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Python 3 Basics Cheat Sheet by

A sheet of basics involved within Python

Python Basics

Single Line Comments
#This is a comment on a single line
Doc String: These appear right after a function definition
Def foo:
‘’’this is a docstring, this will usually contain inform­ation about what is within the functi­on’’’
Arithmetic Operat­ions:
+ is addition
- is subtra­ction
* is multip­lic­ation
/ is division
% is modulus (remai­nder)
** is expone­nti­ation
Addition: result = 1 + 3
Subtra­ction: result = 1 - 3
Multip­lic­ation: result = 1 * 3
Division: result = 1 / 3
Modulus: result = 1 % 3
Expone­nti­ation: result = 1 ** 3
Plus-E­quals Operator +=
counter = 0
counter += 10
This is Equivalent to:
counter = 0
counter = counter + 10
**Note: This also works with strings
Variables: Unlike in many other progra­mming languages, python does not require you to declare a type before assigning a value to the variable
user_name = ‘Rando­mgi­rlll13’
id_number = 2345
user_v­erified = True

user_float = 14
user_float = 14.55
String Concat­enation
first = ‘good’
second = ‘morning’
sentence = first + last + ‘!’
Function print(): This outputs inform­ation to the user in the format of text
print(­‘Hello World!’)
print(100 +300)
print(­14.5­55556)

Loops

Break Keyword
In a loop, the break keyword will escape the loop
#Example
nums = [0, 2, -3, 5, 7]
for num in nums:
if (num < 0):
break
this will only run to -3 before breaking out of the loop
List Compre­hension
This is a concise way of creating lists.
Syntax: list_name = [Expre­ssion for Item in List <if Confid­ito­nal­>]
The expres­sions can be anything.
A list compre­hension will ALWAYS return a list
For Loops
#Example
nums = [1,2,3­,4,5]
for num in nums:
print(num)
Continue Keyword
The continue Keyword is inside a loop to skip the remaining code within the loop and begin the next loop iteration
Loops with range() function
Using the range() function, we can have a for loop that performs an action a specific number of times
#Example
for i in range(3):
print(i) #Prints 0, 1, 2
While Loops
A while loop will repeatedly execute a code block as long as the condition is True
hungry = True
while hungry:
print(‘I’m Hungry)
hungry = False

Modules

Importing Python Modules
The keyword import can be used to import python modules.
#Example
import module
module.fu­nct­ion()
Module importing from file
To import from a file, provided it is in the same folder as the current file you are writing, you can import it as follows
import filename
Aliasing with ‘as’ Keyword
The ‘as’ keyword can give an alias to a python module or function
#example
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
plt.pl­ot(x,y)
Random Module
The random module offers methods that simulate non-de­ter­min­istic behavior in selecting numbers from a range

Files

Python File Object
A python file object is created with the open() function. You can associate the file object with a variable using the with and as keywords
with open('­som­efi­le.t­xt') as file_o­bject:
Python Read Method
After having opened a file with open(), call the .read() method to return the entire file contents as a Python string.
Python Readline Method
If you only want to read one line, use Readline() on the file object. This will extract one single line of text at a time
Python Readlines Method
Instead of getting a single string of text, readlines will return a list of strings repres­enting individual lines in the file
Python Write to File
By default, all files opened are only for reading. To write to a file, you must open the file with a 'w' argument, then you can use the .write() method to write the file.
**Note If the file already exists, all prior content will be overwr­itten.

Example
with open('­tex­t.txt', 'w') as text:
text.w­rit­e('This is example text')
Python Append to File
Since writing to an existing file will overwrite it, to keep the original contents, we can write to a file using append instead. To appead we pass it an 'a' argument in place of a 'w'
Class csv.Di­ctW­riter
the csv module implements classes to read and write data in CSV format.
This has a class DictWrite which operates like a normal writer but will map a dictionary onto output rows. The keys of the dictionary are column names while values are actual data.

csv.Di­ctW­riter constr­uctor takes two arguments. first is the open file handler that CSV is written to. second is 'field­names', this is a list of field names that the CSV is going to handle.
 

