Python Tutorial

What is Python ?

Python is one of the most popular programming languages.

Python is a high-level, interpreted, object-oriented programming language width dynamic semantics.

Python is designed to be highly readable. It has a simple syntax similar to the English language.

Python is easy to learn yet powerful and versatile programming language, making it so popular for application development.

Python is dynamically typed, so you don't need to use data types to declare variables.

Python was created by Guido van Rossum and released in 1991.

Where Python is used?

Python is one of the most popular programming languages and can serve almost every technical field.

The different areas where Python can be used can be given as follows:

• Web developments and web applications.
• Software developments.
• Desktop applications.
• Enterprise applications.
• Data science.
• Artificial intelligence.
• Machine learning.
• Mobile applications.
• Scripting and creating workflows.
• Web scraping.

Why Python?

Python offers different features which make it the most popular and widely used language. The following list shows some of those features:

• Python can be used on different operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac, ...).
• Python has a simple syntax which makes it easy to learn and use.
• Python can be treated in an object-oriented way, procedural way, or a functional way.
• Python runs on an interpreter system, meaning that the code can directly be executed after it is written.
• Python supports automatic garbage collection for memory management.
• Python has a wide range of powerful libraries and frameworks.
• Python is an open-source language with a large and engaged community.

Python versions

The last recent major version of Python is Python 3 that we will be using in this tutorial. However, Python 2 is still be used in some legacy projects. Python 2 and 3 are quite different.

In this tutorial, Python will be written in a text editor. It is possible to write Python in an IDE, such as Pycharm, Eclipse which are useful for large projects.

Python Syntax compared to other programming languages

Python was designed to make it simple to read and use, with some similarities to the English language and the influence of mathematics.

Python uses new lines to complete a command, in comparison to other programming languages that often use semicolons.

Python syntax is based on indentation, with the help of whitespace, to define a scope, such as the scope of loops, functions, and classes. Other programming languages often use curly-brackets for this purpose.

Hello World using Python

Python offers the facility to execute the code using few lines. The following example shows how to write "Hello World" program in Python:

print("Hello World!")