Python Tutorial Point for Beginners and Pro

Welcome to the online Python tutorial point. Here, you can learn the fundamental concepts of Python from basic to advanced levels.

Our Python tutorial is specially designed for beginners and professionals. We have covered all the fundamental concepts of Python and will guide you step by step to learn every concept of Python. And at last, you will be comfortable in creating projects in Python.

We not only add a new tutorial in Python but also thoroughly revise and update the existing contents regularly so that you could get a better programming experience.

If you are a beginner to learn Python, this is the right platform. In each Python tutorial, you will get programming exercises to test your understanding.

Start from here, to learn Python programming. Recommend you see all Python tutorials in the specified order. Even if you have no prior knowledge of any programming language, you won’t face any difficulty understanding these tutorials.

So, let’s start learning Python from basic introduction.

What is Python?


Python is a simple, general purpose, dynamic, high level, interactive, interpreted, and object-oriented programming language. It is one of the most popular computer programming languages in the world.

Guido van Rossum developed Python at the National Research Institute in the Netherlands in the late 1980s. Its first version was officially released in 1991. And it is now used to make millions of websites, apps, and games.

He derived its core syntax from the ABC programming language, borrowed heavily from C language, and borrowed partly from other languages such as C++, SmallTalk, Unix-shell, Modula-3, and Algol-68.

He placed a strong emphasis on code readability and simplicity so that programmers develop applications rapidly.

Python programs are written in nearly regular English. It uses English keywords, concise codes, simple and easy-to-use syntax.

Hence, it makes Python a great computer programming language to learn for beginners.

Python tutorial for beginners. step-by-step.

 

Important Terms You Should Know with Python


Before you go too far into this Python tutorial, it is important to understand some important terms that can make the Python easier to understand. They are:

1. Python is a general-purpose language, which means we can use it for building a wide variety of application softwares across a multitude of hardware configurations and operating systems.


A general purpose language is a programming language that is the ability to build all kinds of programs. For example, Python is a good example of a general-purpose programming language.


2. Python is a high-level language, which means it enables the programmer to write programs that are not specific to a particular type of computer or designed for a specific task.

A high-level language is easier to understand. It is closer to human language and far to machine language. Some examples of high-level languages are BASIC, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Java, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Visual Basic.

For a computer to understand and run a program designed with a high-level language, we must compile it into machine language.


3. Python is a dynamically typed language. This means that the Python interpreter does type checking of variable at the runtime. Interpreter assigns the type of variable based on the value of variable at the runtime.


4. Python is really interactive. This means that we can write the program directly on the Python prompt and interact with the interpreter to generate immediate output.


5. Python is both compiled and interpreted language. Python is an interpreted language because interpreter converts codes into machine-readable byte codes before it can execute them.

It is also a compiled language because bytecode compiler automatically compiles the codes into byte code (to .pyc) when modules imported. But, we can also compile codes explicitly. In addition, there may need the availability of the compiler at runtime for some standard processes.

6. Python is an object-oriented programming language. This means that it emphasizes the use of objects over functions, in contrast with procedure-oriented languages.

Everything is done through classes and objects. It supports user-defined classes and objects, constructors, encapsulation, inheritance, multiple inheritance, abstraction, polymorphism as well as methods binding at runtime.

7. Python is a popular language because of its extensive standard library, which contains more than a hundred modules. We can access these modules easily with a simple import statement.

The most commonly used modules are network programming, operating systems, threads, internet protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, and FTP, mathematical functions, random functions, regular expression matching, GUI toolkit, HTML parsing, XML processing, and email handling.

Why Learn Python?


There are many high-level programming languages available, such as C, C++, and Java. All high-level programming languages are very similar to one another.

What differs is mainly its syntax, libraries available and the mode we access those libraries.

A library is simply a collection of resources and pre-written codes we use when we write our programs.

If we learn one programming language nicely, we can easily learn a new programming language in a fraction of the time. If you are a beginner and want to learn computer programming, Python is a great place to start.

Python is a great, and powerful language for getting learned computer programming for beginners. Many institutions, schools and universities now use it to teach coding.

We can build a simple programs quickly in Python. It’s not too hard and its syntax is very simple. Therefore, it is great for making websites, apps and games.

Here are some important reasons that why Python’s so useful.

