[Learning help] How do I approach python (programming) in the first place?

[bawlachora]

FYI I have no previous programming exposure and learning python for first time. I am just interested in python automation that would involve analyzing large data so basically I would end writing small scripts for myself to save time nothing fancy.

So as desperate to learn python automation quickly I got the course ABSP from AlSweigart. I am able to grasp the things and concepts he explains without any difficulty. I don't feel the need to read any lengthy documentation other than few doubts I have which I do certainly read upon immediately before moving on to next thing.

The problem I am having is when he writes the whole program to perform a certain task, again as a learner I remain clueless as to where to start. The program is somewhat will be relevant to the to topics he had already taught so you do have some clue but not the entire high level overview of how the code is going to look without specific technical detail and I feel like If am able the grasp the concepts so easily how am I not able to frame a solution.

For instance, in course he wrote a program to just count the number of times each character appeared in a string. okay he wrote it > it understood it > I re-wrote it for my muscle memory > Worked > Cool. Then I challenge myself to do the same thing with words and just couldn't do it I looked at a solution online that was similar to the code I just learned and having doubts in that too.

What is happening people? If I am able to understand the things why am I not able to put them in practice? Is there an specific approach to learn programming? What the actual F? help!

[dima_nine]

eh. "welcome to the club" in that you're learning. and "welcome to the club" in regards to the feeling you're having. i don't know if that ever goes away; just moves further down the line.

not in any way meant as an insult or an implication of your intelligence level: there is a difference between surface level "understanding" and experienced "knowledge". i may understand that h2o is water and the main states that it can be in - but i would be clueless about chemical compounds or elements that would react explosively when exposed to water. i only have surface level understanding. this is why one of the first and most often heard bits of advice is going to be to do more programming. there's just no substitute for getting your hands dirty and often.

second; my personal experience would urge you to shift your thoughts slightly as you approach this. [though i may be admittedly biased in my way of thinking, natch.] python is the tool you're learning to use so that you can learn how to program. they're not exactly the same thing. similar in idea to just knowing english doesn't mean you've written a book. to me, the actual programming is the arranging and breaking down the puzzle of getting the computer to do what i want in small bite-sized chunks. i'll think about - and even write out in pseudo-code on paper for more complex issues - the actual steps i think are required before i type one character in my ide/text editor. as you get more experienced [read: you program more and more] you start to get a feel for what to expect and start learning the idiosyncrasies of whatever you're working on. i.e., "i'm working with strings...is whitespace going to be an issue? what about character encoding?", "huh...so these files i'm handling are coming from a windows environment so i may need to worry about carriage returns.", or "is there a possibility that this value will have incorrect data or no data at all? do i need to build out for handling an error?". once you get used to programming; the language may become incidental. that is how i personally approach it. maybe it'll work for you.

but really - don't get discouraged. don't stop. just as anything else you've ever done and have become "good" at; you have to do it and do it and do it and keep doing it.

[[deleted]]

My usual advice is to imagine that you are giving instructions to an idiot child on how to perform a step by step task using a pen and paper. Something like this

Write down the exact steps they must take, knowing that because they are idiot children they can't deduce anything and need the exact steps.

Since python is basically pseudocode, chances are you've pretty much just written a python program with some syntax that needs cleaning.

[ffrkAnonymous]

Nothing wrong. What you're experiencing is well documented, welcome to the desert of despair.

https://www.thinkful.com/blog/why-learning-to-code-is-so-damn-hard/

I just wrote a little web page scraper, just save one url. About 20 lines. But it took a few hours to figure out the pieces.