Search Results for: python string

Both Python versions 2 and 3 provide several helpful string methods that let you find the string’s contents.  Here’s how to use them. The functions in this article are useful if you want to validate user input – for example, you may want to check that a user-inputted string is a valid number before converting it to a number variable to prevent errors and warn the user that they need to try again. isdigit() and isalpha() are commonly used methods to identify a string’s contents, but … Read more

This article will explain the map() function in Python and show you how to use it. The Python map() function applies a given function for all items in an iterable (iterables are things like lists, dictionaries, sets, or tuples – collections containing items that can be looped over). The syntax and code in this article will work for both Python 2 and Python 3. Syntax for Python map() The map() function is built into Python, so nothing needs to be imported. Here’s the syntax: map(FUNCTION, ITERABLE) Note that: FUNCTION is a standard … Read more

This article will show you how to use the Python reduce() function to aggregate data from values in an iterable (iterables are things like lists, dictionaries, sets, or tuples – collections containing items that can be looped over) and reduce them to a single accumulated value. The code and examples in this tutorial will work in Python 3. Syntax for Python reduce() functools.reduce(FUNCTION, ITERABLE[, INITIALIZER]) Note that: FUNCTION is a standard Python function, previously defined in your code It should accept two parameters The first parameter is the current accumulated value up until this point … Read more

This article explains how to check the type of a variable in the Python programming language. What are Types? The type of a variable determines what it can or can’t do. It determines what value the variable may take and what can be done with that value. Using the type() Function Pass a variable or value to the type() function, and the variable’s type will be returned: myNumber = 4 type(myNumber) # int myString = ‘foo’ type(myString) # str Using the isinstance() Function For more examples, check out the similar isinstance() function: To compare the … Read more

As you build more complex Python apps, you will probably want to start splitting your code into separate files. What Is the __main__ Function? Importing and executing code from another file is common in even small scripts and apps built with Python. As your library of scripts increases, you may choose to import previously written code into new projects. The __main__ function in Python is only executed when the script is called directly, allowing you to set different behavior based on how your code is being … Read more

This article covers getting user input on the command line using Python 2 or 3 and includes some useful examples. Get User Input in Python 3 Python 3 uses the input() function to collect user input: myText = input(“Enter some text:”) print(“You entered the text: ” + myText) Get User Input in Python 2 If you’re still using Python 2, you will use the raw_input() function instead: myText = raw_input(“Enter some text:”) print “You entered the text: “, myText # Python 2 uses different syntax to print output Typing Input … Read more

Graphs are awesome. If you disagree, you probably shouldn’t read on. The best (and easiest!) way to create graphs and scatter plots in Python is using the package Matplotlib. This tutorial explains exactly how to do so. https://pypi.org/project/matplotlib/ What is matplotlib? I’ll let them introduce themselves in their own words: Matplotlib is a comprehensive library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in Python. This article will give you a jump-start on using Matplotlib to create scatter plots. Install Python Dependencies First, you’ll need to install MatplotLib using … Read more

The Python isinstance() function determines the type or class of a variable. Read on to find out exactly how isinstance works, with an example below. What are Types? The type of a variable determines what it can or can’t do. It determines what value the variable may take and what can be done with that value. isinstance Syntax isinstance(OBJECT, CLASS) Note that: OBJECT is the variable or value to check the type or class of CLASS is the type or class we want to see if the variable type matches The function returns a boolean value (True/False) Types in Python Generally, … Read more