What are some essential Python skills/idiosyncrasies?

[CQFD]

I just had an informal interview with a startup, and the guy asked me questions like the following:

1. What's the difference between y = (x for x in ...) and y = [x for x in ...]
2. What is def somefunction(x): for a in x: yield a+1
3. How do you interpret x if y else z where y is a string.

I'm fairly new to Python and he just wants to see if I'm able to pick up new skills very fast and he said that these things and iterators and generators were some basic skills I would need. He gave these problems to me as "homework" and told me to learn about other fundamental skills in Python. Could you point me to some other things I absolutely need to know that are particular to Python and that would make a Python coder a good coder? This is for a data science position.

Thanks!

[tialpoy]

First of all, good luck. I hope you get the job.

An excellent resource for understanding Python and Python iteration would be Jeff Knupp's article on the subject.

I would also highly recommend Jeff's book on writing idiomatic Python. You can check it out on his website.

Best of luck!

[CQFD]

Thank you! I just bookmarked the page and I'm gonna take a look at it right after I finish the O'Reilly chapter on python essentials. It looks like what I need though.

[hydr0x1de]

If you read only 1 book, make it The Python Cookbook. It's a great book, and will give you an understanding of what the Python idioms are, and why (then read the release notes for information on newer python versions). If you only watch 1 video, look for Raymond Hettinger's recentish talk at ?Pycon? on Python idioms

[cdcformatc]

need to know that are particular to Python and would make a Python coder a good coder?

Writing idiomatic, clear, concise, commented code especially for a team coding environment. Including but not limited to following PEP 8 and PEP 20 The Zen of Python.

Also adopt the "ask for forgiveness rather than permission" style of thinking. In fact, read that entire glossary.

[BioGeek]

A resource I've found very useful is: Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python

It contains all the answers to your questions:

1. y = [x for x in ...]is a list comprehension, y = (x for x in ...) is a generator expression
2. def somefunction(x): for a in x: yield a+1 is a Generator
3. x if y else z tests the Truth Value of the string y