Introduction to programming in Python

optional courses

The course is aimed to teach students programming in the Python language, the most searched after language in Google. The course is conducted from the basics, therefore no prior knowledge of programming or computer science is required. At the beginning, basics of programming and Python will be presented. Next, most important libraries and solutions for economics and analytics will be taught.

The goal of this course is theoretical preparation of students to let them increase their knowledge on their own or on other courses.

- Basics of the Python language. Console, virtual environments, code editors, IDEs, documentation, PEP 8. Definition of algorithm and version control

- Basics of programming on the example of Python: variable types, basic data types (list, tuple, set, dictionary), flow control (conditional expressions, loops, exception handling)

- Functions. Structure, scope, parameters, recursion, lambda

- numpy (linear algebra)

- pandas (data processing)

- Network and data: requests and BeautifulSoup libraries. HTTP, API, HTML, XML, JSON

- Classes and inheritance

- List/dictionary comprehensions, generators, iterators. Advanced data structures (collections, trees)

- Files, text processing, regular expressions. Writing effective and fast code, multithreading, profiling

Sweigart, A. (2019), “Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners”, 2nd Edition, No Starch Press

Shaw, Z. (2016), “Learn Python 3 the Hard Way”, Addison-Wesley Professional

McKinney, W. (2012),”Python for Data Analysis: Data Wrangling with Pandas, NumPy, and IPython”, O’Reilly

VanderPlas, J. (2016), Python Data Science Handbook: Essential Tools for Working with Data, O’Reilly

KNOWLEDGE

Student can explain the difference between IDE and text editor

Student knows about various data structures including advanced ones and knows which one is the right one to solve a particular problem

Student knows what class and function are and knows that these concepts are not limited to one language

Student knows to which solutions basic Python libraries are suited and how to search for libraries required for particular tases

Student knows about the structure of data in the internet, what an Application Programming Interface is and what are its uses

Student distinguishes commonly used data formats and knows how to read them

Student knows where to search for information about programming

SKILLS

Student is able to configure a virtual environment and choose a tool suited to their needs

Student can analyse data from a website to use in their bachelor’s or master’s thesis

Student is able to create a simple application using internet sources

Student can write code to solve problems effectively

Student is able to search for solutions in a search engine and adjust found solutions appropriately

SOCIAL SKILLS

Student understands the need to work alone and constantly improve their knowledge in communication with others to achieve success in programming

Student knows that the problem they face has probably already been solved and others’ experience needs to be used

1) solving a set of problems on basic knowledge and skills.

2) final project.

A passing score in both parts is required for a passing grade. If a passing grade was achieved, the final grade depends only on the final project.