Introduction to Python

This section aims to be a compact introduction to the Python 3 programming language. Python 3 was released for the first time in 2008 and replaced it’s predecessor Python 2 which was released for the first time in 2000 but is unsupported since 2020. The very first version of Python was released in 1991.

The only reason to not to learn only Python 3 is that there is still quite a bit of Python 2 code out there. So some information covering Python 2 is also included in the following pages.

This introduction begins with

  • a first look at some example code to look at the fundamental language elements of Python 3.

and continues to take a closer look at each of those elements:

  • Keywords and built-in functions: The Python 3 programming language consists of 35 keywords and 69 built-in functions.

  • Identifiers: Identifiers are short pieces of text that are used to name elements like variables, functions, classes etc.

  • Data types: Different types of data like e.g. numbers, text, calendar dates, etc. have different capabilities.

  • Operators: Get to know the different available operators.

  • Conditions and loops: Change the order how a sequence of statements is executed.

  • Functions help to make code more modular and reusable by naming a sequence of statements.

  • Classes: are the base of object-oriented programming (OOP), a programming paradigm that helps to write maintainable & scalable code.