python for loop is used to iterate through an array, list, tuple,
dictionary or sequence of characters.

for loop continues till the length of a given variable. Example:

cars = [“Kia”, “Toyota”, “Ford”]

The length of the above cars list is 3, so the loop will go on for 3 times.
First it will take the element at index number 0 (“Kia”) and perform the
checking operation by traversing down the loop -> then it will check
the element at index number 1 (“Toyota”) and perform the checking
operation by traversing down the loop -> then it will check the element
at index number 2 (“Ford” ).
The syntax is:

for each_element in elements :

………

Execution flow of for loop:

Example:
Create a new Python file (loops.py) and write the following lines of code:
After running the above piece of code, we get an output of:

Important points to note are:

1. colon( : ) marks the beginning of the block of codes.

2. After initiating the for loop, we gave an indentation and then

started our if loop. That one indentation signifies that the if block
of code belongs to the for loop.

Now within if block of code, I gave two indentation to signify that the
line print("I wish to own tesla one day") belongs to if statement which
in turn belongs to the for loop.
We followed the same above process for elif and else block of codes.
3. The loop will go on till the length of the List car. The length of the
above List is 4, so the loop will happen 4 times.
Execution flow of the above piece of code:

4.2.1: Nested for loop

Nested for loop means that a for loop is present within a for loop.
Output:

Code explanation:
In the above piece of code we created a list of groceries and stored it in a
variable groceries. The list is a collection of mini lists.
In line for record in groceries:, we capture the mini lists. Then in line for
grocery_item in record: we loop and get the grocery items present in the
mini list.

4.3: Python While loop

while loop keeps on executing a block of code as long as the condition is
true.

The syntax is :

while condition :
……..

Example:
Code explanation:

● In Line 1, we declared the value of variable x.

● In Line 2, the while loop is initiated.
Since the value of x is less than 100, then the while loop condition is
satisfied and the print statement at Line 3 executes.
● In Line 4, we increment the value of x by 10 and assign that increment
value back to variable x. The while loop starts again with the
incremented value and goes on unless and until the value of x becomes
equal to or less than 100.

Now let’s run above piece of code.

NOTE: In while loop it is very important to initialize a variable and then

increment the variable as we did in the above example. If proper
initialization and incrementation is not done, the while loop will keep on
 looping and will not stop.

4.4: Python Break and Continue

Python Break and Continue statements are used to alter the normal flow of a
loop.

Break
Break statements are used to break out of a loop if certain condition is
satisfied.

Example:

In the above example, the for loop will go on until the if condition is
satisfied. Once the if condition is satisfied the execution will stop because it
will encounter the break statement.

Now let’s run the above piece of code,

Continue
When a certain condition executes the Continue statement, the control
returns to the beginning of the loop and skips the rest of the code.
Note that the loop does not get terminated.
Example:

In the above piece of code, you will notice that once the continue statement
was encountered, the code at Line 9 was not printed and the control moved
back to the beginning of the loop.

Now let’s run the above piece of code,

Except “Tesla”, all other values were printed.

Chapter 5 : Python functions.
Python Functions are just like Java methods. It is a block of codes performing
certain task.

Syntax:

def function_name ( ) :
……..

Example:

Code Explanation:

In the above piece of code, we created a function

validate_username with parameter uname. If the argument is
“John123”, the function prints “Hello John” or else it will print
“Wrong username”.

To call any function, we simply have to write the function name

followed by parenthesis. Within that parenthesis, we passed the
value of username which is “John123”
Output
Difference between parameter and argument?
Parameter is the variable passed to a function. Example:
function function_name ( variable1, variable2) :

Argument is the value assigned to the variables. Example:

function_name (123,”Hello_World” )

Example 1:
Let’s code a simple function. The function will take a list of number and
will check whether each number is prime or not.
A prime number is any number which is divisible by 2 and its remainder
return 0.
 Important points to note from the above piece of code:

1. return keyword in python is used to return the value generated from its
function.

2. The two characters \n signifies that the current line ends and a new line
starts.

Output:

Example 2:
Let’s code one of my favorite programs.
In this program we will check whether a string is palindrome or not.
What is palindrome?
Palindrome is a word or sequence that reads the same backward as
forward. For example: Noon is palindrome.

The algorithm of the above program will be:

Step 1: Get the input string.

Step 2: Reverse the input string.
Step 3: Compare the original string with the reversed string. If both string
matches then the input string is palindrome. If it does not match then the
input string is not palindrome.
Run the above piece of code:
Example 3:
Create a function which will receive a dictionary of students with their
scores. The function will print out the top scorers, passed and failed
students.

Important points to note from the above piece of code:

1. The dictionary items( ) method returns a tuple of key-value pair for

each element in the dictionary.
Output:

Example 4:
Write a function which will only print letters (excluding the
punctuations) of the given string value.

