A Beginners Guide to Python 3 Programming

This textbook is aimed at readers who have little or no knowledge of computer programming but want to learn to program in Python. It starts from the very basics including how to install your Python environment, how to write a very simple program and run it, what a variable is, what an if statement is, how iteration works using for and while loops as well as important key concepts such as functions, classes and modules. Each subject area is prefaced with an introductory chapter, before continuing with how these ideas work in Python. The second edition has been completely updated for the latest versions of Python including Python 3.11 and Python 3.12. New chapters have been added such as those that consider where and how Python is used, the use of Frozensets, how data can be sorted, enumerated types in Python, structural pattern matching and how (and why) Python Virtual Environments are configured. A new chapter ‘The Python Bites back'is introduced to present the fourteen most common / biggest gotchas for someone new to Python. Other sections have been updated with new features such as Exception Groups, string operations and dictionary operations. A Beginners Guide to Python 3 Programming second Edition provides all you need to know about Python, with numerous examples provided throughout including several larger worked case studies illustrating the ideas presented in the previous chapters. Cover Front Matter 1. Introduction 2. Where is Python Used 3. Setting up the Python Environment 4. A First Python Program 5. Python Strings 6. Numbers, Booleans and None 7. Flow of Control Using if Statements 8. Iteration/Looping 9. Number Guessing Game 10. Recursion 11. Introduction to Structured Analysis 12. Functions in Python 13. Scope and Lifetime of Variables 14. Implementing a Calculator Using Functions 15. Introduction to Functional Programming 16. Higher-Order Functions 17. Curried Functions 18. Introduction to Object Orientation 19. Python Classes 20. Class Side and Static Behaviour 21. Class Inheritance 22. Why Bother with Object Orientation? 23. Operator Overloading 24. Python Properties 25. Abstract Base Classes 26. Error and Exception Handling 27. Python Modules and Packages 28. Protocols, Polymorphism and Descriptors 29. Decorators 30. Iterables and Iterators 31. Generators and Coroutines 32. Collections, Tuples and Lists 33. Sets 34. Dictionaries 35. Frozensets 36. Collection Related Modules 37. ADTs, Queues and Stacks 38. Map, Filter and Reduce 39. Sorting and Higher-Order Functions 40. Python Enumerated Values 41. Structural Pattern Matching 42. Python Virtual Environments 43. Monkey Patching 44. Attribute Lookup 45. The Python Bites Back 46. TicTacToe Game