Introduction To

Python
Chapter 1

Deanship of Preparatory Programs

H Alhussaini 1
Outlines
■ What is a Computer?
■ What is a Program?
– Programming Languages
■ What is Python?
– Python’s History
– Python in Real-World Scenarios
■ Getting Started with Python
■ Modes of Python Interpreter
■ A Simple Python Program
– Excersice #1
– Excersice #2
■ Anatomy of a Python Program
■ Programming Errors
– Excersice #3

H Alhussaini 2
What is a Computer?
■ A computer is an electronic device that stores and processes data

■ A computer includes both hardware and software

■ In general, hardware comprises the visible, physical elements of the computer, and
software provides the invisible instructions that control the hardware and make it
perform specific tasks

H Alhussaini 3
What is a Program?
■ Computer programs, known as software, are instructions to tell the computer what
to do
■ Without programs, a computer is an empty machine
■ Computers do not understand human languages, so you need to use computer
languages to communicate with them
■ Programs are written using programming languages

H Alhussaini 4
Programming Languages
1. Machine Language (Low-Level Language, Binary Language)

2. Assembly Language

3. High-Level Language

H Alhussaini 5
1. Machine Language
■ Machine language is a set of primitive instructions in forms of 0 and 1 that a
computer can read and understand

■ All languages at the end will be translated to binary

■ Programs in binary languages are highly difficult to read and modify

H Alhussaini 6
1. Machine Language
■ Can you write your name in Binary Language?
– Lets try to write a short name “Ali”
– Ali = 01000001 01101100 01101001

■ How about writing a full sentence

– I will leave it to your imagination

H Alhussaini 7
2. Assembly Language
■ Assembly languages were developed to make programming easy
■ Since the computer cannot understand assembly language, however, a program
called assembler is used to convert assembly language programs into machine code

■ For example, to add two numbers, you might write an instruction in assembly code
like this:

ADD 2, 3, result

H Alhussaini 8
3. High-Level Language
■ The high-level languages are English-like and easy to learn and program
■ Since the computer cannot understand high-level languages, however, a program
called interpreter or compiler is used to convert high-level language programs into
machine code
■ For example, the following is a high-level language statement (instruction) that
computes the area of a circle with radius 5:

area = 5 * 5 * 3.1415

H Alhussaini 9
Interpreting/Compiling Source Code
■ The instructions in a high-level programming language are called statements
■ A program written in a high-level language is called a source code
■ Because a computer cannot understand a source program, a source program must
be translated into machine code for execution
■ The translation can be done using another programming tool called an interpreter or
a compiler

H Alhussaini 10
What is Python?
General Purpose

■ Python is a general-purpose programming language

■ That means you can use Python to write code for any programming tasks
■ Python are now used in Google search engine and in mission critical projects in
NASA

H Alhussaini 11
What is Python?
Interpreted

■ Which means that python code is translated and executed one statement at a time
by an interpreter

■ In a compiled language, the entire source code is compiled and then executed
altogether.

H Alhussaini 12
What is Python?
Object-Oriented

■ Data in Python are objects created from classes

■ A class is essentially a type that defines the objects of the same kind with properties
and methods for manipulating objects
■ Object-oriented programming is a powerful tool for developing reusable software

H Alhussaini 13
Python’s History
■ Python is created by Guido van Rossum in Netherlands in 1990
■ Python is open source
– Open-source software is a type of computer software in which source code is
released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights
to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose

■ Python 3 is a newer version, but it is not backward compatible with Python 2

■ That means if you write a program using Python 2, it may not work on Python 3

H Alhussaini 14
Python in Real-World Scenarios
■ Python is being used in almost every industry and scientific field that you imagine

– Data Science - Computer Vision and Processing

– Machine learning - Game Development
– Robotics - Medicine and Pharmacology
– Autonomous Vehicle - Biology and Bioinformatics
– Business - Neuroscience and Psychology
– Web Development - Computer Science education

H Alhussaini 15
Getting Started with Python
Install PyCharm

■ Go to: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/

H Alhussaini 16
Modes of Python Interpreter -
Interactive Mode
■ Interactive mode provides us with a quick way of running blocks or a single line of
Python code
■ The code executes via the Python Shell (also known as Python Interactive Shell),
which comes with Python installation.

H Alhussaini 17
Modes of Python Interpreter -
Script Mode
■ This is the normal mode where a python code is written in a text file with a ‘.py’
extension, and Python interpreter executes the file
■ The result of the code will be displayed after the Python interpreter runs the file

H Alhussaini 18
Interactive vs Script Mode
■ The key differences between programming in interactive mode and programming in
script mode:
– In script mode, a file must be created and saved before executing the code to
get results. In interactive mode, the result is returned immediately after
pressing the key from the keyboard
– In script mode, you are provided with a direct way of editing your code. This is
not possible in interactive mode

H Alhussaini 19
A Simple Python Program - Welcome
with Two Messages Program
■ Write a program that displays Welcome to Python and Programming is fun. The
output should be as the following:

■ The Solution:

H Alhussaini 20
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 1 – of 7
■ Open PyCharm program

H Alhussaini 21
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 2 – of 7
■ Click on “Create New Project”.

H Alhussaini 22
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 3 – of 7
■ Change the default name of the project, For example, name it as “My First Project” ,
and then click on “Create”.

