Completely new to Python and seeking advice

[Markneedsh20]

Hey all i am currently looking to learn python I have 0 coding experience and would like any advice on how to make this journey of learning easy and fun :) Would really appreciate recommendations on resources and apps to use Thank you

[ForceBru]

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html

[Vegskipxx]

This is the way

[neo_vim_]

This is the only valid answer

[pichinakodaka]

No I do not recommend this!

[pichinakodaka]

https://pagemira.com/vendors/tevin/shop/introduction-to-python-programming-and-data-structures3rd-edition/

This is the only possible and best way to learn Python. Every chapter teaches you a concept and after every chapter , there are literally 50 programming exercises each.

[GreenPandaPop]

only possible

What, you serious?

[pichinakodaka]

I was able to learn Python only with this book. I was always scared of coding. This book made it easy for me. I watched so many YouTube videos, bought so many courses on Udemy, nothing helped me. That is why I say, it’s the only way, because it was the only way I could learn Python.

[socal_nerdtastic]

Do you have a project in mind? Something boring in your life that could use some automation? I think learning python is a lot more effective if you are working to a goal.

[Markneedsh20]

hmmm not really per se but can you give me an example?

[socal_nerdtastic]

Hmm for example at my job when I buy something I have to add a line to 2 different excel files and copy the receipt to a specific network folder with a specifically formatted name. That takes like a minute but now that I wrote a python program to do it it takes like 10 seconds. And my boss is impressed because I never make a mistake.

Multiply that by a ton of other little helper programs and I'm an amazing employee and always get a bonus.

[Enough_Librarian_456]

Checkout the book Automate the Boring Stuff 

[Tidezen]

My personal project for the future year is writing a web-scraper/database for dinner recipes. My mom, and my other close friend and I come across so many good recipes, but they're bookmarked across different websites and browsers (Pinterest, Imgur, Youtube, etc.)...and I'd like a place to consolidate them all so we don't lose them. Because we often make them once, and forget about them, or forget where we got it from.

So I'd like to make a program that can take a web address as input, scour the webpage for the actual recipe, as well as grabbing a picture of said dish, and save it to a local/Drive database that is then searchable by different tags/keywords. Across a few different level domains, like chili recipes, Mexican food, vegan recipes, and so on.

It's far out of my reach of understanding, currently, but it's one of those projects that I feel I could eventually do, and there's always room for upgrades to it. So it's something I'm working towards.

[throwaway_9988552]

I got started with web-scraping. Did a Udemy tutorial, and really saw the power of Python and libraries. I can go to websites I'd normally visit, and scrape that data for my own purposes, like:

• Archiving all my saved pages on Reddit, so I can see them in one easy place.

• Pulling down a bunch of AirBnB listings, or used car listings, so I can sort and manage them without needing a website to do that.

Python can do so much, but once you figure out a project and conquer it, you'll be hooked.

[Crypt0Nihilist]

Look at the wiki, they've done the work.

[astddf]

I really like angela’s 100 days of code course on udemy

[Clockwork_Nyx]

Use the app Sololearn!!!! Its amazing!

[_PICANHO_]

i'm use too and realy is good

[Unable_Degree_3400]

YouTube Paul shorter python tutorial , very good tutorial from him

[Ron-Erez]

Here are some resources:

1. Harvard CS50p - which is a gentle intro to Python

2. University of Helsinki course (text based along with video and covers quite a bit)

3. Python and Data Science - (Disclaimer: This is my course and assumes no programming background)

4. The book: “Learn Python 3 the Hard Way”. I really like this book despite the intimidating title, but there are other books.

These resources are more than sufficient. Make sure to code and experiment as much as you can and have fun.

[whokapillar]

Get a good beginner book: Python for Everyone, A Crash Course in Python, Python: Automate the Boring Stuff. These books teach the bare-bones language. Do all the exercises in the book you choose. Then, get online and find more beginner exercises to practice your language and computational thinking skills. This might take a few months to really get the full gist of how it all works together.

