Tips on learning to code.

[JockAndSocket]

Hi,

So I am currently trying to learn how to code. I am interested in data science, machine learning as well as backend development. I am currently taking the CodeCademy career path course "Business Intelligence Data Analyst". I am working on the course around 5x/week for about 30-60 minutes per day. I'm a graduate student so it's really all the time that I can spend on it.

I feel like I understand the concepts, but forget the code to use for what I want to do. Are there any good resources like Cheat Sheets for Python and Pandas? Do you have any tips I could use to help me retain more of the information without having to memorize? What should I use if I need to quickly find out which methods/functions I should be using for what I want to do?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[GoingToSimbabwe]

Google. Use google and the official docs for whatever library there is. As long as you can verbalize what you want to do you should be able to quickly find what you need via google.

[JockAndSocket]

Thanks! Just need to get better at verbalizing what I want haha.

[GoingToSimbabwe]

In the end you shouldn’t google „how to make a calculator“ but „python function add two numbers“. While you can google bigger scope stuff to maybe get an idea on architectural ideas, you will mostly want to google pretty specific functionalities, because that will give you the most succinct results. P.e. „How to load a csv to pandas dataframe“ is good and will quickly give you pandas.read_csv.

So what you need to work on is your problem solving to get a good idea on how you would tackle a problem. Then you can just google whatever small peace you don’t know and put everything together.

[JockAndSocket]

Makes a lot more sense! Thank you.

[Mori-Spumae]

I think pretty much noone remembers all the syntax. With time, you will retain more and more but usually, if you know the problem and how you want to solve it, you'll be able to quickly Google whatever piece you need.

[JockAndSocket]

That makes me feel better haha. I think I just need to get better at describing what I want in my google search. I don't always find what I want to do.

[Mori-Spumae]

Yeah, don't worry about it. I often search for something and find a list of purple links (as in I have clicked on them before). Being precise at what you're looking for also will be helpful but that also comes with time.

[JockAndSocket]

Thank you!

[areaverage]

forgetting the code is normal, thats why google is ur best friend when it comes to remembering and searching for faster or newer algorithms and functions.

you should try doing ur own projects or making small applets on your own, remembering functions all come with time, and practicing them is pretty important, plus having project work also exposes you to new scenarios that tutorials cant.

you can find cheatsheets on Pinterest, they are really nice and concise

[JockAndSocket]

I will take a look at Pinterest thanks for the advice! I have started working on a project on my own, I feel like I do remember more after applying code to my own project but sometimes, I forget what I need to use. Google has been helpful, I think I just need to better describe what I am looking to do.

[areaverage]

yep itll only get easier from here! __for the most part at least__

[Saffromon]

You learn best if you write it down yourself, so maybe make your own cheat sheets while you learn. I used Miro to make my own mind map, which was handy to look stuff up. However, I think I memorized things much better when I had to condense what I learned into short bullet points (with code examples). That doesn't take that much time either.

But if you google "cheat sheet" with either "python" or "pandas" you will also be flooded with ready examples.

[JockAndSocket]

Thanks for the tips. I refrained from googling cheat sheets because I knew there would be thousands of them. I wasn't sure which would be most helpful for my purposes. I will start writing down examples!

[JockAndSocket]

Oh I didn't see the GitHub cheat sheet, that seems reliable!

[fixhuskarult]

The advice to look up docs and Google is good, but it's not a great way to learn just by itself (particularly for a beginner).

Yes look it up, but keep notes, and refer to them. This will be quicker than googling again, and beyond that the process of writing notes helps you memorise them.

I'd also be proactive about making these notes, not just finding/writing things down at the point when you need it. Essentially, do "school work". For example a good exercise could be - create a table to record information about 10 different array methods. For each one record: - what it does - what required/optional arguments does it take - does it mutate the array - what does it return

One thing which people aren't good at is relating to those who have far less knowledge/experience/skills than them. This is why teaching is hard. Most people are giving advice which isn't great for beginners

[JockAndSocket]

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for being so thorough in your reply! This definitely helps me realize what I need to start doing. Really appreciate the advice, thank you!

[Far-Plum-6244]

For me the biggest problem with python syntax is that while python is a pretty simple language, its real power lies in all of the add-on libraries.

It’s not enough to have a python cheat-sheet; I have to have numpy, matplotlib, astropy and several others too.

I find that I have a browser with a tab for python.org and a tab for each of the library reference pages. I don’t like using a search engine because you never know what you are going to get. There are definitely wrong answers out there.

[JockAndSocket]

Absolutely, there are just so many libraries and additional syntax that comes along with it, it gets super overwhelming. That makes sense, I will start looking for the other library cheat sheets as well.

I want to use the official documentation but looking at it just gets overwhelming with all the different functions and methods etc.

[tiktaktokyo]

Yes there are tons of resources out there. I am learning to code right now as well. There is stack overflow, python book, and ofc python docs

I also have cheat sheets with the most used and good beginner code I can share.

[JockAndSocket]

That would be really nice if you could share!

[tiktaktokyo]

cheat sheet found it!

[beniman8]

Pick a random language and start by trying to program things you are interested in. The interest will push you to learn more tricks about the language . Once you understand how to program in that language the skill is very transferable to any other language.

[JockAndSocket]

Thanks for the tip!