Introduction  to  Programming  with  Python  –  Session  1  Notes  

Nick  Cook,  School  of  Computing  Science,  Newcastle  University    

Contents  
1.   Introduce  IDLE  and  simple  values  .................................................................................  1  
2.   Simple  output  ...............................................................................................................  2  
3.   Variables  and  assignment  .............................................................................................  2  
4.   Simple  Input  ..................................................................................................................  4  
5.   Programming  challenges  ..............................................................................................  5  
6.   Excel  and  programming  ................................................................................................  5  
7.   Turtle  spirograph  example  ...........................................................................................  6  
8.   Resources  .....................................................................................................................  6  

1. Introduce  IDLE  and  simple  values  

Start  up  IDLE  and  give  brief  overview  of  menus  
Point  out  >>>  prompt  for  typing  and  interpretation  of  commands  (python  code)  
Do  together  and  explain  as  go  along:  
01| >>> 2 + 2
02| 4
03| >>> 17 – 9
04| 9
05| >>> 16 / 4
06| 4.0 # Note: "true" division -> floating point
number
07| >>> 1 + 1
08| 2
09| >>> 'a' + 'b'
10| 'ab'
11| >>> '1' + '2'
12| '12'
Note:  
• Different  types  of  values  
• Lines  01,  03,  05  and  07  are  integer  arithmetic  
• Line  05  is  true  division  resulting  in  floating  point  number  (line  06)  
• Lines  09  and  11  add  strings  of  characters  together  (string  concatenation:  
appending  one  string  to  another)  

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Question:  what  happens  if  try  1 + '2'?

13| >>> 1 + '2'
14| Traceback (most recent call last):
15| File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
16| 1 + '2'
17| TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int'
and 'str'
Cannot  add  a  string  to  an  integer  (see  line  17).  
What  about  unquoted  strings?  
18| >>> bob
19| Traceback (most recent call last):
20| File "<pyshell#5>", line 1, in <module>
21| bob
22| NameError: name 'bob' is not defined
Without  quotes  bob  is  just  a  name  that  has  not  been  defined  (has  not  been  assigned  
a  value  –  see  line  22).  

2. Simple  output  
If  a  string  is  typed  into  the  IDLE  shell,  it  is  evaluated  and  echoed  to  the  shell.  
01| >>> 'bob'
02| 'bob'
The  shell  interprets  the  expression  and  echoes  it.  
To  output  from  a  program,  use  the  print  command  (or  function).  
03| >>> print(1)
04| 1
05| >>> print('1')
06| 1
Execution  of  lines  03  and  05,  outputs  a  string  representation  of  the  value  passed  to  
the  print()  function.  The  print()  function  does  not  evaluate  the  value  passed  
to  it,  it  just  converts  it  to  a  string  (if  necessary)  and  outputs  it  to  standard  output  (the  
shell  window).  The  output  is  not  quoted  because  output  from  print()is  always  a  
string  of  (mostly)  human  readable  characters.  
Traditionally,  everyone's  first  program  is  'Hello  World'.  In  python,  this  is  as  simple  as:  
07| >>> print('Hello World')
08| Hello World
So  far  we  have  just  been  using  direct  interpretation  in  the  shell  of  fixed  values  (1,  
'bob'  etc.).  To  be  useful,  programs  use  variables  that  can  be  manipulated,  used  in  
calculations  and  reused  (similar  to  the  contents  of  a  cell  in  Excel).  

3. Variables  and  assignment  

Variables  have  a  name,  a  value  and  a  type  (string,  integer  etc.).  Assignment  means  
giving  a  named  variable  a  value  of  some  type,  e.g.:  

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give  the  variable  named  bob  the  value  2  which  is  an  integer  (its  type)  
Defining  and  assigning  to  a  variable  allocates  space  in  computer  memory  for  a  value  
of  the  given  type.  The  variable  refers  to  the  location  in  memory.  
In  python  the  equals  sign  (=)  is  the  assignment  operator.  =  gives  a  value  to  a  variable.  
In  IDLE  type:  
01| >>> a = 2
Note:  there  is  no  echo  but  a  has  been  assigned  the  value  2,  type  a:  
02| >>> a
03| 2
The  shell  evaluates  a  and  echoes  2.  Type:  
04| >>> print(a)
05| 2
The  print()  function  outputs  the  string  representation  of  a  which  is  2.  
a  is  just  a  name.  A  variable  can  have  any  name  you  like  (apart  from  reserved  
keywords  or  special  characters).  For  a  simple  integer  used  in  a  calculation,  a  (or  x  or  
y)  can  be  a  sensible  name.  But  always  consider  using  meaningful  names,  e.g.:  
06| >>> alice = 2
07| >>> numberOfSides = 4
numberOfSides  is  a  meaningful  name  for  the  number  of  sides  of  a  shape.  
We  now  have  three  variables,  a,  alice  and  numberOfSides.  
Question:  what  happens  if  we  add  a  to  alice?
08| >>> alice + a
09| 4
The  two  values  of  alice  and  a are  added  together.  
What  do  we  expect  from  print(numberOfSides)?  
10| >>> print(numberOfSides)
11| 4
Can  also  assign  one  variable  to  another,  giving  a  variable  the  value  of  another  
variable,  e.g:  
12| >>> numberOfSides = alice
13| >>> print(numberOfSides)
14| 2
printNumberOfSides  is  given  the  value  of  alice.  
Assignment  always  works  to  the  left.  The  variable  on  the  left  hand  side  of  the  equals  
sign  is  given  the  value  on  the  right  hand  side.  In  python,  you  can  re-­‐assign  to  a  
variable  
• change  the  value  of  the  variable    
• and  change  the  type  of  the  variable  
15| >>> x = 2 # x is given the value 2 (an integer)
16| >>> x = 'two' # x now has the value 'two' (a string)

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Assignment  quiz  
• Do  question  1  together.    
• Then  on  own  or  in  groups,  class  completes  the    quiz  on  paper,  using  trace  
tables  if  necessary  and  for  practice  (explain  trace  table  for  question  1  on  
whiteboard)  
• Then  load  and  run  python  version  of  the  quiz  from  
o http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/programming/python
/intro2python  
o Show  how  to  load  and  run  python  program  from  file  

4. Simple  Input  
Recap:  have  covered  the  IDLE  shell,  variables  and  assignment,  now  looking  at  simple  
input  
Python  has  an  input()  function  to  get  user  input.  Use  the  function  to  ask  the  user  
for  some  input.  The  result  of  executing  the  function  is  the  character  string  that  the  
user  inputs,  which  can  be  assigned  to  a  variable.  