Output:

Important points to note from the above piece of code:

1. Strings isalpha( ) method checks whether the given string value contains
alphabet ( a – z ) or not.

2. String isnumeric( ) method checks whether the given string value

contains numeric values ( 0 – 9 ) or not.

Example 5:
Write a function which will update an existing dictionary with the
updated new dictionary.

Output:

Important points to note from the above piece of code:

1. Dictionary update( ) method updates a dictionary with the elements

from another dictionary.
Chapter 6 : Python class
● Python is an object oriented programming language.
● A class is a “blueprint” for creating an object and like any other
programming language Python class contains attributes and methods.
Python object contains the copy of all attributes and methods present
within its class. To access those properties dot operator ( . ) is used.
The syntax for creating a class is:

class class_name :
def __init__(self) :
….
def method1 :
….
The syntax for creating an object of a class is:

class Hello:
def __init__(self) :
………………
…………
h = Hello( ) ,where h is the object of class Hello.

What is def __init__ (self)?

"__init__" is a reserved method in Python classes initializing the object’s

state. In Object Oriented concepts, it refers to the constructor of the class.
This method initializes the attributes of a class when an object is created.
self keyword helps to access the attributes of the class.

Example:
Output

Important points to note from the above piece of code are:

1. A Python Class name should start with a capital letter.

2. Within the __init__method we declared different attributes of our

class Employee and passed those values to self . id_num, self .
name and so on.

3. In our validation ( ) method we pass the argument self which helps

to access all the attributes of the class Employee.

4. str( ) function helps to convert an integer value to a string value.

5. and keyword is the logical and operator in Python.

6. In line 15 of the above code, we created an object e and passed

values into it.
Chapter 7 : Python Inheritance
Python Inheritance is very much like Java Inheritance where a class (Child
Class) inherits all properties and methods from a base class (Parent class) .

Benefits of Inheritance are:

1. Helps in code reusability.

2. Prevent repetitive work or code duplication.
3. Saves time.

The syntax is:

class Parent:
……..
class Child (Parent):
…….

Example:
Code explanation:

· In above piece of code, Employee is the super class and it contains

attributes c_id and c_name. It also contains a function comp_info
which prints out the c_id and c_name.
 Employee super class can be divided into many sub classes like
employees belonging to Testing department, employees belonging to
Development department or customer service department and so on.
For now we will create only one child class (Tester) of super class
Employee.

· Tester is the child class of Employee and it contains some standard

attributes like company_id (c_id), company_name (c_name),
employee_id (e_id), department_name (department).
The class Tester inherits the c_id and c_name from its super class and
in order to make the Inheritance work properly, we need to invoke the
__init__ method of its parent class as shown in the screen shot above.
If we do not invoke, then we will get exceptions as shown in the screen
shot below:

· Function tester_info of class Tester, prints out e_id and department.

· Object e is created for class Tester and all the arguments are passed
into it.
Then the function comp_info( ) from super class Employee and
tester_info ( ) from child class Tester is called.

Output

NOTE: Unlike other Programming languages like Java, C#, Python

supports Multiple Inheritance in which a class can inherit properties from
more than one class.
The syntax is :
class Child (Parent1, Parent2,…) :
Chapter 8 : Python Try Except Block
The concept of Python Try Except is very similar to Java Try
Catch. The try block tests certain piece of code. If that piece of
code throws an exception, then that exception is caught and
handled by except block.

finally block of code always executes at the end. This block

usually contains codes like exit out of an application or closes a
file etc.

The syntax is:

try:
……..
except:
………
finally:
………….
Example:
Code explanation:

In the above piece of code, I passed an integer value to variable x

and a string value to variable y. For this try except example, I
purposely performed a wrong arithmetic operation between the
two variables and passed that value to z.

try block of code tests for exceptions. If exception occurs, except

block catches them. In the above example, except handles
SyntaxError or a TypeError. Generic errors can be handled by
just adding an except.

If try block throws SyntaxError, then the SyntaxError except block

will run.
If try block throws TypeError, then the TypeError except block will
run.

Output
Chapter 9 : Other Important Topics
9.1: range ( ) function
Python range( ) function returns a sequence of integer numbers. In order to
traverse through the number we need for loop.

The syntax is:

range ( start, stop )

or

range ( start, stop , step)

Please note: The default value of start is 0.

Example:

Code explanation:
Output

9.2: How to get date, time and time zone in Python

In order to work with date and time Python provides us with datetime and
time modules.
But among the two modules, I prefer using time module because we can not
only get the date and time but we can also access other information like time
zone.
Example:

Code explanation:
In the above piece of code, we get the current local time using
localtime() function and then format the time using strftime( ) function

What is localtime( ) function in Python?

The localtime( ) function is used to convert a time ( in seconds ) since the
epoch to a struct_time.

