Python As A First Coding Language

Master programming skills using Python, a top language for data science

What you'll learn

Fundamentals of the Python language

How to program effectively in Python

Using Python with command line and Jupyter notebooks

How to use data types and data collections

How to create programs and manage program flow

How to use modules and packages for free code

Requirements

No previous programming experience is needed

Computer with internet connection and Web browser

Description

Why learn to code?Maybe you are a College student wanting to learn to code, someone looking for a career change to coding or a Data Scientist needing code skills.  But coding can feel hard to break into and seems increasingly dominated by people who have written code from an early age.  This course is designed to help people start to get real value for coding.  Jay has 20+ years of experience in leading teams in top tech organisations from small companies to multinationals and a passion for enabling people to use code and technology in effective ways.Why start with Python?Python is regularly listed as one of the top languages to learn.  It's easy to get started with, the tools are free and it has support for a huge range of specific uses.  In particular, it's become the key language in data science with a recent report concluding: "By knowing Python, combined with a strong aptitude for quantitative reasoning and experimental analysis, you can strike gold in the industry."Why this course?There are plenty of reference books and online guides which will tell you the syntax of the Python language.  And these have a lot of value to any programmer building skills.  But a theoretical approach learning pages of Python instructions isn't the best way to start learning.  Or the most fun for that matter.In this course Jay will be focussing on concepts and how the language is used.  In particular the course focusses on data, because many Python users are interested in manipulating data.  The course builds from basic data types up through collections of data to modules and packages used to manage data.  And in parallel it builds from executing single Python instructions to creating programs and controlling the flow of code.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction to the course

Lecture 1 Why learn Python?

Lecture 2 What is programming?

Section 2: Installation and free tools

Lecture 3 Environment and setup

Lecture 4 Installing the Anaconda tools

Section 3: Python - getting up to speed

Lecture 5 Numbers and Arithmetic

Lecture 6 Variables and Data

Lecture 7 Data Types

Lecture 8 Built in Functions

Section 4: Lists - your key data collection

Lecture 9 Lists

Lecture 10 Variables revisited

Lecture 11 Methods

Lecture 12 Strings

Section 5: Other data collections

Lecture 13 Dictionaries

Lecture 14 Tuples

Lecture 15 Sets

Section 6: Programming - being in control

Lecture 16 Executing Programs

Lecture 17 Comments and Clarity

Lecture 18 Program Flow

Lecture 19 Iteration

Lecture 20 Writing Functions

Lecture 21 Variables revisited, again

Section 7: Modules, packages and leveraging free code

Lecture 22 Modules

Lecture 23 Packages

Lecture 24 Advanced Packages

Section 8: Project - Data Visualisation, Maps and Packages

Lecture 25 Project Introduction

Lecture 26 About the project, maps and visualisation

Lecture 27 Pandas package and Data Frames

Lecture 28 Tkinter package and managing files

Lecture 29 Visualisation and plotting data

Lecture 30 Geopandas package, lines and points

Lecture 31 Base Maps, projections and styling

Lecture 32 The final map…

Data scientists wanting to develop programming skills,College students wanting to learn to code,Non-coders looking to start with a popular and effective programming language