Here we’ll introduce some concepts from the programming language Python, using small examples. You can try out any example given here for yourself using the Trinket code cells. These cells provide small runnable environments where your can write and run Python code. The code is written (and can be modified!) in the frame on the left, while your output will be displayed in the frame on the right.
At the end of this introduction we’ll describe an assignment, which you should try and solve using all of the introduced concepts below.
The classic first program to write in any language is Hello World, which in Python would look like:
print("Hello World!")
This is a pretty simple program, but let’s take a look at the elements it contains:
A string is a piece of text surrounded by quotes. Examples of strings are
"It's a good day to code"
"Python 3.8"
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur ..."
Python comes with many features already built-in, most of which come as
functions. One of the most commonly used built-in functions is print(),
which prints a string (i.e. a piece of text) to the screen.
You can provide whatever string you like between the parentheses as the function argument and that string will be printed.
The output should appear in the frame on the right. Try editing the string that is printed and running your own version of the program.
Next, lets introduce another essential bit of Python; variables.
Variables are named entities that can be used to store things in your program. Variables also always have a type. We’ve already seen one type of variable, namely a string. Expanding the Hello World program slightly, we might write:
greeting = "Hello World!"
print(greeting)
Where we store the string “Hello World!” in the variable greeting and then
print that variable.
A different type of variable that is very useful is an integer. Integers are used to represent whole numbers, such as 3, 5, 24 or 917. They can be printed in the exact same way as strings:
number = 5
print(number)
You can also perform calculations using integers and store the result in a new variable, like so
first_number = 5
second_number = first_number + 3
print(second_number)
The code will always be executed from the top line to bottom, in order. So, the order of the commands matters:
Make sure to try these examples for yourself! Try some other variations too. If you understand the output produced, move on to the next step.
You can also collect user input using the input() function. The argument of
the input function is the question you want to ask the user:
name = input("What is your name? ")
The result is then stored as a string. If you want to use an integer, you can
convert the string to an integer using the int() function, like so
age_string = input("What is your age? ")
age = int(age_string)
Prints are always followed by an enter, i.e. a new line. Using the example inputs from above, if you would print
print(name)
print(age)
then each would appear on a new line. If you instead want to print them on the
same line, but with space between them, you could use this modified version of
the print, which used the optional end=' ' argument:
Write a program that ask the user for their name, and prints a greeting. If the user enters the name John, your program should print “Hello John !”, like so:
What is your name? John
Hello John !
Your program should of course work for any name entered
What is your name? Sarah
Hello Sarah !
Write your solution in code cell below:
Assume that taking a shower for 1 minute consumes about 12 (0.5 liter) bottles of water. Write a program that reports a user’s water usage back to them, by calculating the how many bottles of drinking water are consumed by the number of minutes they shower. Example:
How many minutes do you shower? 1
12
How many minutes do you shower? 10
120
Tip: In this exercise you need to make sure that you use the function int()
to convert the user input from a string into an integer. If you skip this step,
you might get very unexpected results.
One of the most useful constructs in programming is a loop. A loop can be used to repeat certain instructions. The most basic version, repeating a print 5 times, would be written as
Which should print the string “Hello!” 5 times
An important piece of Python syntax is the indentation. After the : the
contents of the loop starts, which are all the elements that should be
repeated. Every indented line, i.e. every line preceded by tab character and
therefore starting shifted slightly to the right, is considered to be inside
the loop and is repeated for the duration of the loop.
The range() function in the loop indicates how often the loop should repeat.
The variable after the keyword for (called i in these examples) changes
every step of the loop, starting at 0 and increasing with 1 for every step, up
to the number specified steps.
The number of specified steps in the range() function here is 7, so the
variable i will start at 0 and run up to and including 6. Note that the total
number of steps is still 7, due to starting the count a 0 (a common convention
in computer science).
The indented section of a for-loop indicates what parts of the code you want to repeat. The code inside the loop could be any Python code. You could even put another loop inside the first loop! This inner loop will then executed completely from start to finish for every single step of the outer loop. This is easiest to understand with an example:
Any lines of code indented with 2 tabs are part of the inner loop, while code indented with 1 tab is only part of the outer loop.
Check your own understandig: How many times does this loop print “One inner loop step completed”? Why is that?
For this next part, you’ll have to use all of the concepts introduced above to write your own program. The program should write a pyramid of the correct height to the screen, based on what height the user entered. Some examples:
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 5
# #
# # #
# # # #
# # # # #
# # # # # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 2
# #
# # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 7
# #
# # #
# # # #
# # # # #
# # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # # #
Write Python code in the cell below to exactly reproduce the input/output examples above. You should only use Python constructs that have been introduced in this text to solve this assignment. Your code should work for any positive integer given as the height of the pyramid, but your code may produce errors if other inputs are given by the user.
The introduction given could already be enough information for you to start experimenting and some writing code above. If you’re not sure where to start yet, check out some of the hints in the next section.
The text above should have given you an idea of the building blocks and what to build, but the main challenge with programming is figuring out how to combine all the elements together into a program that solves the whole problem.
Generally, a very effective strategy is trying to write smaller pieces of code, which might be useful a step towards solving the whole problem and test each of these separately. You can then incrementally expand the complexity of your program and work towards solving the problem as a whole. Here we’ll outline some of the steps you might use
Write a program to ask the user to input a number and print that number of hashes, e.g.
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 4
# # # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 7
# # # # # # #
Modify your program from step 1 to repeat the printed output height number of times. The result should be a square of height x height, e.g.
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 3
# # #
# # #
# # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 5
# # # # #
# # # # #
# # # # #
# # # # #
# # # # #
Modify your program from step 2 to only display the correct number of blocks on every row. Don’t worry about the exact placement yet, only make sure the correct number of blocks is printed, e.g.
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 2
# #
# # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 6
# #
# # #
# # # #
# # # # #
# # # # # #
# # # # # # #
Modify your program from step 3 to produce an output where the hashes are
aligned as in the actual output, described at the start of this section.
Remember that prints on the same line are places in order, from left to right.
So, if you want to shift something to right, you might need add some characters
before those other characters, in order to shift them further right. Use the
character . fix the alignment of the hashes, e.g.
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 5
. . . . # #
. . . # # #
. . # # # #
. # # # # #
# # # # # #
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 3
. . # #
. # # #
# # # #
Modify your program from step 4 to produce exactly the same output as described at the start of this section. All that needs to be done is to replace the scaffolding character with something that will not be directly visible in the output, e.g.
What height would you like the pyramid to be? 7
# #
# # #
# # # #
# # # # #
# # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # # #