BiteSize Python for Absolute Beginners: With Practice Labs, Real-World Examples, and Generative AI Assistance

Cover....1

Half Title....2

Series Page....3

Title Page....4

Copyright Page....5

Dedication....6

Contents....8

List of Figures....18

List of Tables....20

Foreword....22

Preface....24

Author Bios....28

SECTION I: Python Fundamentals....30

CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Python....32

1.1. WHAT IS PYTHON?....32

1.2. WHY PYTHON?....33

1.3. SCRIPT VERSUS INTERACTIVE PYTHON....33

1.4. WHY INTERACTIVE PYTHON?....34

1.5. JUPYTER....35

1.6. LOCAL OR CLOUD....36

1.7. LEARNING PYTHON....37

CHAPTER 2: Input and Output....39

2.1. HELLO, WORLD!....39

2.1.1. Demonstration....39

2.1.2. Practice....40

2.2. SINGLE OR DOUBLE....40

2.2.1. Explanation....40

2.2.2. Demonstration....41

2.2.3. Practice....41

2.3. TRIPLE QUOTATIONS....42

2.3.1. Explanation....42

2.3.2. Practice....43

2.4. PRINT MULTIPLE VALUES....44

2.4.1. Demonstration....44

2.4.2. Practice....44

2.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....44

2.6. GET INPUTS....45

2.6.1. Demonstration....45

2.6.2. Practice....45

2.7. COMBINE PRINT() AND INPUT()....46

2.7.1. Explanation....46

2.7.2. Demonstration....46

2.7.3. Practice....46

2.8. INTERACT WITH GENAI....47

CHAPTER 3: Variables....48

3.1. WHAT ARE VARIABLES....48

3.1.1. Explanation....48

3.1.2. Practice....49

3.2. NAMING RULES....49

3.2.1. Explanation....49

3.2.2. Practice....50

3.3. DATA TYPES....50

3.3.1. Explanation....50

3.3.2. Practice....51

3.4. DATA TYPES CONVERT....52

3.4.1. Explanation....52

3.4.2. Demonstration....52

3.4.3. Practice....53

3.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....54

CHAPTER 4: Operations....55

4.1. ASSIGNMENT OPERATIONS....55

4.1.1. Explanation....55

4.1.2. Practice....56

4.2. ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS....56

4.2.1. Explanation....56

4.2.2. Demonstration....57

4.2.3. Practice....58

4.3. RELATIONAL OPERATIONS....59

4.3.1. Explanation....59

4.3.2. Practice....59

4.4. LOGICAL OPERATIONS....60

4.4.1. Explanation....60

4.4.2. Practice....61

4.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....63

CHAPTER 5: String....65

5.1. WHAT IS STR?....65

5.1.1. Explanation....65

5.1.2. Thinking....65

5.2. STRING CREATION....65

5.2.1. Demonstration....66

5.3. STRING ACCESS....66

5.3.1. Demonstraton....66

5.3.2. Practice....68

5.4. STRING SLICING....69

5.4.1. Demonstration....70

5.4.2. Practice....71

5.5. STRING CONCATENATION....71

5.5.1. Demonstration....71

5.6. STRING FORMAT....72

5.6.1. Demonstration....72

5.6.2. Practice....74

5.7. USEFUL FUNCTIONS....75

5.7.1. Demonstration....75

5.7.2. Practice....77

5.8. INTERACT WITH GENAI....80

CHAPTER 6: Case Studies of Python Fundamentals....81

6.1. SIMPLE CHECK OUT....81

6.2. TIPS SPLIT....82

6.3. COMPOUND INTEREST....83

SECTION II: Flow Control and Functions....84

CHAPTER 7: Branching....86

7.1. OPTIONAL BRANCHING....86

7.1.1. Demonstration....87

7.1.2. Practice....88

7.2. ALTERNATIVE BRANCHING....89

7.2.1. Demonstration....89

7.2.2. Practice....90

7.3. MULTIPLE BRANCHING....91

7.3.1. Demonstration....92

7.3.2. Practice....93

7.4. CASE STUDIES OF BRANCHING....95

7.4.1. What day is today?....95

7.4.2. Tax calculator....95

7.4.3. A simple calculator....96

7.4.4. Taxi fare calculator....97

7.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....98

CHAPTER 8: Repetition....99

8.1. CONDITION-BASED REPETITION....99

8.1.1. Explanation....99

8.1.2. Demonstration....100

8.1.3. Practice....101

8.2. COUNT-BASED REPETITION....103

8.2.1. Explanation....103

8.2.2. Demonstration....104

8.2.3. Practice....105

8.3. MAGIC CONTROL....107

8.3.1. Demonstration....107

8.3.2. Practice....108

8.4. CASE STUDIES OF REPETITION....109

8.4.1. Prime numbers....109

8.4.2. A simple grade book....109

8.4.3. Fahrenheit to Celsius converter....110

8.4.4. How many E and e are in a sentence?....111

8.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....111

CHAPTER 9: Functions....113

9.1. WHAT ARE FUNCTIONS?....113

9.1.1. Explanation....113

9.1.2. Example: Bread toaster....114

9.1.3. Practice....114

9.2. TYPES OF FUNCTIONS....115

9.2.1. Explanation....115

9.3. DEFINE A FUNCTION....115

9.3.1. Demonstration....115

9.3.2. Practice....116

9.4. PARAMETERS AND ARGUMENTS....118

9.4.1. Explanation....118

9.4.2. Demonstration....118

9.4.3. Practice....119

9.5. TWO PARAMETERS....121

9.5.1. Demonstration....122

9.5.2. Practice....122

9.6. HOW TO PASS ARGUMENTS....124

9.6.1. Demonstration....124

9.6.2. Practice....125

9.7. DEFAULT VALUE....125

9.7.1. Demonstration....125

9.7.2. Practice....126

9.8. RETURN VALUES....128

9.8.1. Explanation....128

9.8.2. Demonstration....128

9.9. RETURN NUMERIC VALUES....129

9.9.1. Demonstration....129

9.9.2. Practice....129

9.10. RETURN STR VALUES....131

9.10.1. Demonstration....131

9.10.2. Practice....131

9.11. RETURN BOOLEAN VALUES....131

9.11.1. Demonstration....132

9.11.2. Practice....132

9.12. RETURN MULTIPLE VALUES....133

9.12.1. Demonstration....133

9.12.2. Practice....133

9.13. INTERACT WITH GENAI....135

CHAPTER 10: Advanced Functions....136

10.1. NESTED FUNCTIONS....136

10.1.1. Explanation....136

10.1.2. Demonstration....136

10.1.3. Practice....137

10.2. HIERARCHICAL FUNCTIONS....139

10.2.1. Explanation....139

10.2.2. Demonstration....139

10.3. INTERACT WITH GENAI....141

10.4. RECURSIVE FUNCTIONS....141

10.4.1. Explanation....141

10.4.2. Demonstration....142

10.4.3. Practice....142

10.5. INTERACT WITH GENAI....144

SECTION III: Data Structures....146

CHAPTER 11: List....148

11.1. WHAT IS A LIST....148

11.2. CREATE A LIST....149

11.2.1. Demonstration....149

11.2.2. Practice....150

11.3. HETEROGENEITY....151

11.3.1. Demonstration....151

11.3.2. Practice....152

11.3.3. Test your understanding....152

11.4. ACCESS A LIST BY INDEX....153

11.4.1. Demonstration....153

11.4.2. Practice....154

11.5. ACCESS A LIST BY ITERATION....155

11.5.1. Demonstration....155

11.5.2. Practice....156

11.6. LIST MANIPULATION....157

11.6.1. Demonstration....157

11.6.2. Practice....158

11.7. MORE MANIPULATION OF A LIST....159

11.7.1. Demonstration....159

11.7.2. Practice....160

11.8. SLICE A LIST....162

11.8.1. Demonstration....162

11.8.2. Practice....164

11.9. LIST COMPREHENSION....165

11.9.1. Demonstration....165

11.9.2. Practice....167

11.10. ADVANCED LIST COMPREHENSION....168

11.10.1. Demonstration....168

11.10.2. Practice....169

11.11. INTERACT WITH GENAI....171

11.12. EXPLORE MORE OF LIST....171

CHAPTER 12: Tuple....172

12.1. WHAT IS A TUPLE....172

12.1.1. Explanation....172

12.2. CREATE A TUPLE....173

12.2.1. Demonstration....173

12.2.2. Practice....174

12.3. HETEROGENEOUS TUPLE IN PYTHON....175

12.3.1. Demonstration....175

12.3.2. Practice....176

12.4. ACCESS ELEMENTS IN A TUPLE BY INDEX....176

12.4.1. Demonstration....176

12.4.2. Practice....178

12.5. ACCESS ELEMENTS IN A TUPLE BY ITERATION....179

12.5.1. Demonstration....179

12.5.2. Practice....180

12.6. SLICE A TUPLE....181

12.6.1. Demonstration....181

12.6.2. Practice....182

12.7. TUPLE COMPREHENSION....183

12.7.1. Demonstration....183

12.7.2. Practice....184

12.8. INTERACT WITH GENAI....186

12.9. EXPLORE MORE OF TUPLE....186

CHAPTER 13: Set....187

13.1. WHAT IS A SET....187

13.1.1. Explanation....187

13.1.2. Practice....187

