If you remember from previous classes, Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language. It is designed to be highly readable and uses English keywords frequently where other languages use punctuation. Python has fewer syntactical constructions than other languages.
Python is commonly used for developing websites and software, task automation, data analysis, and data visualization. Since it’s relatively easy to learn, Python has been adopted by many non-programmers such as accountants and scientists for a variety of everyday tasks like organizing finances.
Some key features of Python include:
- Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not need to compile your program before executing it.
- Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the interpreter directly to write your programs.
- Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.
- Python is a Beginner’s Language − Python is a great language for the beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.
While Python is a great beginners language, it can make working with larger applications more challenging. That’s why you often find stand alone applications in Python, but not large Enterprise applications.
Python Syntax Basics
Python syntax is designed to be highly readable and uses English keywords frequently where other languages use punctuation. Python has fewer syntactical constructions than other languages.
Python code is often said to be almost like pseudocode since it allows you to express very powerful ideas in very few lines of code while being very readable. Python uses white space indentation instead of curly braces or keywords to delimit blocks.
A challenge can be that you cannot mix tabs and spaces in your code. (It’s always recommended to use spaces for consistency.)
Python uses snake_case to name it’s functions, variables, etc. This means, everything is lower case, and an underscore is placed between words since you cannot have spaces.
To denote the start of a block of code, besides indenting the block, the previous line will have a colon :.
To learn more, check out our actual python course, our YouTube playlists, or for a quick refresher, this link which offers a quick review of Python.
Review of Python was originally found on Access 2 Learn
