Python Certification Course

An Overview of Python 

• What is Python? 
• Interpreted languages 
• Advantages and disadvantages 

• Downloading and installing 
• Which version of Python 
• Where to find documentation 

 The python environment 

• Structure of a Python script 

• Using the interpreter interactively 
• Running standalone scripts under Unix and Windows 

Getting Started 

• Using variables 
• String types: normal, raw and Unicode 

• String operators and expressions 
• Math operators and expressions

Flow Control

• About flow control
• Indenting is significant
• The if and elif statements
• while loops
• Using lists
• Using the for statement
• The range() function
• Writing to the screen 
• Command line parameters 
• Reading from the keyboard 

Array types

• list operations
• list methods
• Strings are special kinds of lists
• tuples
• sets
• Dictionaries

Working with Files

• Text file I/O overview
• Opening a text file
• Reading text files
• Raw (binary) data
• Using the pickle module
• Writing to a text file

Dictionaries and Sets

• Dictionary overview
• Creating dictionaries
• Dictionary functions
• Fetching keys or values
• Testing for existence of elements
• Deleting elements

Functions

• Syntax of function definition
• Formal parameters
• Global versus local variables
• Passing parameters and returning values

 Sorting

• The sorted() function
• Alternate keys
• Multiple keys
• Lambda functions

 Errors and Exception Handling

• Dealing with syntax errors
• Exceptions
• Handling exceptions with try/except
• Cleaning up with finally

 Modules and Packages

• What is a module?
• The import statement
• Function aliases
• Packages

Regular Expressions

• RE Objects
• Pattern matching
• Parsing data
• Subexpressions
• Complex substitutions
• RE tips and tricks

 Highlights of the Standard Library

• Working with the operating system
• Grabbing web pages
• Sending email
• math and random
• Accessing dates and times with datetime
• Working with compressed files

An Introduction to Python Classes

• About o-o programming
• Defining classes
• Constructors
• Instance methods
• Instance data
• Class methods and data
• Destructors