How Many Recursive Cases and Base Cases Does a Recursive Function Need?
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Let's look at a simple example of a recursive function to see what it needs at minimum.
Make Fractals in Python Turtle with the FractalArtMaker Module
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
FractalArtMaker is a module for creating fractal art in Python's turtle module. You can install the module by running pip3 install FractalArtMaker
How to Use Python 3.11's New TOML Parser, tomllib
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Python 3.11 will include a TOML parsing module called tomllib. Let's learn what TOML files are (they're similar to JSON), how they're useful for configuration files, and how you can write Python code to read them.
Downloading Web Pages and Files in Python 3 and 2 Without the Requests Module
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Book Review: Make Python Talk
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Mark H. Liu’s “Make Python Talk” is a solid book for anyone who wants to leverage the power of the Python programming language to add speech capabilities to their programs. The chapters cover third-party libraries for speech recognition and text-to-speech in an engaging way.
Book Review: Serious Python
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Serious Python by Julien Danjou is an excellent book for those who have gone through the "hello world" tutorials or those coming to Python from other programming languages, and want a book that teaches you not just how to write code, but how to write code the pythonic way.
Book Review: Tiny Python Projects
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Writing for an intermediate audience is hard, but Ken Youens-Clark has nailed it with Tiny Python Projects. This is a great book for those who have dabbled with a few beginner Python tutorials but still feel like they don't "get" programming. The projects in this book are short and simple; perfect for beginners who want to get experience with actual programs instead of just code snippets.
How to Represent a 2D Grid in Python Code
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
This blog post examines different ways that Python lists and dictionaries can be used to represent a 2D data structure. I also write some test programs to measure the performance of each data structure.
How to Test Multiple Variables Against a Single Value and a Single Variable Against Multiple Values in Python
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Python has a more concise syntax that uses the in operator and the multiple values packaged in a tuple. To check if one of multiple variables is one of many values, you can use a list comprehension and the any() function.
22 Examples of Recursive Functions in Python
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Here are 22 actual, runnable Python code for several recursive functions, written in a style to be understandable by beginners and produce debuggable output.
What is a Python Generator? (Implementing Your Own range() Function)
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Generators in Python (also called generator functions) are used to create a series of values one at a time. Let's learn how they work by re-creating the built-in
range() function.
Recursion Is Not A Superpower: An Iterative Ackermann
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
This post has the Python code for the infamously recursive Ackermann function, but without using recursion.
Algorithmic Art with the BitFieldDraw Module
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
I created the bitfielddraw Python module so that you could turn math formulas into .png image files.
Combinations and Permutations in Python with itertools
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Explores the difference between combinations and permutations, and why you don't need to write your own Python code for them because the built-in
itertools module already exists. Includes working code examples.
Al Sweigart's PyTennessee 2020 Opening Keynote
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
In March 2020, just before the lockdowns would begin, I gave the opening keynote at PyTennessee 2020. Unfortunately, it wasn't recorded. But I still have the script I used and so I re-recorded the talk. I've posted it to my YouTube channel.
Text Recognition in Python with pytesseract
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Extracting text as string values from images is called optical character recognition (OCR) or simply text recognition. This blog post tells you how to run the Tesseract OCR engine from Python. Includes working code examples.
A Quick Pip Guide: How to Install Python Modules
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
This tutorial teaches you about Pip, a package manager that installs third-party packages for Python.
Type Hints for Busy Python Programmers
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
A quick guide to using type hints in Python.
Python Error Messages: Gotta Catch Em All
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
To make errors less intimidating, I've created a "Gotta Catch 'em All" worksheet that lists several common Python error messages. Instead of trying to avoid errors, beginners can try to hunt and collect them all.
Pythonic Ways to Use Dictionaries
Posted by Al Sweigart in python
Python dictionaries are a useful part of the language. In addition to having the ability to store keys and values, you can also use dictionary methods to manipulate those values, and you can use dictionaries to write more concise code.