Language Engineering
Prepared by: Abdelrahman M. Safwat
Section (1) – Python Basics
What is Python?
“Python is an interpreted, high-level,
general-purpose programming language.
Created by Guido van Rossum and first
released in 1991, Python's design philosophy
emphasizes code readability with its notable
use of significant whitespace. ”
2
Installing Python
We’ll be using the Anaconda Python distribution,
which can downloaded through this link:
https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/#downloa
d-section
Download the Graphical Installer of Python 3.7
according to your system (32-Bit or 64-Bit).
3
Installing Anaconda
4
Installing Anaconda
5
Installing Anaconda
6
Opening Anaconda
7
Opening Jupyter Notebook
8
Opening Jupyter Notebook
9
Having trouble with Anaconda or
Jupyter?
If you’re having trouble setting up or installing
Anaconda, you can use this instead:
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1WM2ar_
4b7QMgfJ-qwgjJyU4CLIgUUgHw
Once it’s open, click on “Open in playground”.
10
Python Data Types
In programming, data type is an important concept.
Variables can store data of different types, and different types can do different things.
Python has the following data types built-in by default, in these categories:
Text Type: str Set Types: set, frozenset
Numeric Types: int, float, complex Boolean Type: bool
Sequence Types: list, tuple, range Binary Types: bytes, bytearray, memoryview
Mapping Type: dict None Type: NoneType
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Python Data Types
Useing type() function to get the datatype.
x = 5
print(type(x))
Result : <class 'int'>
12
Variables
Declaring variables in Python is easy. You don’t need to
specify the datatype, you just type the variable name and
assign a value to it.
this_is_an_integer = 1
this_is_a_float = 1.99
this_is_a_boolean = True
this_is_a_string = “Hello World”
this_is_a_list = [“Apples”, 3, True]
this_is_a_dictionary = {“name”: “Midoriya”, “age”: 16, “quirk”: “All for One” }
13
Printing a variable or a message
Using the print() function, you can output a message, a
variable, or a combination to the console.
print(this_is_a_string)
Result : Hello World
14
Accessing items in lists or
dictionaries
To access an item in a list, you specify the index between
square brackets. While to access an item in a dictionary, you
specify the name of the key of the value you want.
print(this_is_a_list[1])
print(this_is_a_dictionary[“name”])
Result :
3
Midoriya
15
Arithmetic Operators
Operator Description
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
% Modulus
** Exponentiation (power)
// Floor division
16
Arithmetic Operators
print(1 + 1)
print(1 – 1)
print(2 * 3)
print(6 / 2)
print(4 % 2)
print(5 // 2)
Result :
2
0
6
3
0
2 17
Conditionals
If conditionals in Python are similar to other languages,
but instead of curly brackets, white space is used.
Also, else if statements are called elif.
if(this_is_a_boolean):
print(“This is true”)
if(this_is_an_integer < 0):
print(“Less than 0”)
elif(this_is_an_integer == 0):
print(“Equals 0”)
else:
print(“Greater than 0”)
Result :
This is true 18
Greater than 0
Logical Operators
Operator Equivalent to
and &&
or ||
not !
if ((this_is_an_integer == 1 and this_is_a_float == 1.99) or (not(this_is_a_boolean))):
print(“One of the conditions above is true.”)
19
Loops
Python has two primitive loop commands:
• while loops
• for loops
While while loops stays the same, for loops on the other
while(this_is_a_boolean):
hand are a bit different.
print(“This is an infinite loop”)
for i in range(10):
print(“This will loop 10 times”)
for x in this_is_a_list:
print(x)
for key, value in this_is_a_dictionary.items(): 20
print(“Key: ” + key + “ Value: ” + value)
While Loops
With the while loop we can execute a set of statements
as long as a condition is true.
i = 1
while i < 6:
print(i)
i += 1
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For Loops
A for loop is used for iterating over a sequence (that is either a list, a
tuple, a dictionary, a set, or a string).
With the for loop we can execute a set of statements, once for each item
in a list, tuple, set etc.
fruits = for x in "banana":
["apple", "banana", "cherry"] print(x)
for x in fruits:
print(x)
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Loops ( break and continue )
With the break statement we can stop the loop
With the continue statement we can stop the current iteration of the loop, and
continue with the next
fruits = i = 0
["apple", "banana", "cherry"] while i < 6:
for x in fruits: i += 1
print(x) if i == 3:
if x == "banana": continue
break print(i)
Result :apple Result :1
banana 2 23
4
Comments
In Python, # is used for single line comments, while
three “
# This isare used
a single line for multi-line
comments comments
“””
This
is
a
multi-line
comment
“””
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Example
list_of_favorites = [
{“name”: “Ahmed”, “likes”: ”watermelon”},
{“name”: “Michael”, “likes”: “apples”},
{“name”: “Sara”, “likes”: “grapes”}
{“name”: “Mariam”, “likes”: “mango”}
]
for person in list_of_favorites:
print(person["name"] + " likes " + person["likes"])
25
Try it out yourself
Code:
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1KmZ7HPJS_Mq
s3IshXf4wsjBZa5VeENat
26
Task #1
Write a Python program that print all prime numbers
between 25 and 40
27
Task #2
Write a Python program that check if all items in the
following list are int
list1=[100,200,300,'A',400,500]
28
Defining functions
In Python, you define a new function by using the “def”
keyword.
def sayHello(name):
print(“Hello, ” + name)
sayHello(“Ahmed”)
Result :
Hello, Ahmed
29
Multiline strings
You can make strings that include multiple lines by
using three double or single quotations, just like
you would in a comment.
