Programming Private Public

Python Essentials Training (PYT438)

5 days
ProgrammingPythonWeb Development

Learn Python fundamentals through core syntax, functions, strings, data structures, flow control, files, regex, testing, and OOP to build real programs.

Talk to a Learning ConsultantRegister for a Public ClassRequest a Private Class

Register or Request Training

Price per student
$2,875.00
Guaranteed to run
Select a date
Please select a class.
Interested in a private class?
  • Private class for your team
  • Live expert instructor
  • Online or on‑location
  • Customizable agenda
  • Proposal responses same day as request
Request Proposal

Course Overview

This instructor-led Python essentials course provides a practical introduction to Python programming, from writing and running scripts to working with common libraries and data formats. It is designed for beginners and for learners who want a stronger foundation in core Python concepts.

You will learn Python syntax and program structure; functions and modules; string handling; built-in data types and collections (lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets); and control flow with conditionals and loops. The course also covers virtual environments and pip, file processing with os and paths, dates and times with time and datetime, and coding style with PEP 8 and Pylint.

As you progress, you will practice more advanced techniques such as comprehensions, lambda functions, and selected tools from the collections module. You will also work with regular expressions, read and write data in CSV/XML/JSON, interact with SQLite, and build confidence with testing and debugging using unittest. The course concludes with object-oriented programming concepts including classes, inheritance, properties, and decorators.

Course Benefits

  • Write Python scripts with confidence.
  • Code with ease using Python Standard Library script modules.
  • Complete math operations with Python.
  • Access data in a Python program using string indexing and slicing strings.
  • Leverage data structures like sequences, dictionaries, and sets.
  • Use flow control tools to manage the execution of your program.
  • Strengthen your code with exception handling, testing, and debugging.
  • Quickly match, locate, and manage text using regular expressions.
  • Handle date and time with confidence.
  • Read, write, and edit files using Python.
  • Create reusable code to save time later.
  • Work with various data sources.
  • Use Python's object-oriented features to create flexible code that is easier to maintain.

