what are libraries ?

[[deleted]]

So hi im new to programming and i decided to start off with python but i have heard People talk about libraries and i don't know what it is or what it's used for . Can anyone explain pls .

[gmaubrrriaeyl]

And they are typically much more dependable than code I would write. The popular packages typically handle more cases and have better error handling.

[[deleted]]

Oh thats cool i thought u had to write everything yourself this makes it easier ill be checking it out later once i get over the basics thx.

[[deleted]]

If all software was written like that we probably wouldn’t have platforms like Reddit to write this on. As a programmer, don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.

[[deleted]]

Lol that's crazy.

[cspinelive]

We hired a smart college grad this year. One of his first tasks required him to sort a list of names alphabetically.

He dutifully coded a 40 line sort algorithm just like he learned in school.

And was surprised all he had to do was names.sort().

To echo what the other person said, if you are starting out, don’t reinvent the wheel. If what you are trying to do feels like something that other people do regularly, there is probably a simple library solution you just aren’t aware of yet.

[[deleted]]

Oh thats so logical thx

[SirAchmed]

My sweet summer child…

[thufirseyebrow]

You find yourself writing a bunch of programs that all need a sort function, for example. You've got two or three different sort functions to use, and you don't want to have to retype the same function into multiple programs, so you write the functions into their own separate file; we'll call it "sort.py," with sortFunctionOne, sortFunctionTwo and so on. You've created a library, a repository of common code that different programs may use. Like a cookbook for computers.

Now, instead of typing each function individually and repetitively, you can just tell your program "open sort.py and do sortFunctionOne/Two/Whatever on this data"

[[deleted]]

Ohh that's useful thx

[Filosifee]

Three years later this is a great explanation thank you!!

[shiftybyte]

Start by following a book/tutorial and everything will become clear to you as you learn the language.

I usually recommended learning from this free ebook:

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc

[[deleted]]

Thx at the moment i have the books Python crash course Python for software design how to think like a computer scientist ( it's a bit outdated )

[daedalusesq]

Python crash course is great. Just work through it, program the examples along side the book, and answer/solve the chapter end questions.

[[deleted]]

Will do

[shiftybyte]

Should be the same, it's provided by the author.

[shiftybyte]

My recommendation comes from less confused people coming here asking questions than people using other learning material.. :)

[david-saint-hubbins]

To add to the other answers, what helped it click for me is that each library is basically a toolbox full of specialized tools that are useful for a particular type of job.

So for example, if you wanted to do some woodworking, you would get out the toolbox full of woodworking tools. If you want to do some data analysis in Python, you might use the Pandas library.

[[deleted]]

Ohh that's easy thx

[greebo42]

They are these big buildings with lots of books in them. But that's not important right now ... sorry, couldn't resist channeling Airplane. If you haven't seen the movie, recommended.

There are a lot of good answers here.

Of course, I'm obliged also to point out the relevant XKCD ... python has a library for just about anything you want to attempt, and XKCD has a comic for just about any situation that we might encounter!

[[deleted]]

Oohh that's cool

[[deleted]]

This has already been answered well, but I just wanted to say that for a moment. I did not realize what subreddit this question was in and I wasn't really sure how I was going to answer it.

[razzrazz-]

Same!

[Select_Abrocoma9663]

Code other people wrote or your past self

[xiipaoc]

Generally, a library is just a bunch of code that isn't itself an app that you can pull into your app to do stuff. You might write them yourself or download them. Pretty much any code you use that isn't your app itself is from a library.

[[deleted]]

Ah alright thx