Control Flow Operations

Else If Statements
#elif Statement
pet_type = ‘fish’
if pet_type == ‘dog’:
print(“You have a dog.”)
elif pet_type == ‘fish’:
print(“You have a fish.”)
else:
print(“Not Sure!”)
Or Operator
True or True #Evaluates to True
True or False #Evaluates to True
False or False #Evaluates to False
1 < 2 or 3 < 1 #Evaluates to True
Equal Operator
==
Used to compare two values, variables or expres­sions to determine if they are the same.
if they are the same, it returns True. Otherwise, it will return False
Not Equals Operator
!=
This is used to compare two values, variables or expres­sions to see if they are not the same.
If they are not the same, it returns True. Otherwise, it will return False
Comparison Operators
< #Less than
> #Greater than
<= #less than or equal to
>= #Greater than or equal to
And Operator
True and True #Evaluates to True
True and False #Evaluates to False
False and False #Evaluates to False
1 == 1 and 1 < 2 #Evaluates to True
Not Operator
not True #Evaluates to False
not False #Evaluates to True
not 1 > 2 #Evaluates to True

Functions

Functions
If a task will need to be performed multiple times, it is good practice to have it done within a function.
In python these are defined with the ‘def’ keyword and then the name of your function
#Example
def my_fun­cti­on(x):
Function Parameters
Some functions require input to provide data to their code. These are known as parame­ters. A function can have no parame­ters, one parameter, or multiple parameters
#Examples
def zero_f­unc­tion():
def one_fu­nct­ion­(nu­mber):
def three_­fun­cti­on(age, height, weight):
Calling Functions
To call a function you simply have the name of the function and the arguments it needs
#Example
zero_f­unc­tion()
one_fu­nct­ion(44)
Variable Scope
When it comes to the scope of variables, those not within a function are typically global variables, those within a function are local variables to that function and can be utilized in that function only.
If you want to get a value back from a function you can use the special keyword return

Dictio­naries

Syntax of Dictio­naries in Python
exampl­e_d­ict­ionary = {"el­em1­": 1, "­ele­m2": 2}
Dictionary Value Types
In Python, the 'Value' type can be anything, the 'key' type must be a mutable data type
Accessing and Writing data in a dictionary
Values can be accessed by placing the key within square brackets next to the dictionary name
print(­exa­mpl­e_d­ict­ion­ary­["el­em1­"]
To write a new value to a key it is the same syntax as accessing but with an = sign and what you'd like the new value to be
exampl­e_d­ict­ion­ary­["el­em1­"] = 3
Merging Dictio­naries with .update()
If two dictio­naries need to be combined you can use the .update() function
dict1 = {1 : 'one'}
dict2 = {2 : "­two­"}
dict1.u­pd­ate­(dict2) {{n1}} //dict1 is now {1 : 'one", 2 : 'two"}
Dictionary key-value Methods
if you want to look the keys, values, or both of the dictio­nary, there are methods
.keys() will return a list of the keys
.values() will return a list of the values
.items will return a list of tuples containing the key -value pairs
Dictionary get() Method
The get() method will return the value of a key if it exists otherwise it will return None if no default value is given for the key
Dictionary .pop() Method
.pop() will remove a key from a dictionary and return that keys value

Classes

Instan­tiate Python Class
class Example:
"­"This is an empty class""
pass
Python Class Variable
Class variables are defined locally within the class and outside of all methods. They have the same value for every instance of the class
they can be access with instan­ce.v­ar­iable or class_­nam­e.v­ariable syntax
Python repr Method
The Python __repr__() method is used to tell Python what the string repres­ent­ation of the class should be. It only has one parameter, self, and it returns a string
Python Class Methods
In Python, methods are functions that are defined as part of a class. Common pract is that the first argument of any method that is part of a class is the actual object calling the method. This argument is usually called self
Python init Method
In Python, the __init__ method is used to initalize a newly created object. It will be called every time the class is instan­tiated
class Animal:
def __init__ (self, voice):
self.voice = voice
cat = Animal­('M­eow')
Python type() function
the type() function will return the data type of the argument that was passed to it
Python dir() function
In Python, the dir() function, with no arguments, returns a list of all the attributes in current scope
With an object as argument, dir() will try tor return all valid object attributes
_main_ in Python
In Python, __main__ is an identified used to reference the current file context
 