1. Easy to Read, Write, and Understand

Unlike some other programming languages, Python is a text-based computer programming language. It doesn’t use complicated symbols.

We write the code using a mixture of English words, characters, symbols, and numbers. This makes Python code easy to read, write, and understand – just like a book.


2. Works Everywhere

Python is portable. It means we can write and run Python code on lots of different computers. The same Python code will work on PCs having different operating systems such as Windows, Macs, Linux machines, and Raspberry Pi, etc.

The programs behave the same way in each computer system. So, we can play games developed with Python on several computer machines all around the world.


3. Packed with Handy Tools

Python comes with lots of useful tools and pre-written code that we can use in writing our programs right away. The pre-written code is called Standard Library.


This standard library makes Python easier and quicker that helps to build programs easily. Therefore, Python programmers say it comes with “batteries included”.


4. Great Support and Strong Community

Python provides great support materials for programmers because it has well-written documentation and a powerful community.

The documents guide to getting started, several pieces of sample code, and provides a reference section to understand the code.


5. Python is Free and Open Source

Python is free and open source. This makes Python popular and successful. We can install it on our computer and never need to pay a penny.

But, if you buy the Python’s license, you can do much more than that. License provides to copy and modify Python.


6. Python is Powerful

Python is a powerful programming language that attracts developers from around the world as well as numerous companies such as Google, IBM, Facebook, Microsoft, NASA, Red Hat, Verizon, Xerox, and Yahoo!.

Professional game programmers also use Python as a tool. By the end of Python tutorials, you’ll be able to write programs that employ a GUI, process files, and use a variety of data structures.

Thus, Python has all the power that we expect from a modern programming language.


7. Python Is Object-Oriented Language

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a modern programming approach to design a computer program using classes and objects. Like C++, C#, and Java, Python is also an object-oriented programming language.

But Python does one thing better. In C++, C# and Java, OOP technique is not optional. It makes the short program unnecessarily hard, and it needs a lot of explanation before a new programmer can do anything important.

In Python, using OOP features is optional. We can use it when we need it. If you are making a short program that doesn’t really need OOP, do not use OOP.

If you are working on a large project with a team of programmers that demands OOP, you can use OOP. Thus, Python provides us power and flexibility both.


8. Python is a “Integrated” Language

We can integrate Python with other languages such as C, C++, and Java. It means that we can take benefit of work already done in another language while using Python.

Besides it, Python comes with an extensive collection of third party resources that extend the abilities of the language.

For example, we can use Python for a large variety of tasks, such as for desktop applications, database applications, game programming, network programming, and even mobile development.


9. Length of Code

We require writing fewer lines of code in Python to perform the same task compared to other languages such as C++, Java. From which we get fewer programming errors and also reduces the development time needed.

Java vs Python Program


Unlike the other programming languages such as Java, Python provides the facility to write the fewer lines of code to do the same task.

From which you get fewer programming errors and reduces the development time needed. For example, suppose we want to print the “Hello World” in the Java.

So, we need to write three lines to print it. Let’s write the code for it.

Java Program

public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[ ] args) 
{
// Prints "Hello, World" to the console.
   System.out.println("Hello World");
  }
}

Python Program

On the other hand, we can perform the same task this using one statement in Python.

print("Hello World")

As you can see that both programs are printing the same result, but Python takes only one statement without using a semicolon or curly braces.

Where can We Use Python?


Python is a simple and popular high-level general-purpose programming language. We can use it in the almost every technical field.

For example, we can use Python on a server to create web applications, to connect to database systems, and to handle big data and perform complex mathematics.

We also use in many interesting and exciting tasks in business, medicine, science, and the media. Various areas of Python use are as below:

  • Data Science
  • Date Mining
  • Desktop Applications
  • Console-based Applications
  • Mobile Applications
  • Software Development
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Web Applications
  • Enterprise Applications
  • 3D CAD Applications
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision or Image Processing Applications.
  • Speech Recognitions
  • Video games
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Business
  • Media, etc.

Popular Frameworks and Libraries of Python


Python has a wide range of frameworks and libraries widely used in many fields, such as web applications, machine learning, artificial intelligence, gaming, science, etc.

We have defined some popular frameworks and libraries of Python as below.

