Programming with Python

Dr. Mohammed Eunus Ali

([email protected])

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Objectives

Computer and Computer Science

Programming Languages

Programming with Python

Text Books:
1. Allen B. Downey, Jeffrey Elkner and Chris Meyers:
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python.
2. Guido van Rossum, the inventor of Python, and Fred L. Drake,
Jr., the official editor of the Python documentation, wrote a
tutorial introduction to Python.
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Natural vs. Formal Languages

• Natural languages:
– The languages that people speak, such as Bengali, English, and
French. They were not designed by people (although people try to
impose some order on them); they evolved naturally
• Formal languages:
– The languages that people have designed for specific purposes,
such as representing mathematical ideas or computer programs; all
programming languages are formal languages
• Token:
– One of the basic elements of the syntactic structure of a program,
analogous to a word in a natural language
• Parse:
– To examine a program and analyze the syntactic structure
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Programming Languages

• Programming languages are formal languages that

have been designed to express computations

– Natural language has ambiguity and imprecision problems when

used to describe complex algorithms
– Programs expressed in an unambiguous , precise way using
programming languages
– Every structure in programming language has a precise form,
called its syntax
– Every structure in programming language has a precise meaning,
called its semantics

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Programming Languages

• High-level programming languages

– Designed to be understood by human
• Low-level programming languages
– Designed to be understood by machines (also known as machine
languages or assembly languages)
• High-level vs. Low-level
– It is much easier to program in a high-level language. Programs
written in a high-level language take less time to write, they are
shorter and easier to read, and they are more likely to be correct
– High-level languages are portable, meaning that they can run on
different kinds of computers with few or no modifications. Low-
level programs can run on only one kind of computer and have to
be rewritten to run on another

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Programming Languages

• High-level to low-level
– Computers can only execute programs written in low-level
languages. Thus, programs written in a high-level language have
to be processed before they can run.
– Two kinds of programs process high-level languages into low-level
languages: interpreters and compiler.
• Interpreter vs Compiler
– An interpreter reads a high-level program and executes it,
meaning that it does what the program says.
– A compiler reads the program and translates it completely before
the program starts running. In this case, the high-level program is
called the source code, and the translated program is called the
object code or the executable.

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Why Python!!!

• Programming in Python is simply a lot of fun

and more productive
• Python is easier to understand

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The First Program in Python

• print "Hello, World! Welcome to CSE“

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Basic Instructions

• Input:
– Get data from the keyboard, a file, or some other device
• Output:
– Display data on the screen or send data to a file or other device
• Math:
– Perform basic mathematical operations like addition and
multiplication
• Conditional execution:
– Check for certain conditions and execute the appropriate
sequence of statements
• Repetition:
– Perform some action repeatedly, usually with some variation

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Debugging
• Errors:
– Programming is a complex process, and because it is done by human
beings, it often leads to errors
– Programming errors are called bugs and the process of tracking them
down and correcting them is called debugging
– Different types: syntax errors, runtime errors, semantic errors
– Syntax Errors:
• An error in the syntax (i.e., the structure) a program that makes it
impossible to parse (and therefore impossible to interpret)
– Runtime Errors:
• An error that does not occur until the program has started to execute but
that prevents the program from continuing
– Semantic Errors:
• An error in a program that makes it do something other than what the
programmer intended

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Variables
• Variables are containers for storing information
• Variables are designed to hold specific types of
information
• Names
– Names are given to variables, functions, modules, etc.
– These names are called identifiers
– Every identifier must begin with a letter or underscore (“_”), followed
by any sequence of letters, digits, or underscores
– Identifiers are case sensitive
– Some identifiers are part of programming language itself. These
identifiers are known as reserved words. This means they are not
available for you to use as a name for a variable, etc. in your program

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Types

• Boolean:
– Variables of this type can be either True or False
• Integer:
– An integer is a number without a fractional part, e.g. -4, 5, 0, -
3
• Float:
– Any rational number, e.g. 3.432
• String:
– Any sequence of characters

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Variables

• No need to declare
• Need to assign (initialize)
– use of uninitialized variable raises exception
• Not typed
if friendly:
greeting = "hello world"
else:
greeting = 12**2
print greeting
• Everything is a "variable":
– Even functions, classes, modules

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Expressions
• Expression: A data value or set of operations to compute a value.
Examples: 1+4*3
42
• Arithmetic operators we will use:
– +-*/ addition, subtraction/negation, multiplication,
division
– % modulus, a.k.a. remainder
– ** exponentiation
– // floor

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Order of Operations

• When more than one operator appears in an expression,

the order of evaluation depends on the rules of
precedence.
• Python follows the same precedence rules for its
mathematical operators that mathematics does, i.e,
PEMDAS.
• Multiplication and Division has the same precedence.
• Addition and Subtraction has the same precedence.
• Operators with the same precedence are evaluated from
left to right.
• E.G. 3*1**3=?, 2/3-1=?

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Statement

• A statement is an instruction that the Python

interpreter can execute
– E.g.: print and assignment
• A program/script usually contains a sequence of
statements
• Composition: The ability to combine simple expressions
and statements into compound statements and
expressions in order to represent complex computations
concisely

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Assignment
• Simple Assignment
– <variable> = <expr>
variable is an identifier, expr is an expression
• The expression on the RHS is evaluated to produce a
value which is then associated with the variable
named on the LHS
• Variables can be reassigned as many times as you
want
– cgpa = 3.8
– cgpa = 3.75
• Simultaneous Assignment
– Several values can be calculated at the same time
– <var>, <var>, … = <expr>, <expr>, …

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Input and Output
• Input: The purpose of an input statement is to get input
from the user and store it into a variable:
– <variable> = input(<prompt>)
– E.g., x = input(“Enter a temperature in Celsius: ”)
• Output: Output Statements
– A print() function can print any number of expressions
– Successive print statements will display on separate lines
– A bare print will print a blank line ( example: print() )
– If a print statement ends with a “,”, the cursor is not advanced to the
next line (not applicable in python 3.4)
– Examples:
print (3, 4, 3+4) 3,4,7
print (3, 4,) 3,4,7
print (3+ 4)
print “The answer is”, 3+4 The answer is 7

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Assignment

• Assignment manipulates references

– x = y does not make a copy of y
– x = y makes x reference the object y references
• Very useful; but beware!

• a=1 a 1
New int object created by
add operator 1+1
• b=a 1
a
b
• a 2 old reference deleted
by assignment (a=...)
• a = a+1 b 1
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Assignment Operators
• = Simple assignment operator, Assigns values from right side
operands to left side operand c = a + b will assign value of a + b into c
• += Add AND assignment operator, It adds right operand to the left
operand and assign the result to left operand c += a is equivalent to c
=c+a
• Similarly,
– -= Subtract AND assignment operator
– *= Multiply AND assignment operator
– /= Divide AND assignment operator
– %= Modulus AND assignment operator
– **= Exponent AND assignment operator
– //= Floor Division and assigns a value

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Bitwise Operators
• & : Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both
operands. (a & b) will give 12 which is 0000 1100
• | : Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand. (a | b) will
give 61 which is 0011 1101
• ^ : Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not
both. (a ^ b) will give 49 which is 0011 0001
• ~ : Binary Ones Complement Operator is unary and has the effect of
'flipping' bits. (~a ) will give -60 which is 1100 0011
• << : Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the
number of bits specified by the right operand. a << 2 will give 240 which is
1111 0000
• >> : Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by
the number of bits specified by the right operand. a >> 2 will give 15 which
is 0000 1111
a  0011 1100 b  0000 1101
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