13.2. CREATE A SET....188

13.2.1. Demonstration....188

13.2.2. Practice....189

13.3. ELEMENTS IN A SET....190

13.3.1. Demonstration....190

13.3.2. Practice....190

13.4. SET OPERATIONS....191

13.4.1. Demonstration....191

13.4.2. Practice....193

13.5. SET METHODS....194

13.5.1. Demonstration....194

13.5.2. Practice....195

13.6. SET COMPREHENSION....196

13.6.1. Demonstration....196

13.7. INTERACT WITH GENAI....197

13.8. EXPLORE MORE OF SET....198

CHAPTER 14: Dictionary....199

14.1. WHAT IS A DICTIONARY....199

14.1.1. Explanation....199

14.1.2. Practice....200

14.2. CREATE A DICTIONARY....200

14.2.1. Demonstration....200

14.2.2. Practice....201

14.3. ACCESS A DICTIONARY....202

14.3.1. Demonstration....202

14.3.2. Practice....203

14.4. DICTIONARY METHODS....205

14.4.1. Demonstration....205

14.4.2. Practice....206

14.5. DICTIONARY COMPREHENSION....207

14.5.1. Demonstration....207

14.5.2. Practice....208

14.6. INTERACT WITH GENAI....209

14.7. EXPLORE MORE OF DICTIONARY....209

CHAPTER 15: Case Studies of Data Structures....210

15.1. WARM-UP....210

15.2. DATA CREATION....211

15.3. USING LISTS....211

15.4. USING TUPLES....213

15.5. USING SETS....214

15.6. USING DICTIONARIES....214

15.7. FURTHERMORE....216

15.8. COMPLEXITY....216

SECTION IV: Data Collections....218

CHAPTER 16: Named Tuple....220

16.1. WHAT IS A NAMED TUPLE....220

16.1.1. Explanation....220

16.1.2. Demonstration....220

16.2. PACKAGE MANAGEMENT....221

16.3. CASE STUDY: CAR....222

16.4. INTERACT WITH GENAI....222

16.5. EXPLORE MORE OF NAMED TUPLE....223

CHAPTER 17: Default Dictionary....224

17.1. WHAT IS A DEFAULT DICTIONARY....224

17.2. DEFAULT INT....226

17.2.1. Demonstration....226

17.2.2. Practice....226

17.3. DEFAULT LIST....227

17.3.1. Demonstration....227

17.3.2. Practice....228

17.4. DEFAULT SET....228

17.4.1. Demonstration....228

17.4.2. Practice....229

17.5. CASE STUDY: HACKATHON....229

17.6. INTERACT WITH GENAI....231

17.7. EXPLORE MORE OF DEFAULT DICTIONARY....231

CHAPTER 18: Counters....232

18.1. WHAT IS A COUNTER....232

18.2. MORE ABOUT COUNTER....233

18.2.1. Explanation....233

18.2.2. Demonstration....233

18.2.3. Practice....234

18.3. CASE STUDY: ROMEO AND JULIET....235

18.4. INTERACT WITH GENAI....236

18.5. EXPLORE MORE OF COUNTER....236

What is Next?....238

Index....240

As an introduction to Python, this book allows readers to take a slow and steady approach to understanding Python code, explaining concepts, connecting programming with real-life examples, writing Python programs, and completing case studies.

While there are many books, websites, and online courses about the topic, we break down Python programming into easily digestible lessons of less than 5 minutes each, following our BiteSize approach. Each lesson begins with a clear and short introduction to the topic. This gives you a strong base to start from and gets you ready for deeper learning. Then, you will see coding demonstrations that show the ideas discussed. These examples are simple and useful, helping you really understand the concepts. You’ll then practice tasks at different difficulty levels, so you can test your knowledge and increase your confidence. You’ll also play with case studies to solve real-world problems. Tips are included to show how you can incorporate generative AI into your learning toolkit, using it for feedback, practice exercises, code reviews, and exploring advanced topics. Recommended AI prompts can help you identify areas for improvement, review key concepts, and track your progress.

This book is designed for absolute beginners with no prior programming experience. It is ideal for individuals with busy schedules or limited time for studying.