Basics of Python

Tuesday, November 10
9 am–5 pm Pacific Time

This course will start at 9am Pacific Time and will run until 5pm Pacific Time.

This introductory course will walk you through the basics of programming in Python. We will cover the main language features – variables and data types, conditionals, lists, for/while loops, list comprehensions, dictionaries, writing functions – as well as working with external libraries such as numpy (mathematical arrays), pandas (data frames), and matplotlib (basic plotting).

Instructor: Alex Razoumov (WestGrid)

Prerequisites: none.

Software: We will be using online Jupyter notebooks, so no need to install Python on your computer.

Zoom   9am-12:00am Pacific
Setup and running Jupyter notebooks
Variables and data types
Built-in functions and help
Conditionals
Lists
Loops
Dictionaries
Writing functions
Variable scope and floating precision

Zoom   1:00pm-4pm Pacific
Libraries, virtual environments and packaging
Numpy
Plotting with matplotlib
Pandas dataframes
Multidimensional labeled arrays and datasets with xarray
Plotting with cartopy (additional material)
Running Python scripts from the command line (additional material)
Basics of object-oriented programming in Python (additional material)