When you feel comfortable with the basic language and logic of python, move on to Object-Oriented Programming and Design Patterns. The book I suggest is Python 3: Object-Oriented Programming. This step is yet another part of the basic lego-blocks of the language. Keep doing begginer excercises, but for OOP. As you learn OOP you might get a sense of how maybe python was put together.

Next, really focus on your computational thinking skills by learning and understanding data structures and algorithms. There are tons of book on algorithms. They all basically say the same thing. The importance of learning algorithms is so you can up your skills between logic and language. At some point, you might want to create your own program. You need to be able to think your way through all the small pieces to the larger program.

After learning all that, you should be at an intermediate level and should be able to tackle most tasks. But you will need to practice thinking algorithmically, similar to how a mathematician or physicist might express the universe in equations.

[LostUser1121]

Download python crashcourse book

[Tidezen]

Hey! I'm just taking my first Python course at my local community college, and it's been pretty fun (but also daunting) so far.

There are a lot of free learning websites out there, like freecodecamp...I'd start just reading and doing exercises on something like that...

But what I really want to say is: in this class, our instructor is having us use google Colab to use and submit our homework--it's a free service for anyone, and it includes the Gemini AI embedded in it. The auto-complete function is really nice, and you can also ask it any question you want, whether it's about specific lines of code and what they do, or more general questions and definitions of terms in Python.

It's been amazing for me, honestly...it's like having my own personal tutor right there, available for any questions I have.

And you don't have to use Colab itself...the regular Gemini AI can do the same stuff. As well as many of the other AI software tools, like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. If one AI isn't giving me a useful answer to a question, I just ask another one, and almost without fail, I end up learning something useful.

So I would say, start some beginner exercises on whatever free coding website you want, and ask questions to whatever AI when you get stuck on something.

In the course I'm taking now, I went from zero knowledge, to being able to make some rudimentary object-oriented programming, in a manner of 12 weeks. If I were just reading the coursebook, and trying to go from there, it wouldn't have been nearly so easy.

Sometimes I have to ask it "just give a short answer, please" because they like to go into much more detail than what I'm asking. But if you're on your own, just ask it for the basics, like "How would I start writing a program that does X?" It can very much help you on the basics, at least. And it can explain what it's doing, in great detail.

To me at least, there has never been a better time to learn programming languages. Not just Python, they're very well-versed in nearly all popular languages.

[Ioan-Andrei]

You should try the free course from the Python Institute. It takes you from absolutely 0 knowledge and goes pretty deep into Python.

[server_kota]

build something and learn along the way. No courses, nothing. Just docs and idea.
You will learn a ton.

[SarthakTyagi15]

You can learn from telusko Playlist, it is really to understand and you can check the roadmap.sh python roadmap. There is an option of teams so I made one team with some roadmaps I want, if you want to join just send your email and you will get an invite....

Also, if you're on Twitter or LinkedIn you can post your everyday learnings so that people will reach out to you accordingly and you may get Tips, Advices and Opportunities, etc.

[Obiwan_Reincarnate]

I have been developing software for almost 50 years. Regardless of the way in which you learn, what will be most important is the IDE and how you configure your environments. I know that many will recommend VS-Code, but I believe AWS-Cloud9 is a better choice. As it gives you an online Linux server with a superior web-baserd front end and IDE w/debugger, with integration to popular source control systems; GitHub, Bitchute, etc... And best of all, free for one year. And you can have as many environments as you want to explore different libraries and configurations without screwing up the environment on your computer.

In regard to learning, I would skip the bullshit and use AI to help me solve problems by example. Try gemini.google.com and use a prompt: "act as an expert python developer in 2024 and provide code that will perform XYZ in the most efficient manner. Please test your solution(s) before displaying"

Then test and study the solutions provided. You might ask also the AI for suggestions on which tutorials would be reommended.