The syntax is:

time.localtime( t ) , where t is the time in seconds.
If t is not provided, then the localtime( ) function returns the current date
and time.

What is epoch in Python?

In Python, time is measured from 1st Jan 12.00 AM, 1970 and this very
time is termed as epoch.

What is struct_time?
struct_time is a tuple containing 8 elements and they can be accessed by
their index value and attribute names.
The elements are as follows:
Index Attribute Value
0 tm_year Year – Example 2020
 1 tm_mon Month- from 1 to 12
2 tm_mday Day of month – from 1 to 31
3 tm_hour Hour – from 0 - 23
4 tm_min Minutes – from 0 to 59
5 tm_sec Seconds – from 0 to 59
6 tm_wday Day of the week – from 0 to 6 – Monday 0,
Tuesday 1 and so on
7 tm_yday Day of the year – from 1 to 366
8 tm_isdst daylight saving flag (0, 1 or -1). A value
of 1 indicates that the daylight savings is in effect,
0 if daylight savings is not in effect and -1 if the
information is not available.

Along with these 8 elements, there is a newly added attribute named

tm_zone.

What is strftime( ) in Python?

strftime( ) is used to convert a struct_time to a string as specified by the
format argument.
The syntax is:
time.strftime(“format_code”, t), where t is the time to be formatted.

Commonly used format codes are:

Format Code Value
%A returns weekday. Example: Monday
%d returns day of the month in number. From 0 to 31
%B returns month. Example: December
%m returns month in number. Example: from 0 to 12
%Y returns year. Example: 2020
%H returns hours from 00 - 23. Example: from 00 to 23
 %M returns minutes from 00-59. Example:30
%S returns seconds from 00-59. Example: 20
%T returns current time, equal to %H:%M:%S
%Z returns timezone.

Now let's run the above piece of code,

The date, time and timezone shows perfectly.

9.3: Python Logging

Logging helps to understand the basic flow of the program and it
is crucial for debugging any issue.

It is very important to add logs at places that will aid with

understanding the program flow and the point of failure in various
environments (as in dev, staging, prod, etc)
In order to work with Python logging, we need to import the
logging module first. Logging module provides methods to log
events according to their level of severity. The levels are:

DEBUG
INFO
WARNING
ERROR
CRITICAL

By default, Python skips logging information from severity level

DEBUG and INFO and prints only from severity level WARNING
and above.
 In order to make Python print all the log messages from all severity
level, we need to configure the logging by using basicConfig( )
method.
Some of the commonly used parameters for basicConfig( ) method
are as follows:

1. level: This specifies the root severity level from which the
log messages will start displaying.

2. filename: This specifies the log file.

3. filemode: This specifies the mode in which the log file will
open. w means write mode The default is a, which means
append.

4. format: This specifies the format of the log message which

will appear on the log file.

You can find all the format symbols in Python documentation

https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.html

Example:

Code explanation:
 In the above piece of code, we configured the logging from Line 2
– 5.

We set the level to DEBUG, this means that the logging

information will get displayed from severity level DEBUG
and higher.

We set the filename. All logging information will get

displayed in a log file (logFile.log).

We set the filemode to w . This specifies that every time the

Python module runs, the log file gets overwritten.

We set the format.

Now let’s run the above piece of code.

The log file generated successfully.

9.4: What does the line if__name__ == __main__

mean in Python?
if __name__ == “__main__” , mean that if a Python file is running directly
as the main python file and not imported then set the value of python
special variable __name__ equal to __main__ .
main( ) function is executed when the class is executed as an independent
unit.

Let us consider the example below,

 Create a new Python file and name it numbers.py

Code explanation:

We created a class Numbers which has two attributes num1,

num2 and a function add( ).

(To understand Python class, please refer to Chapter 9 )

 if __name__ == “__main__” meaning that if the file is running
directly, then create an object n of class Numbers, pass the
arguments and call the function add( ).

if __name__ is not equal to __main__” meaning that if the file is

not running directly then print “Numbers module is imported”

Now let’s run the above piece of code

Now let’s create another Python file letters.py

In this file, we imported the numbers module created above.

Now let’s run the letters.py file.

After running the letters.py, we got three outputs:
Output 1: The first output is generated from the numbers module. Since
numbers module is running from letters module and not running directly,
then the variable __name__ of numbers module is not equal to “__main__”,
hence we get the output “Numbers module is imported” . (Please refer to
code present in numbers.py)

Output 2: The second output is generated from letters module. Since the
letters module is running directly as the main python file so the variable
__name__ of letters module becomes equal to “__main__”, hence we get
the output “Letters module is not imported”

Output 3: The third output is generated from the show_letters( ) function of

letters module.
 Wish you all the best and thank you very much for
buying this book.

Always remember, the most important learning is Self-

Learning
&
Practice makes a person perfect..