Programming Fundamentals in Python: Variables, Data Types & Operators#
This chapter provides an overview of foundational programming concepts, with a focus on Python syntax. It also introduces two different Python IDEs- Spyder and Google Colaboratory.
Topics covered include:
Variables & assignment operators
Basic data types & comments
Arithmetic operators
Concatenation
Input/Output
Relational or comparison operators
Boolean logic & logical operators
Acknowledgements#
Portions of this chapter are adapted from the “Lab: Programming in Python” and “Lab: Numbers in Python” lab materials developed by Janet Davis for the the CSC 105 “The Digital Age” course.
This chapter also incorporates elements of Corey Pennycuff’s “Intro to Python/Jupyter” Jupyter notebook from CSE 10101 Elements of Computing (Fall 2019).
Definitions and explanations in this chapter are adapted from:
W3Schools, Python tutorials and documentation
Kenneth Leroy Busbee and Dave Braunschweig, Programming Fundamentals: A Modular Structured Approach, 2nd Edition (Rebus Press, 2018)
Setup#
One of the Python IDE’s we’ll be exploring in this chapter does require a software download. Spyder is “ a free and open source scientific environment written in Python, for Python, and designed by and for scientists, engineers and data analysts” (Spyder documentation).
To install Spyder as a stand-alone program: spyder-ide.org
The other Python IDE introduced in this chapter is the web-based Google Colaboratory.
To install Spyder as a stand-alone program: spyder-ide.org
Chapter Contents#
Application#
Your answers to this chapter’s application questions should be added to the notebook template.
Google Colab link (ND users only)
Submit the Colab link on Canvas for the assignment submission.