A short introduction to Python, NumPy, and Pandas

This repository collects slides, exercises and other supporting material used in Python language introduction courses that I deliver on-demand.

The material in this course covers:

• the basics of Python programming, up to the point of being able to do simple loops, file I/O, and basic data structure manipulation (parts 01 through 05);
• basics of NumPy and plotting with Matplotlib/Seaborn (part 07);
• table manipulation with Pandas (part 08).
• a short overview of how to run pleasantly parallel workflows with GC3Pie (parts 09 and 10).

The last parts are meant to be independent; those who already know Python programming may want to skip parts 01 through 05 altogether.

Basic computer programming knowledge (e.g., what is a variable, what is a loop) is assumed and not covered in the material: students should already be familiar with scripting languages (e.g. bash, perl) and have already written some computer programs.

How to use the material

The IPython notebooks in files *.EX.ipynb (in folder exercises/) contain exercises to be solved during the course. A copy of the notebooks with complete solutions, is available in the solutions/ subdirectory. A PDF slide deck introduces and completements the first exercise notebook; for parts 7 and 8, commentary and links are directly embedded in the notebook and there is no separate slide deck.

Where has this been used?

So far, the material here has been used in a few occasions:

• at BrainHack Zurich on March 2, 2017.
• for the ScITS training Introduction to Workflows with Python at the University of Bern on June 8, 2017.
• for the ScITS training Introduction to Python for science at the University of Bern in various occasions in 2017 and 2018.

How to contribute

I welcome contributions from other Python instructors, programmers, students and enthusiasts in general :-). Please submit a pull request or send an email to mailto:riccardo.murri@gmail.com

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The Python Course by the University of Zurich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at mailto:contact@s3it.uzh.ch.