H Alhussaini 23
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 4 – of 7
■ Then, the new project is created and opened. After that, you have to create a new
Python file inside the project to write the code on it

H Alhussaini 24
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 5 – of 7
■ Name the new Python file: Welcome

H Alhussaini 25
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 6 – of 7
■ Now, the new file is created and opened. Write the code in it:

print("Welcome to Python")
print("Python is fun")

H Alhussaini 26
Welcome with Two Messages Program –
Step 7 – of 7
■ To run the file, right click on any area of the editor and click on (Run ‘Welcome’),
which is the name of the file

H Alhussaini 27
A Simple Python Program - Compute an
Expression
10.5 + 2 × 3
■ Write a program that evaluates and print its result
45 − 3.5

# Compute expression
print ((10.5 + 2 * 3) / (45 - 3.5))

H Alhussaini 28
Excersice #1
■ Identify and fix the errors in the following code:

1. # Display two messages

2. print("Welcome to Python")
3. print("Python is fun").

H Alhussaini 29
Excersice #1 - Solution
■ The errors are the incorrect indentation in line 2 and the punctuation (.) in line 3

1. # Display two messages

2. print("Welcome to Python")
3. print("Python is fun").

H Alhussaini 30
Excersice #2
■ Show the output of the following code:

print("3.5 * 4 / 2 - 2.5 is")

print(3.5 * 4 / 2 - 2.5)

H Alhussaini 31
Anatomy of a Python Program
1. Statement
2. Indentation
3. Comment
4. Special Symbols

H Alhussaini 32
1. Statement
■ A statement represents an action or a sequence of actions
■ The statement print("Welcome to Python") in the program is a statement to display
the greeting "Welcome to Python“.

H Alhussaini 33
2. Indentation
■ The indentation matters in Python

■ The following figure is a block structure

visualizing indentation

■ Note that the statements are entered from the first column in the new line. It would
cause an error if the program is typed as follows:

H Alhussaini 34
2. Indentation
■ Indentation
– Indent four spaces
■ Spacing
– A consistent spacing style makes programs clear and easy to read, debug, and
maintain
– Use blank line to separate segments of the code.

H Alhussaini 35
Be careful!
■ Don’t put any punctuation at the end of a statement
■ For example, the Python interpreter will report errors for the following code:

H Alhussaini 36
Be careful!
■ Python programs are case sensitive
■ It would be wrong, for example, to replace print in the program with Print

H Alhussaini 37
3. Comment
■ A comment is a programmer-readable explanation or annotation in the source code
of a computer program
■ In Listing 1.1, line 1 is a comment that documents what the program is and how it is
constructed.

H Alhussaini 38
3. Comment
■ Comments help programmers communicate and understand a program
■ They are not programming statements and thus are ignored by the interpreter
■ In Python, comments are preceded by a pound sign (#) on a line, called a line
comment, or enclosed between three consecutive single quotation marks (''') on one
or several lines, called a paragraph comment

H Alhussaini 39
3. Comment
■ When the Python interpreter sees #, it ignores all text after # on the same line
■ When it sees ''' , it scans for the next ''' and ignores any text between the triple
quotation marks
■ Here are examples of comments:

H Alhussaini 40
3. Comment
■ Comments explain various parts of the program and help others understand its
structure and function
■ Good programming style and proper documentation make a program easy to read
and prevents errors
■ Include a summary comment at the beginning of the program to explain what the
program does, its key features, and any unique techniques it uses

H Alhussaini 41
4. Special Symbols

H Alhussaini 42
Programming Errors
■ Programming errors can be categorized into three types:

1. Syntax Errors
– Error in code construction
2. Runtime Errors
– Causes the program to abort
3. Logic Errors
– Produces incorrect result.

H Alhussaini 43
1. Syntax Errors
■ Syntax errors result from errors in code construction, such as mistyping a statement,
incorrect indentation, omitting some necessary punctuation, or using an opening
parenthesis without a corresponding closing parenthesis
■ Python has its own syntax, and you need to write code that obeys the syntax rules. If
your program violates the rules Python will report syntax errors

H Alhussaini 44
2. Runtime Errors
■ Runtime errors are errors that cause a program to terminate abnormally
■ They occur while a program is running if the Python interpreter detects an operation
that is impossible to carry out
■ Input mistakes typically cause runtime errors.

H Alhussaini 45
2. Runtime Errors
■ An input error occurs when the user enters a value that the program cannot handle
■ For instance, if the program expects to read in a number, but instead the user enters
a string of text, this causes data-type errors to occur in the program

H Alhussaini 46
3. Logic Errors
■ Logic errors occur when a program does not perform the way it was intended to
■ Logic errors produce unintended, incorrect or undesired output or other behavior,
although it may not immediately be recognized as such
■ In fact, they do not cause the program to terminate abnormally

H Alhussaini 47
Programming Errors
■ In Python, syntax errors are actually treated like runtime errors because they are
detected by the interpreter when the program is executed
■ In general, syntax and runtime errors are easy to find and easy to correct, because
Python gives indications as to where the errors came from and why they are wrong
■ Finding logic errors, on the other hand, can be very challenging

H Alhussaini 48
Excersice #3
■ If you forget to put a closing quotation mark on a string, what kind of error will be
raised?
– Answer: Syntax Error
■ If your program needs to read data from a file, but the file does not exist, an error
would occur when running this program. What kind of error is this?
– Answer: Runtime Error
■ Suppose you write a program for computing the perimeter of a rectangle and you
mistakenly write your program so that it computes the area of a rectangle. What kind
of error is this?
– Answer: Logic Error

H Alhussaini 49
Q&A

H Alhussaini 50