Course Overview

Geared for experienced users, Python Programming Essentials is an introductory and beyond-level practical, hands-on Python training course that leads the student from the basics of writing and running Python scripts to more advanced features such as file operations, regular expressions, working with binary data, and using the extensive functionality of Python modules.  This comprehensive, practical course provides an in-depth exploration of working with the programming language, not an academic overview of syntax and grammar.  Students will immediately be able to use Python to complete tasks in the real world.

Key Learning Areas

  • Create working Python scripts following best practices
  • Use python data types appropriately
  • Read and write files with both text and binary data
  • Search and replace text with regular expressions
  • Get familiar with the standard library and its work-saving modules
  • Use lesser known but powerful Python data types
  • Create "real-world", professional Python applications
  • Work with dates, times, and calendars
  • Know when to use collections such as lists, dictionaries, and sets
  • Understand Pythonic features such as comprehensions and iterators
  • Write robust code using exception handling

Course Outline

  • An Overview of Python
  • The Python Environment
  • Getting Started
  • Flow Control
  • Array Types
  • Working with Files
  • Dictionaries and Sets
  • Functions
  • Sorting
  • Errors and Exception Handling
  • Creating and Using Modules
  • Regular Expressions
  • Using the Standard Library
  • An Introduction to Python Classes

Who Benefits

This in an introductory-level Python course geared for experienced users who want to use Python in web development projects, or system administrators and web site administrators who want to use Python to support their server installations, as well as anyone else who wants to automate or simplify common tasks with the use of Python scripts.

Prerequisites

Basic familiarity with any programming or scripting language would be helpful, along with a working, user-level knowledge of Unix/Linux, Mac, or Windows.