What is Python
We are going to have a description of python in this article. So, on hearing the name python the first question that should come in our mind is What is Python?
What is Python/Definition of Python?
The answer is a High-level, Object Oriented Programming Language which was created by Guido van Rossum and first released in the year 1991. It is comparatively simple and easy to learn since it focuses on readability of the syntax.
Understanding Python
As per the above answer, we can see that we have used two keywords while defining Python. So, let’s first understand the meaning of those first two keywords.
1. High –level Language
This is called a High –level language because it is very farther away from Machine level language (which consists of 0’s and 1) and it’s difficult to code. So, it becomes difficult to code whereas this is easily readable so it is very farther away from Machine level language. So it becomes a high-level language. High-Level language syntax is more readable as compared to low-level language. One more thing that I would like is when we write this it is not a compiled language but an interpreted one which means it has to be run by another program, in this case, an interpreter not by the processor, unlike C language which is run directly by the processor.
2. Object-Oriented Programming Language
It is an object-oriented programming language which means it works on objects. So what is an object? For example, Tiger is an object whose color and age are its attributes and hunting and reproducing its behavior. So, as shown in the above example an object has two characteristics: attributes and behavior. So, there are some basic principles of OOPs as described below:
- Inheritance: In this case, a child class can use the behavior and attributes of the parent class.
- Encapsulation: Hiding the private details of a class from other objects.
- Polymorphism: Using a common behavior/operation in different forms for different inputs.
As you can see I have used the keyword class above, So what does class mean?
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A class is a blueprint of an object. It contains all the details of an object and the object is an instance of a class. When a class has defined the description of the object is defined which means no memory or storage is allocated.
How does Python make working so easy? / Why do we need?
The reason why it makes working so easy is because of its simple syntax and readability of code. Unlike other Programming languages like C, it has much readable and concise syntax which makes it easy for beginners to quickly master the concepts and reach an advanced level. For examples even if you want to print your name you have to write around 7 lines of code in C# but with python that can be done in one line only so that makes a huge difference and gives python an advantage over other languages.
Top Python Companies
As we have discussed on python now it becomes important for us to know the companies which are actually using this:
1. Google
Google has been a supporter of python for a long time. Even if scripts were written for Google in Perl or bash they were re-written in Python because it is easy to write, deploy and maintain. It is now official Google’s server-side language the other being C++ and Java.
2. Facebook
Facebook also uses Python to a great extent making it the third most popular language at the social media giant just behind C++ and PHP. Facebook has published numerous open-source projects written for Python 3.
3. Instagram
In 2016, Instagram Engineering team announced that they were running the world‘s largest Django Framework which is written in Python. Instagram’s team has invested time and resource in keeping their python development viable (approx 800 million monthly active users).
4. Quora
The huge crowdsource questions and answer platform use Python because of its ease of writing and readability.
5. Netflix
It uses mainly for data analysis for recommending and suggesting users with shows and movies. The main reason for using Python is an extremely active development community.
The above companies are some of the big companies using Python.
What can you do with Python? /Where should we use Python
So, now the bigger question is what can we do with Python or rather where can we use it?
The answer to this question is that python can be used almost everywhere. Here are a few areas where you can use Python:
1. Python for Web development
Since it is an Object Oriented Programming Language So, like other Object Oriented Language It can be used for Web Development and also it’s easy to syntax and has better readability. Django and Flask are the two most popular Python Web Framework.
2. Python for Scientific development
We can use this for scientific development as it has SciPy library, a numerical computation library numPy and it also has Matplotlib, which has a 2D plotting library for visualization. It can install the MATLAB Engine API so that it can interact with MATLAB as a computational engine. It is also a highly extensible language. It can use a web front end which means it is a web framework like Django and flask can use Python as an API with a web front end.
3. Data Science and Analysis
It is one of the most important features or area which swings the meter in favor of Python. It can be used for creating machine Learning algorithms as it can use a sci-kit library and we can build all types of models, for example, Linear Regression, Random Forest and many more even libraries like tensor flow makes it easy to create deep learning models. The popularity of this has risen multifold due to its use in Machine Learning and AI.