Course Outline

  1. Python Basics
    1. Getting Familiar with the Terminal
    2. Running Python
    3. Running a Python File
    4. Exercise: Hello, world!
    5. Literals
    6. Exercise: Exploring Types
    7. Variables
    8. Exercise: A Simple Python Script
    9. Constants and Deleting Variables
    10. Writing a Python Module
    11. print() Function
    12. Collecting User Input
    13. Exercise: Hello, You!
    14. Reading from and Writing to Files
    15. Exercise: Working with Files
  2. Functions and Modules
    1. Defining Functions
    2. Variable Scope
    3. Global Variables
    4. Function Parameters
    5. Exercise: A Function with Parameters
    6. Returning Values
    7. Exercise: Parameters with Default Values
    8. Returning Values
    9. Importing Modules
    10. Methods vs. Functions
  3. Math
    1. Arithmetic Operators
    2. Exercise: Floor and Modulus
    3. Assignment Operators
    4. Precedence of Operations
    5. Built-in Math Functions
    6. The math Module
    7. The random Module
    8. Exercise: How Many Pizzas Do We Need?
    9. Exercise: Dice Rolling
  4. Python Strings
    1. Quotation Marks and Special Characters
    2. String Indexing
    3. Exercise: Indexing Strings
    4. Slicing Strings
    5. Exercise: Slicing Strings
    6. Concatenation and Repetition
    7. Exercise: Repetition
    8. Combining Concatenation and Repetition
    9. Python Strings are Immutable
    10. Common String Methods
    11. String Formatting
    12. Exercise: Playing with Formatting
    13. Formatted String Literals (f-strings) (introduced in Python 3.6)
    14. Built-in String Functions
    15. Exercise: Outputting Tab-delimited Text
  5. Iterables: Sequences, Dictionaries, and Sets
    1. Definitions
    2. Sequences
    3. Lists
    4. Sequences and Random
    5. Exercise: Remove and Return Random Element
    6. Tuples
    7. Ranges
    8. Converting Sequences to Lists
    9. Indexing
    10. Exercise: Simple Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
    11. Slicing
    12. Exercise: Slicing Sequences
    13. min(), max(), and sum()
    14. Converting between Sequences and Strings
    15. Unpacking Sequences
    16. Dictionaries
    17. The len() Function
    18. Exercise: Creating a Dictionary from User Input
    19. Sets
    20. *args and **kwargs
  6. Virtual Environments, Packages, and pip
    1. Exercise: Creating, Activiting, Deactivating, and Deleting a Virtual Environment
    2. Packages with pip
    3. Exercise: Working with a Virtual Environment
  7. Flow Control
    1. Conditional Statements
    2. Compound Conditions
    3. The is and is not Operators
    4. all() and any() and the Ternary Operator
    5. In Between
    6. Loops in Python
    7. Exercise: All True and Any True
    8. break and continue
    9. Looping through Lines in a File
    10. Exercise: Word Guessing Game
    11. The else Clause in Loops
    12. Exercise: for...else
    13. The enumerate() Function
    14. Generators
    15. List Comprehensions
  8. Exception Handling
    1. Exception Basics
    2. Generic Exceptions
    3. Exercise: Raising Exceptions
    4. The else and finally Clauses
    5. Using Exceptions for Flow Control
    6. Exercise: Running Sum
    7. Raising Your Own Exceptions
  9. Python Dates and Times
    1. Understanding Time
    2. The time Module
    3. Time Structures
    4. Times as Strings
    5. Time and Formatted Strings
    6. Pausing Execution with time.sleep()
    7. The datetime Module
    8. datetime.datetime Objects
    9. Exercise: What Color Pants Should I Wear?
    10. datetime.timedelta Objects
    11. Exercise: Report on Departure Times
  10. File Processing
    1. Opening Files
    2. Exercise: Finding Text in a File
    3. Writing to Files
    4. Exercise: Writing to Files
    5. Exercise: List Creator
    6. The os Module
    7. os.walk()
    8. The os.path Module
    9. A Better Way to Open Files
    10. Exercise: Comparing Lists
  11. PEP8 and Pylint
    1. PEP8
    2. Pylint
  12. Advanced Python Concepts
    1. Lambda Functions
    2. Advanced List Comprehensions
    3. Exercise: Rolling Five Dice
    4. Collections Module
    5. Exercise: Creating a defaultdict
    6. Counters
    7. Exercise: Creating a Counter
    8. Mapping and Filtering
    9. Mutable and Immutable Built-in Objects
    10. Sorting
    11. Exercise: Converting list.sort() to sorted(iterable)
    12. Sorting Sequences of Sequences
    13. Creating a Dictionary from Two Sequences
    14. Unpacking Sequences in Function Calls
    15. Exercise: Converting a String to a datetime.date Object
    16. Modules and Packages
  13. Regular Expressions
    1. Regular Expression Tester
    2. Regular Expression Syntax
    3. Python's Handling of Regular Expressions
    4. Exercise: Green Glass Door
  14. Working with Data
    1. Virtual Environment
    2. Relational Databases
    3. Passing Parameters
    4. SQLite
    5. Exercise: Querying a SQLite Database
    6. SQLite Database in Memory
    7. Exercise: Inserting File Data into a Database
    8. Drivers for Other Databases
    9. CSV
    10. Exercise: Finding Data in a CSV File
    11. Creating a New CSV File
    12. Exercise: Creating a CSV with DictWriter
    13. Getting Data from the Web
    14. Exercise: HTML Scraping
    15. XML
    16. JSON
    17. Exercise: JSON Home Runs
  15. Testing and Debugging
    1. Testing for Performance
    2. Exercise: Comparing Times to Execute
    3. The unittest Module
    4. Exercise: Fixing Functions
    5. Special unittest.TestCase Methods
  16. Classes and Objects
    1. Attributes
    2. Behaviors
    3. Classes vs. Objects
    4. Attributes and Methods
    5. Exercise: Adding a roll() Method to Die
    6. Private Attributes
    7. Properties
    8. Exercise: Properties
    9. Objects that Track their Own History
    10. Documenting Classes
    11. Exercise: Documenting the Die Class
    12. Inheritance
    13. Exercise: Extending the Die Class
    14. Extending a Class Method
    15. Exercise: Extending the roll() Method
    16. Static Methods
    17. Class Attributes and Methods
    18. Abstract Classes and Methods
    19. Understanding Decorators

Delivery Methods

Public Class
Live expert-led online training from anywhere. Guaranteed to run .
Private Class
Delivered for your team at your site or online.

Class Materials

Each student receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all class examples.

Class Prerequisites

Experience in the following would be useful for this Python class:

  • Some prior programming experience is helpful.

Have questions about this course?

We can help with curriculum details, delivery options, pricing, or anything else. Reach out and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Talk to a Learning Consultant
}