Python by Example - Learning to Program in 150 Challenges

Python is today's fastest growing programming language. This engaging and refreshingly different guide breaks down the skills into clear step-by-step chunks and explains the theory using brief easy-to-understand language. Rather than bamboozling readers with pages of mind-numbing technical jargon, this book includes 150 practical challenges, putting the power in the reader's hands. Through creating programs to solve these challenges the reader will quickly progress from mastering the basics to confidently using subroutines, a graphical user interface, and linking to external text, csv and SQL files. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to program with Python. In particular, students starting out in computer science and teachers who want to improve their confidence in Python will find here a set of ready-made challenges for classroom use. Cover 1 Front Matter 3 PYTHON BY EXAMPLE: Learning to Program in 150 Challenges 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Image Credits 8 Introduction 9 Downloading Python 12 Some Tips 14 Part I: Learning Python 17 Challenges 1 - 11: The Basics 19 Challenges 12 - 19: If Statements 25 Challenges 20 - 26: Strings 32 Challenges 27 - 34: Maths 39 Challenges 35 - 44: For Loop 43 Challenges 45 - 51: While Loop 48 Challenges 52 - 59: Random 53 Challenges 60 - 68: Turtle Graphics 59 Challenges 69 - 79: Tuples, Lists and Dictionaries 66 Challenges 80 - 87: More String Manipulation 75 Challenges 88 - 95: Numeric Arrays 80 Challenges 96 - 103: 2D Lists and Dictionaries 87 Challenges 105 - 110: Reading and Writing to a Text File 94 Challenges 111 - 117: Reading and Writing to a .csv File 99 Challenges 118 - 123: Subprograms 107 Challenges 124 - 132: Tkinter GUI 118 Challenges 133 - 138: More Tkinter 132 Challenges 139 - 145: SQLite 142 Part II: Chunky Challenges 155 Challenge 146: Shift Code 158 Challenge 147: Mastermind 161 Challenge 148: Passwords 164 Challenge 149: Times Tables (GUI ) 169 Challenge 150: Art Gallery 172 What Next? 177 Glossary 178 Index 190 Provides a collection of progressively more complex Python programming challenges to help students learn to code in a naturally engaging way. This guide breaks down the skills into clear step-by-step chunks and explains the theory using brief easy-to-understand language. Rather than bombarding readers with pages of technical jargon, Lacey includes 150 practical challenges, putting the power in the reader's hands. Through creating programs to solve these challenges the reader will quickly progress from mastering the basics to confidently using subroutines, a graphical user interface, and linking to external text, csv and SQL files. This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn how to program with Python. In particular, students starting out in computer science and teachers who want to improve their confidence in Python will find here a set of ready-made challenges for classroom use. --Adapted from publisher description A refreshingly different and engaging way of learning how to program using Python. This book includes example code and brief user-friendly explanations, along with 150 progressively trickier challenges. As readers are actively involved in their learning, they quickly master the new skills and gain confidence in creating their own programs. A different and engaging way of learning how to program using Python. This book includes example code and brief student-friendly explanations, along with 150 progressively trickier challenges