Python

Python is dynamically typed interpreted object oriented language. Python uses indentation to identify the body of functions, loop and conditions. It is garbage collected.

Uses indentation to denote the body of a loop, function, conditional statements etc. Usually tab space can be set to 4 spaces.

settings for vim,
set tabstop=8 softtabstop=0 expandtab shiftwidth=4 smarttab

Basic data types

integer, string, float, complex Boolean - True, False del - to remove the reference of a variable

Strings

eg = r"example\n"
r - raw, 

""" to span string
literals across multiple lines \
"""

Python strings are immutable

Arithmetic operators

** - exponent
// - Floor
Rest of the operators are same as C.

Descriptive operators

in, not in - membership operators
is, is not - identity operators
or, and, not - logical operators

Conditional operators

if (expression):
    statements
elif expression:
    statement(s)
else: statement

Loops

for iterating_var in sequence:
    statement(s)

for i in range(10)
for i in range(5,10)
range generates arithmetic progressions

while expression:
    statement(s)

has else statement which can be tagged along with end of loop. executed unless loop is terminated by break
break and continue statements similar to C

Functions

def function_name (parameters):
    """function documentation"""
    statements
    return [expression]

All parameters are passed by reference argument types: required, keyword, default, variable length

Variable length args,

def function_name ([formal_args], *var_args_tuple)

Anonymous functions,

lambda [arg1 [,arg2,.....argn]]:expression

return statement with no arguments is same as return None

local and global variables same as C.

global variable_name - to access global variable

pass - statement is a no op. useful for empty api documentation

BuiltIn Data Structures

List

list =  [ 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2 ]

list[start:stop:step] to slice a list

list [::-1] - reverses the list

Looping for i in list: print i

for q, a in zip(questions, answers):
    print (q, a)
zip - pair multiple sequences and loop through,

for i, v in enumerate(['tic', 'tac', 'toe']):
    print(i, v)
fetch index and value of a sequence using enumerate

Tuple

It is a immutable list

tuple = ( 'abcd', 786 , 2.23, 'john', 70.2  )

Dictionary

dict = { jack': 4098, 'jones': 4139}
dict['first'] = "Add the first item"
dict[2]     = "This is two"

for k, v in dict.items():
    print(k, v)

Set

set = { 'apple', "orange" }

'apple' in set
- find if apple is a member of set.

Modules

A module is a file containing python code. modules provide namespacing.

import module1[, module2[,... moduleN] - to import whole module
from module_name import func_name
from module_name import * - lets you access function_names, variables without specifying module_name

Modules are searched first in current directory, then PYTHONPATH and default installation dependent path - /usr/local/lib/python/

Package

Package is a collection of modules specified in init.py . Directory name being the package name.

__all__ = [module1, module2] (in __init__.py)- for supporting from package_name import *

dir(package_name) - outputs all the names defined in a module
globals() - returns global names
locals() - from a function returns local names
reload(module_name) - to execute the top level code of module again.

if __name__ == "__main__":
    functions to run when the module is run as a script

Object Oriented Features

Multi-Threading

Command Line Arguments

Profiling and Debugging Tools