Python tutorials

Python Assignment Expressions and Using the Walrus Operator

Each new version of Python adds new features to the language. For Python 3.8, the biggest change is the addition of assignment expressions. Specifically, the := operator gives you a new syntax for assigning variables in the middle of expressions. This operator is colloquially known as the walrus operator. This course is an in-depth introduction to the walrus operator. You’ll learn some of the motivations for the syntax update and explore some examples where assignment expressions can be useful. In […]

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A Roadmap to XML Parsers in Python

If you’ve ever tried to parse an XML document in Python before, then you know how surprisingly difficult such a task can be. On the one hand, the Zen of Python promises only one obvious way to achieve your goal. At the same time, the standard library follows the batteries included motto by letting you choose from not one but several XML parsers. Luckily, the Python community solved this surplus problem by creating even more XML parsing libraries. Jokes aside, […]

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Pip vs Conda: an in-depth comparison of Python’s two packaging systems

If you’re using Python in the world of data science or scientific computing, you will soon discover that Python has two different packaging systems: pip and Conda. Which raises some questions: How are they different? What are the tradeoffs between the two? Which should you use? While it’s not possible to answer this question for every situation, in this article you will learn the basic differences, constrained to: Python only; Conda has support for other languages but I won’t go […]

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Python’s property(): Add Managed Attributes to Your Classes

With Python’s property(), you can create managed attributes in your classes. You can use managed attributes, also known as properties, when you need to modify their internal implementation without changing the public API of the class. Providing stable APIs can help you avoid breaking your users’ code when they rely on your classes and objects. Properties are arguably the most popular way to create managed attributes quickly and in the purest Pythonic style. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to: […]

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Using Pygame to Build an Asteroids Game in Python

Do you want to create your own computer games but like Python too much to abandon it for a career as a game developer? There’s a solution for that! With the Pygame module, you can use your amazing Python skills to create games, from the basic to the very complex. Below, you’ll learn how to use Pygame by making a clone of the Asteroids game! In this course, you’ll learn how to build a complete game, including: Loading images and […]

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Representing Rational Numbers With Python Fractions

The fractions module in Python is arguably one of the most underused elements of the standard library. Even though it may not be well-known, it’s a useful tool to have under your belt because it can help address the shortcomings of floating-point arithmetic in binary. That’s essential if you plan to work with financial data or if you require infinite precision for your calculations. Towards the end of this tutorial, you’ll see a few hands-on examples where fractions are the […]

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Why you can’t switch to Python 3.10 just yet

Python 3.10 is now available–but should you switch to it immediately? And if not now, when? The short answer is, no, you probably don’t want to switch immediately; quite possibly you can’t switch immediately. To understand why, we need to consider Python packaging, the software development process, and take a look at the history of past releases. We can then make a guess about when Python 3.10 will actually be usable. The problems with a new major Python release I’m […]

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Python’s sum(): The Pythonic Way to Sum Values

Python’s built-in function sum() is an efficient and Pythonic way to sum a list of numeric values. Adding several numbers together is a common intermediate step in many computations, so sum() is a pretty handy tool for a Python programmer. As an additional and interesting use case, you can concatenate lists and tuples using sum(), which can be convenient when you need to flatten a list of lists. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to: Sum numeric values by hand […]

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The NLP Cypher | 10.03.21

RAFT is a few-shot classification benchmark that tests language models: – across multiple domains (lit reviews, medical data, tweets, customer interaction, etc.) – on economically valuable classification tasks (someone inherently cares about the task) – with evaluation that mirrors deployment (50 labeled examples per task, info retrieval allowed, hidden test set)  

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Cool New Features in Python 3.10

Python 3.10 is out! Volunteers have been working on the new version since May 2020 to bring you a better, faster, and more secure Python. As of October 4, 2021, the first official version is available. Each new version of Python brings a host of changes. You can read about all of them in the documentation. Here, you’ll get to learn about the coolest new features. In this course, you’ll learn about: Debugging with more helpful and precise error messages […]

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