Working with Python
So here we will talk about how to start with python. We will be using Jupyter Notebook. So first we shall install Jupyter itself. For that first, we should install Anaconda. My recommendation would be downloading the Anaconda’s latest version with Python 3. Once you install Anaconda you could easily open Jupyter Notebook from there.
Below Screenshot shows how a Jupyter Notebook looks.
So the highlighted box that you see is called a cell. Here we write the code or instructions that we want the kernel to execute.
After writing the code you can press the play button on the toolbar to run the specific cell. It is very simple.
1. Example, if we have to add two numbers a and b its syntax is as follows:
a=10
b=20
c= a+b
print(c)
The screenshot below shows the same in Jupyter:
2. For mathematical and numerical computations we can import libraries like numpy and pandas libraries for working on datasets. The syntax for that is:
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
Below is the screenshot for the same:
3. Next, we can see how to build functions. Just like other languages, we can also build methods then call them later on in the program. The following example is to show how to create a Fibonacci series function for the first 100 numbers
def fib(p) :
a, b =0,1
while a< p :
print(a, end=’ ’)
a , b= b, a+b
print()
We can call the function by using fib(100)
Here is the Screenshot of the above code
4. Next, we will see how to create conditional flows like if and if-else as there are very important for any programming language. Here is the sample code to create a conditional flow and we are going to take input from a user using the input statement:
age = int(input(“Enter your name: ”))
if age <12:
print(“You are a kid”)
elif age in range(13, 20):
print(“ You are a teenager”)
else:
print(“You are a adult)
5. Next, we will see how to create a for loop in this with an example. For loop is basically used when we know the number of iterations. Below code is to perform the addition of the first ten numbers using for loop. Here the number of iterations is 10.
sum =0
for i in range(10):
print(i)
sum=sum +i
print(sum)
In the above code, a sum is used to store the sum of all the numbers after each iteration and range(10) means it will start from 0 till 9 not include 10 The answer should come to 45.
6. We also have a while loop. In the below example we are going to print i as long as it is less than 10 so here if we see we do not know exactly the number of iterations. So, we also called while loop has an entry controlled loop.
i = 1
while i<10:
print(i)
i= i+1
Required Python skills
The skills required for a good developer is the same as any other developer. The person should have a good knowledge of OOPs(Object Oriented Programming) concepts so that he can play with Object in python and then only he can use the full potential of Python. He should have good knowledge of those frameworks like Django and Flask depending on your technology stack. The person should also have a basic understanding of front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There should be familiarity with event-driven programming in Python. A basic understanding of database is required as database knowledge helps in writing proper queries.
The unique feature that makes it stand ahead of other languages is its use in analytics, data science, and AI. To be good in those fields using python one must have a good mathematical knowledge especially in the field of statistics, a good domain knowledge also helps as it helps in choosing the right model for fitting it into right kind of data.
Advantages of Python
There are numerous advantages of python. Few are mentioned below:
- Extensive Support Libraries: It provides large libraries which range from numerical computations to deep learning, Machine Learning, and Visualizations. Most of the programming task is already done in the libraries, Users just has to import the libraries and pass parameters based on the requirements and it really reduces time and length of the syntax also reduces.
- Integration Feature: It has powerful integration capabilities with front-end as well as other server-end technologies. It can directly call C and C++ or Java through Jython.
- Productivity: Due to its strong integration features, unit testing framework, Python increases the productivity of the applications. It is a good option for building scalable multi-protocol applications.
Scope of Python
Python’s scope now and the future is enormous. Almost every company is using in some way or other pythons in their business. Python has scope in Web Development, Data Science, Data Analysis, AI, Machine Learning. The scope of Python in Data Science/Analysis is much more as compared to other programming languages.
Who is the right audience for learning Python technologies?
The right Audience for this is anybody with an appetite to learn and having a basic knowledge of OOPS. Freshers, especially from streams other than computer science, will find the much easy to understand that for example C++.
How this technology will help you in career growth?
Learning this language gives you an extra advantage in your carrier as it is a very versatile language and its preferred use in scientific and numerical computations and data analysis and machine learning gives it an edge over others.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would say though this was created in 1990, It is very much in use today and its use is going to further increase especially in data analysis/data science and machine learning.
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