01| >>> name = input('What is your name? ')

02| # type nick in response to question
03| What is your name? nick
04| >>> print(name)
05| nick
The  name  variable  is  assigned  the  result  of  asking'What is your name? '.  
Question:  What  type  do  you  expect  name  to  be?  
• It  is  a  string  –  the  input  function  returns  a  string  of  characters  because  it  is  a  
string  of  characters  that  the  user  types  at  the  keyboard.  
Question:  If  we  do:    
06| >>> age = input('What is your age? ')
What  type  do  you  expect  age  to  be?  
• It  is  also  a  string,  even  if  the  user  inputs  digits,  as  follows:  
07| What is your age? 12
08| >>> age
09| '12'
input()  does  not  attempt  any  interpretation  of  the  string  of  characters  typed  by  
the  user.  It  just  returns  them.  In  a  program  they  may  be  converted  to  a  number.
10| >>> age = input('What is your age? ')
11| # type 52 in response
12| What is your age? 52
13| >>> age
14| '52'
15| >>> age + 1
16| Traceback (most recent call last):
17| File "<pyshell#8>", line 1, in <module>

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18| age + 1
19| TypeError: Can't convert 'int' object to str
implicitly
Line  15  generates  a  type  error  (see  line  19)  because  age  is  not  a  number  (or  integer),  
therefore  1  cannot  be  added  to  it.  
We  have  to  do  type  conversion  (or  casting)  to  change  the  user  input  to  a  number,  
e.g.:  
20| >>> age = input('What is your age? ')
21| # type 52 in response
22| What is your age? 52
23| >>> age
24| '52'
25| >>> int(age) + 1
26| 53
Question:  What  happens  if  the  user  does  not  input  a  string  of  digits  when  a  number  
is  expected?  
27| >>> age = input('What is your age? ')
28| # type fifty-two in response
29| What is your age? fifty-two
30| >>> int(age) + 1
31| Traceback (most recent call last):
32| File "<pyshell#13>", line 1, in <module>
33| int(age) + 1
34| ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10:
'fifty-two'
The  type  conversion  in  line  30  generates  a  value  error  (see  line  34)  because  'fifty-­‐two'  
is  not  a  valid  string  of  digits.  Validation  of  user  input  will  be  covered  in  a  later  session.    

5. Programming  challenges  
Do  challenges  1  to  6  from  Mark  Clarkson's  Python  Programming  Challenges  
• Just  write  programs  directly  in  the  IDLE  shell  
• If  there  is  an  error,  try  to  get  used  to  working  out  what  the  Traceback  error  
messages  mean  and  start  again  and,  of  course,  ask  for  help  
• If  the  shell  hangs,  use  Shell  -­‐>  Restart  Shell  to  restart  the  shell.  If  that  doesn't  
work,  quit    IDLE  and  start  again  

6. Excel  and  programming  

If  you  know  how  to  use  Excel,  you  can  program.  Excel  has  variables,  assignment,  
arithmetic,  types,  type  conversion,  string  concatenation,  etc.  Enter  the  following  into  
an  Excel  spreadsheet.  
 
  A   B   C   D  
1   1   2   =  A1  +  B1   =  text(A1,  0)  &  text(B1,  0)  

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Assignment:  
A1 = 1
B1 = 2
Arithmetic  using  the  +  operator:  
C1 = A1 + B1
• For  the  given  values  of  A1  and  B1,  the  value  of  C1  is  3  
• The  value  of  C1  will  change  if  either  A1  or  B1  change  
• A1,  B1  and  C1  are  all  number  variables  
Type  conversion  using  the  text()  function  and  string  concatenation  using  the  &  
operator:  
D1 = text(A1, 0) & text(B1, 0)
• D1  is  a  string  variable  that  is  given  the  result  of  casting  the  values  of  A1  and  
B1  to  strings  and  concatenating  the  result  using  Excel's  string  concatenation  
operator  (&).  The  python  equivalent  is:  
d1 = str(a1) + str(b1)
• For  the  given  values  of  A1  and  B1,  the  value  of  D1  is  '12'  

7. Turtle  spirograph  example  

As  a  taster  of  where  we  are  going  by  the  end  of  the  course.    
Download  turtles1demo.py  from  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/programming/python/intro2p
ython/  
• Demonstrate  loading  and  running  turtles1demo.py  

8. Resources  
• Powerpoint  handout  for  this  session:  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/programming/python/intro2p
ython/intro2python-­‐01-­‐handout.pdf  
• Other  material  from  Newcastle  University  Introduction  to  Python  CPD:  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/programming/python/intro2pytho
n  
• Mark  Clarkson's  Introduction  to  Python  resources  including  textbook,  workbooks,  
example  code  and  GCSE  controlled  assessment:  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/protected/mwclarkson-­‐
resources.zip  
• Other  Python  resources:  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/outreach/resources/programming/python/  
• Python  Web  site:  http://www.python.org/  

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