Course Overview
TOPThis course is approximately 50% hands-on, combining expert lecture, real-world demonstrations and group discussions with machine-based practical labs and exercises. Our engaging instructors and mentors are highly experienced practitioners who bring years of current "on-the-job" experience into every classroom. Throughout the hands-on course students will learn to leverage core Python scripting for data science skills using the most current and efficient skills and techniques.
Working in a hands-on learning environment, guided by our expert team, attendees will learn about and explore:
- How to work with Python interactively in web notebooks
- The essentials of Python scripting
- Key concepts necessary to enter the world of Data Science via Python
Scheduled Classes
TOPWhat You'll Learn
TOP- Understand Python's Core Topics: Gain a firm grasp of fundamental Python concepts such as flow control, sequences, arrays, dictionaries, and file handling. This understanding forms the cornerstone of your Python programming journey.
- Navigate Key Python Libraries: Develop proficiency in leveraging the power of Python's primary libraries, numpy and pandas. By the end of the course, you'll be confidently transforming, reshaping data, and handling large number sets.
- Generate Insightful Visualizations: Learn how to create meaningful and visually appealing data visualizations using matplotlib. These skills will enable you to better communicate data-driven insights.
- Efficient Data Handling: Acquire techniques to optimize your data handling processes, enhancing productivity and making your workflow more efficient.
- Manage Errors Effectively: Become proficient in handling common challenges like syntax errors and exceptions, enhancing the reliability and robustness of your Python code.
- Hands-on Experience with Web Notebooks: Gain practical experience using interactive web notebooks like iPython, Jupyter, and Zeppelin. These tools offer a dynamic platform for writing, testing, and debugging your Python code, enriching your learning experience.
Outline
TOP- An Overview of Python
- Why Python?
- Python in the Shell
- Python in Web Notebooks (iPython, Jupyter, Zeppelin)
- Demo: Python, Notebooks, and Data Science
- Getting Started
- Using variables
- Builtin functions
- Strings
- Numbers
- Converting among types
- Writing to the screen
- Command line parameters
- Running standalone scripts under Unix and Windows
- Flow Control
- About flow control
- White space
- Conditional expressions
- Relational and Boolean operators
- While loops
- Alternate loop exits
- Sequences, Arrays, Dictionaries and Sets
- About sequences
- Lists and list methods
- Tuples
- Indexing and slicing
- Iterating through a sequence
- Sequence functions, keywords, and operators
- List comprehensions
- Generator Expressions
- Nested sequences
- Working with Dictionaries
- Working with Sets
- Working with files
- File overview
- Opening a text file
- Reading a text file
- Writing to a text file
- Reading and writing raw (binary) data
- Functions
- Defining functions
- Parameters
- Global and local scope
- Nested functions
- Returning values
- Sorting
- The sorted() function
- Alternate keys
- Lambda functions
- Sorting collections
- Using operator.itemgetter()
- Reverse sorting
- Errors and Exception Handling
- Syntax errors
- Exceptions
- Using try/catch/else/finally
- Handling multiple exceptions
- Ignoring exceptions
- Essential Demos
- Importing Modules
- Classes
- Regular Expressions
- The standard library
- Math functions
- The string module
- Dates and times
- Working with dates and times
- Translating timestamps
- Parsing dates from text
- Formatting dates
- Calendar data
- numpy
- numpy basics
- Creating arrays
- Indexing and slicing
- Large number sets
- Transforming data
- Advanced tricks
- Python and Data Science
- Data Science Essentials
- Working with Python in Data Science
- Working with Pandas
- pandas overview
- Dataframes
- Reading and writing data
- Data alignment and reshaping
- Fancy indexing and slicing
- Merging and joining data sets
Time Permitting
- matplotlib
- Creating a basic plot
- Commonly used plots
- Ad hoc data visualization
- Advanced usage
- Exporting images
Prerequisites
TOPWhile there are no specific programming prerequisites, students should be comfortable working with files and folders and should not be afraid of the command line and basic scripting. This is for attendees new to Python.
Who Should Attend
TOPThis introductory-level course is geared for data analysts, developers, engineers or anyone tasked with utilizing Python for data analytics tasks.