Programming

We like Python. Anaconda is a popular distribution of Python and the R programming languages, which includes package management and deployment tools, with hundreds of packages pre-installed. Anaconda is aimed at data scientists and people working with machine learning, but it’s useful for anyone. It has a quick and easy install process for Ubuntu, so here’s how to get up and running! Download the Anaconda installer Anaconda has various additions, and we want the Open Source (free!) individual edition, available from: https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual Scroll down and … Read more

This tutorial explains how to create loops in Python by using the “while” statement. Included below are the syntax and examples. In programming (and thus, in Python), a loop is a statement which will execute a block of code repeatedly until a condition is met, or the loop is broken out of manually. This article will look at Python Loops and conventions to use when writing them. Looping with the while statement, Syntax and Example Here is a basic loop which will increment (add 1) the variable ‘i’ … Read more

There is a useful function in Python called ‘sleep()’. It’s part of the ‘time’ module and allows you to pause, sleep, wait, or stop a Python script or application. Python can be used to make useful command-line tools to streamline your workflow, but sometimes you need to wait for the user, or for a pre-defined amount of time. For example, you may want to prompt the user to press a key when they have finished reading instructions or give them time to override a default … Read more

In Python, there’s an easy way to sort lists: using the sort() method. This tutorial explains how to use sort(), with examples. We’ve covered the following in Python: Removing list items Checking if items are in lists Finding items in lists Now it’s time to find out how to sort a list. Syntax for the sort() Method list.sort(reverse=True|False, key=sortFunction) Note that: ‘reverse’ should be a True/False boolean value and is optional reverse=True will sort the list descending The default is reverse=False True/False values case sensitive in Python! … Read more

This tutorial explains how to find items within a list in Python and return the values, using “filter”. Previously we covered checking whether items exist in a list in Python, but that could only tell us whether they were present, or not (with a boolean return value containing the result). If you are searching a list for a specific value, you already know what the value of the matching items will be so the above method is sufficient. However, what if you are searching by a set of … Read more