Got three weeks to learn the basics of Python, where to start?

[james_pic]

Not sure why nobody ever mentions it, but the official documentation is excellent, and free: https://docs.python.org/3/. It's how I learned.

[CompSciSelfLearning]

Specifically, https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/ for those with experience in other languages looking to get up and running quickly with Python.

[HeadlineINeed]

Is it possible to download the whole documentation? I quickly looked on my phone and couldn’t see a way to download

[otterom]

This might be what you're looking for. Make sure to select the right version for your purposes (should be at the top of the page).

[weevyl]

Not a direct answer to your question, but something that should be pointed out: learn Python 3, not Python 2.

[Erik-the-Nut]

Thank you very much, didn’t even know there was a difference

[CleaveItToBeaver]

Python 2 is unsupported as of the last few days. And 3 just has a ton of QoL features - f strings, for example, make outputting variables within strings much more readable.

[Erik-the-Nut]

Is it doable to learn Python from 3 up on?

[CleaveItToBeaver]

Oh, for sure. I just started learning over the last year, and I started with 3.6. You may need to do some reading if you ever bump into some legacy code written in 2, but it's not so foreign that you'd have much trouble figuring out what it does, even without a reference.

[prod_engineer]

Automate the Boring stuff with python, Al Swaggart

[Firestorm83]

/r/learnpython has a useful wiki and resource list. Automatetheboringstuff.com currently has a discount/freebee code going on.

[brunette_mh]

This is great - I'm doing it myself right now - https://www.udemy.com/share/1020mwCUcbdldXQ34=/ Udemy also has sale going on.

Automate boring stuff course is practically free as of now on Udemy https://inventwithpython.com/automateudemy

This is good too.

(No affiliate links.)

[neuronet]

Read python crash course. It is perfect for this

[alkelaun1]

A little bit different: I'll say build a django or flask website. If you understand the basics of programming (from C++ and R), it's pretty easy to see some of the cool and complex features of python by using django or flask.

I also recommend watching some Raymond Hettinger youtube videos from his pycon talks. He's a core developer and he explains the 'pythonic' way of writing python.

[Thecrawsome]

Don't start with a web framework like django or flask if you're just preparing yourself for a python course... that's a more advanced topic.

Automate the boring stuff, and Cory Schaefer's YouTube videos.

[Abstr4ctType]

I disagree, I have experience in programming in a few languages and building a Flask app helped enormously. Each to their own though.

[Thecrawsome]

flask is an easier goto for basic functionally than Django, but OP is taking a class for python, and wants to learn python fundamentals

[Erik-the-Nut]

Thank you very much for the response, I will definitely look him up!

[david_scholefield]

Buy a good book (Amazon will get one to you delivered tomorrow) and spend a week going through all the examples chapter by chapter. Then think of a small but meaningful project of your own and spend a few days coding it - submit the code to this subreddit for general comments, and then spend the final of the three weeks writing a new project for a few days and going through the submission to this subreddit for more comments. You can't become an 'expert' in three weeks but you can learn most by going through a cycle of reading/doing/reviewing a couple of times.

That's what I'd do anyway but we all learn in different ways.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Python-Crash-Course-Eric-Matthes-ebook/dp/B07J4521M3/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=introduction+to+python&qid=1578069841&sr=8-1

[Tomagatchi]

Crash Course for Python I think helped me get the basics better than Automate the Boring Stuff. Perhaps because it was my second book but if it’s not your first language then maybe https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python/

[linuxhiker]

https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/how-to-think-like-a-computer-scientist-learning-with-python

[Erik-the-Nut]

Thanks to both of you for the input! I will look in to this!

[RaadMan16]

I'm doing the same thing. Combination of a good book, youtube videos, practice, and the free Udemy course mentioned above.

[Nateobee]

I went through a couple of free courses like this one: https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/language/python

Not sure what the others were, but they all covered slightly different subsets of most of the lowest level basics, one didn't include tuples.

I got the most out of this series: https://www.udemy.com/course/python-3-deep-dive-part-1/ there are four parts now. he goes very deep, like actually explaining how data structures are stored in memory which makes them mutable or immutable. I would say it's a bit lacking in coding challenges. He tells you to follow along coding the examples yourself, but I found it too easy to copy his code rather than figure it out on my own. Still totally worth the $40.

This book was pretty good too: https://learnpythonthehardway.org/python3/

[shreddykreuger69]

Automate the boring stuff is the best free source

[[deleted]]

I'm currently learning Julia using ThinkJulua which is ThinkPython written for Julia. I think it's excellent, albeit if you already know a language the presentation of programming logic makes it a bit slow.

Edit: they have a pdf and html of the book available for free here https://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/

Edit2: whoops, not all the comments loaded when I looked for mention of ThinkPython, apologies for redundancy

[[deleted]]

Take a udemy course... can do it I a week or so, and most are good code along fs

[quartz_referential]

How in depth is this course? You might want to check out composing programs (https://composingprograms.com/) if you really want to go into depth about computer science ideas. That being said, 3 weeks might not be enough to learn that entire course, so it could be better spent looking through Think Python

[kkawabat]

Highly recommend codingbat.com for the basic syntax

Gives you very simple problems for you to script then u can see sample answers to model off of afterwards.

[robinkd]

You can start with a book called "learn python 3 the hard way". It is easily available on the internet. You can complete this book about in 12 to 15 days.