str = “””To be or not to be
This is the question”””
print(str)
Result :
To be or not to be
This is the question
30
String slicing
A string is a list of characters. So, you can use list
operations on it. You can access a certain character by
using square brackets with the index inside them.
str = “It’s-a me, Mario!”
print(str[1])
Result :
t
31
String slicing
In Python, you can also get a subset of the array between
two indices by giving the starting index and ending index
(this index is excluded) with a colon between them. If you
don’t give any indices, it’s like saying you want all of the
string.
str = “It’s-a me, Mario!”
print(str[7:9])
print(str[:])
Result :
Me
It’s-a me, Mario! 32
String slicing
You can also specify a skip in characters while using
the subset syntax.
str = “sdetcwryept”
print(str[::2])
Result :
secret
33
String slicing
Another trick in Python lists is using a negative index.
Negative index are exactly like indices, but they
start counting from the end of the list.
str = “It’s-a me, Mario!”
print(str[-1])
Result :
!
34
String length
To get the length of a string, you can use the len()
function. As you can guess, len() can also be used
on lists, since strings are lists.
str = “You can count on this string when you’re in trouble”
print(len(str))
Result :
51
35
Removing extra whitespace on
sides
Keeping extra whitespace on the side of the text can
sometimes cause problems in your code, that’s
why we the use strip() function.
str = “ There are extra spaces on the sides ”
print(str)
print(str.strip())
Result :
There are extra spaces on the sides
There are extra spaces on the sides
36
Replacing characters in a string
If you want to replace all instances in a string of a certain
character with another character, you can use the replace() function.
If you want to replace a pattern match with another character, you
can use sub() function from the re module.
str = “Wryng spelling” import re
str = str.replace(“y”, “o”) s = "I am a human being."
res_1 = re.sub('a', 'x', s)
print(str)
res_2 = re.sub('[a,I]','x',s)
print(res_1)
Result : print(res_2)
Wrong spelling
Result :
I xm x humxn being. 37
x xm x humxn being.
Splitting a string into a list of
strings
If you want split a string into a list of strings based on a
certain character, you can do so by using the
split() function.
str = “Split up”
str_list = str.split(“ “)
print(str_list)
Result :
['Split', 'up']
38
String concatenation
To concatenate two string, you use the + symbol
between two string.
str = “Let’s merge ”
another_str = “these two strings”
print(str + another_str)
Result :
Let’s merge these two strings
39
Opening files
To open a file in Python, you use the open() function.
file = open(“text.txt“)
40
Opening files
The open() function has several modes you can use.
Mode Description
r Read
w Write
a Append
t Text
b Binary
41
Reading files
To read a file in Python, you use the open() function,
then the read() function.
file = open(“text.txt“)
print(file.read())
42
Reading files
You can also read a line in a file by using readline(), or
read all lines by readlines() or by using for.
file = open(“text.txt“)
print(file.readline())
print(file.readlines())
43
Writing files
You can write a new file by using the write() function.
If the file exists, the file will be
overwritten.
file = open(“text.txt“, “w”)
file.write(“New text”)
44
Writing files
If you don’t want to delete the file and just want to
append to it, you give the parameter “a” to the
open() function.
file = open(“text.txt“, “a”)
file.write(“New text”)
45
Closing files
You should always close your files after you’re done
with them. You can do that by using the close()
function.
file = open(“text.txt“, “a”)
file.write(“New text”)
file.close()
46
Closing files
However, there’s an easier way to ensure that the file
automatically closer after you’re done with it, and
that’s by using the “with” statement
with open(“text.txt“, “a”) as file:
file.write(“New text”)
47
Installing new libraries
Throughout the course, we’ll need to use external libraries. To
install Python libraries, we the “pip” tool. Usually, you’d need to
use the command line to use it, but you can use it in your IDE or
notebook by simply adding “!” before the command.
!pip install *name of library*
48
Installing new libraries
If you want to do something in Python that doesn’t have
built- in function for, you’ll probably find a library for it.
Whenever you need a library like that, you can use PyPI
to search for it.
https://pypi.org/
49
Reading PDF files
To read PDF files in Python, we’ll need to install a
library called PyPDF2.
!pip install PyPDF2
50
Reading PDF files
To read a PDF file using the PyPDF2 library, you first
need to open the file, then you need to use the
PdfFileReader() function to read the file.
import PyPDF2
file = open(‘file.pdf’, ‘rb’)
pdf_reader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(file)
51
Extracting text from PDF files
To read the text from the PDF file, you first need to get
the page you want to get the text from by using the
getPage() function. After that, you use the
extractText() function.
import PyPDF2
file = open(‘file.pdf’, ‘rb’)
pdf_reader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(file)
page = pdf_reader.getPage(0)
text = page.extractText()
52
Try it out yourself
Code:
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1UAtVuTLbWGg
WSwJvMYILiVTpBXs7HoYv
53
Task #3
Write a Python program that reverses a string without
using any built-in functions.
54
Task #4
Read the PyPDF2 documentation:
https://pythonhosted.org/PyPDF2/
Make a Python program that opens a PDF file, reads it,
prints how many pages there are and loops
through each page while printing the page’s content.
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Thank you for your attention!
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References
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learning-python-from-zero-to-hero-120ea540b567
/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_operators.asp
https://www.learnpython.org/en/Basic_String_Operations
https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_strings.asp
https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_file_handling.asp
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