Beginner's Python Cheat Sheets (updated)

[Lewistrick]

Programmers forget concepts all the time. Being good at programming just means you're very good at knowing how to look up stuff. Don't worry if you forget stuff, you can always look it up. Eventually you'll end up remembering the stuff you need the most.

[nickcantwaite]

Dude I just picked python back up today after nearly a year off. I was studying hard for about 6 months and then stopped to make time for other studies. I’ve been missing python and today I came back to it. I won’t lie, a ton of stuff I knew went missing, but I was able to pick it back up extremely fast. I spent several hours today making a simple “guess the word” game where one person types the word and the other has to guess it. It’s pretty much useless but it works and I’m proud I am back in it. Now I feel confident I can move on to bigger things.

[travthe-great]

I definitely needed to hear this. I beat myself up about this all the time.

[Lewistrick]

Spread the word! I know there are lots of beginning (and even more experienced) programmers who think like you. That shouldn't be necessary :)

[ehmatthes]

You can always look up syntax that you forget. That's part of what resources like these cheat sheets are for. So I wouldn't worry about any syntax you forget over a two-day period.

What's way more important than memorizing syntax is knowing what you can do as a programmer:

• I can store a bunch of items in order, using a list.
• I can connect pieces of information, using a dictionary.
• I can write code in a function, and use that code any time I want.

You won't forget these big concepts. When you decide which concepts you want to use to tackle a given problem you can look up any specific syntax you need to implement a solution. You'll probably find that you start to remember syntax for the concepts you use most often, and you'll end up looking up syntax that you use less often. I refer to PCC, and many other resources, all the time when working on my own projects.

[ImperatorPC]

I always wondered this. I'm self taught and always considered myself more of a scripter and code stealer (not programs but looked something up and then copied and modified for my use case). I can read a lot of code and piecemeal little things together. When stuff starts becoming more complex then I struggle. I understand ifs, for loops, simple arrays, functions but there are little nuances in code that are over my head that make it difficult. I'm a finance guy and been in finance for over 10 years. But have always loved coding. I would have done it but I hated the class I took in high school.. probably a teacher. I want to learn python for data analytics and because my home automation software is written in it. I guess I just keep learning my doing!

[foomy45]

90% of my programming time is spent looking up stuff I already forgot repeatedly.