  • Web development (Server-side) – Pyramid, Django Flask, CherryPy
  • GUIs based Applications – Tk, PyGTK, PyQt, PyJs, etc.
  • Machine Learning – TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, Matplotlib, Scipy, etc.
  • Mathematics – Pabdas, Numpy, etc.

Python 2 vs. Python 3


In most of the programming languages like Java, whenever a new version comes, it supports not only features and syntax of the existing version but also new released features and syntax of the language.

This makes it easier for the projects to switch in the newer version. However, with Python, there are two versions, Python 2 and Python 3. Both are very much different from each other.

Here, we have listed key differences between Python 2 and Python 3 that are:

(a) print:

Python 2 uses print as a statement and as print “something” to print string value on the console. For example:

Python 2:
print "Hello world!"

While, Python 3 uses print as a function and use as print(“something”) to print something on the console. For example:

Python 3:
print("Hello world!");

Thus, the print statement of Python2 has changed to a print() function in Python 3.

(b) raw_input():

Python 2 uses the raw_input() function to take the input entered by the user. It returns a string value by converting entered data into a string. To convert it into an integer, we will have to use the int() function in Python.

While, Python 3 uses the function input(), which automatically interprets the type of input entered by the user. However, we can cast this value to any type by using primitive functions, such as int(), str(), etc.

(c) / and //:

In Python 2, we use / operator for floor division. For example:

5 / 2 = 2

In Python 3, we use // operator for floor division. For example:

5 / 2 = 2.5;
5 // 2 = 2;

(d) String type:

In Python 2, the implicit string type is ASCII for representing characters, while in Python 3, the implicit string type is Unicode Standard to represent characters.

(e) xrange():

Python 3 doesn’t have the function named xrange() of Python 2. The xrange() is an extended version of range() function which returns a xrange object. It works similar to the Iterator in Java.

(f) exec:

The exec statement of Python 2 has changed to a function() in Python. For example:

Python 2:
  exec code

Python 3:
  exec(code)

(g) String formatting with % has deprecated in Python 3. Use str.format instead.

(h) Python 2 contains two kinds of classes: old-style classes and new-style classes. Whereas, Python 3 drops old-style classes completely.

Thus, Python 3 has brought many other technical changes regarding new features, syntax, and standard library content. Due to which Python 3 is incompatible with Python 2. For a complete list of differences, go to “What’s new in Python 3.0“.

Which Version of Python should You Learn for Data Science?


It is a natural to prefer the most recent version of Python. Python 3 is the future, while Python 2 is the past. However, Python 2 is not being updated with anything other than security updates, but it is still quite popular.

In this tutorial, we have chosen the current version Python 3 for learning. We will use a text editor to write the Python code.

It is also possible to write the Python code in an Integrated Development Environment, such as Thonny, Pycharm, Netbeans or Eclipse. They are useful when we are managing larger collections of Python files.

Examples of Python Versions and Release Dates


Here, we have listed Python versions and release dates. They are as:

  • Python 3.7 -> June 2018
  • Python 3.6 -> December 2016
  • Python 3.5 -> September 2015
  • Python 3.4 -> March 2014
  • Python 3.3 -> September 2012
  • Python 3.2 -> February 2011
  • Python 3.1 -> September 2012
  • Python 3.0 -> December 2008
  • Python 2.7 -> July 2010
  • Python 2.6 -> October 2008
  • Python 2.0 -> October 2000
  • Python 1.6 -> September 2000
  • Python 1.5 -> February 1998
  • Python 1.0 -> January 1994

Key Points:

There are some key points why people appreciate, accept, and love Python. They are:

(a) Startups love Python programming.

(b) Python does not take long to learn, especially for beginners.

(c) We can learn basic Python for free.

(d) Python provides a supportive user community.

(e) It is popular and versatile.

(f) Python works better together in the front and back ends of your project.

(g) We can customize the Python if we need. This is because there is no shortage of libraries and frameworks in Python.

(h) Python is a great tool for automation. We can write simple Python programs to automate routine, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks that will save your time.

(i) It gives us various tools to work anywhere in tech, such as data analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science.

These are some important points that show why people love Python. Learning the Python language will open various options and opportunities in tech.


In this tutorial, you learned basic points of Python programming language. I hope that you will have understood why people love Python language and beginners learn it.
Thanks for reading!!!