Lists

List Syntax
primes = [1,2,3­,5,­7,11]
empty_list = []
Adding Lists Together
items = [‘cake’, ‘cookie’, ‘pie’]
total_­items = items + [‘tart’, ‘chees­ecake’]
print(­tot­al_­items) #Result: [‘cake’, ‘cookie’, ‘pie’, ‘tart’, ‘chees­ecake’]
Lists: Data Types
Lists can contain multiple types of data types within one list
List Method .append()
numbers = [11, 333, 44]
number­s.a­ppe­nd(22)
print(­num­bers)
#Result: [11, 333, 44, 22]
List Indexing
In Python, Lists start at zero for the first index spot
#Example
names = [‘Lauren’, ‘Maria’, ‘Bailey’]
‘Maria’ is in the first index spot and ‘Lauren’ is in the zero index spot
Negative List Indexing
In Python, You can also access list elements using negative indices.
#Example
names = [‘Kim’, ‘Ashley’, ‘Hailey’, ‘Ginny’]
names[-1] # ‘Ginny’
names [-4] # ‘Kim’
List Method .remove()
This will remove the first occurrence of an element from a list in python
List Method .count()
This will return the number of times a certain element shows up in the list
Determ­ining List Length
The len() function can be used to determine the number of items found in a list
#Example
sack = [2, 4, 5, 6]
size = len(sack)
print(­sack) # 4
List Method .sort()
This Method will sort the contents of the list in either ascending order (numerical lists), or alphab­etical order (string lists)
List Slicing
This allows for only a portion of the list to be returned
#example
tools = [‘hammer’, ‘ruler’, ‘pen’]
tools_­slice = tools[1:3] # [‘ruler’, ‘pen’]
**Note: The original list will remain unaltered
Sorted() Function
This will take a list as the functions argument and will return a new sorted list without altering the original list
List Method .insert()
This allows us to add an element to a specific index into the list
List Method .pop()
This allows us to remove an element from the list and also return it

Strings

Escaping Characters
Backsl­ashes (\) are used to escape characters in Python Strings
In Syntax
The in syntax is used to determine if a letter or substring exists within a string. This will return True or False
#Example
sentence = “Creating this has been a lot of work”
print(­“work” in sentence) #True
Indexing and Slicing Strings
Using the same notation as lists, you can index strings
You can also get a substring from a string using slicing, the notation is string­_na­me[­sta­rt:end]
Iterate Strings
To iterate through a string, utilize the for … in notation
#Example
str = “hello”
for c in str:
print(c)
String len() function
This function can be used to determine the length of a string among other objects
String Concat­enation
To combine two strings, simply use the + operator
String Immuta­bility
In python, strings are considered immutable, meaning once it has been defined, it cannot be changed
String .format()
This replaces empty braces ({}) placeh­olders in a string with the arguments passed.
If keywords are specified within the placeh­olders, they are replaced with the corres­ponding named arguments
#Example
msg1 = ‘Mary had {} glasses of water and John had {} glasses of juice.’
msg1.f­orm­at(3, 2)
String Method .lower()
This will convert a string to all lowercase letters
String Method .strip()
This will remove characters from the beginning and end of a string. You can specify what characters to remove
String Method .title()
This will return a string in title case
String Method .split()
This will split a string into a list of items based on arguments.
If no arguments are passed, it uses white space, otherwise it will split based on whatever the argument passed is
String Method .find()
This will return the index of the first occurence of the string argument passed. If nothing is found, it will return -1
String Method .replace()
This will replace the first occurrence of the first string argument with the second string argument
String Method .upper()
This will make the string all uppercase
String Method .join()
This concat­enation a list of strings together with the desired delimiter
 

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