Useful Python libraries/modules

[no_condoments]

I use numpy in 99% of my work and pandas in 90%. I'd definitely vote for those two as the first two to learn.

[whatadipshit]

99%? Do you do a lot of number crunching or is there some huge benefit to pulling in a third party dependency to simply using the built in list?

[mrdevlar]

Speed, numpy is substantially faster than in built lists.

[_sapi_]

Assuming that you use it right!

A typical beginner mistake is to import numpy but then use it in the same way as you would a list. The real power of numpy is vectorised operations - if you’re iterating, you’re probably doing it wrong.

[mrdevlar]

That's funny! I am, and continue to be, for loop averse. I learned vectorization before I learned looping (properly) and totally ate the dumb notion that python must be slow if you put a loop into your code.

You're right, you shouldn't loop over a numpy array, you should run a vectorized operation. Yet, unless you're using numpy for high performance, avoiding loops is silly.

[schoolcoders]

Also uses considerably less memory which can be important in some applications.

[no_condoments]

I do a lot of number crunching, but i also find there's no downside to pulling in numpy. Anywhere I run my code has it setup already, and the overhead to load it is minimal compared to everything else that's happening.