LAB 1 CLO: 1

Introduction to AI and Its Application Using Python

Python is widely used for artificial intelligence, with packages for a number of applications
including General AI, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Neural Networks. Haskell is
also a very good programming language for AI. Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive,
object-oriented, and high-level programming language. It was created by Guido van Rossum during
1985- 1990. Like Perl, Python source code is also available under the GNU General Public License
(GPL).

Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not need
to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.

Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the
interpreter directly to write your programs.

Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of

programming that encapsulates code within objects.

Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the beginner-level

programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications from simple text
processing to WWW browsers to games.

Programming syntax
Execute Python Syntax

o As we learned in the previous page, Python syntax can be executed by writing

directly in the Command Line:
o >>> print("Hello, World!")
Hello, World!
o Or by creating a python file on the server, using the .py file extension, and running
it in the Command Line:
o C:\Users\Your Name>python myfile.py

A Python program is read by a parser. Python was designed to be a highly readable

language. The syntax of the Python programming language is the set of rules which defines how a
Python program will be written.
Comments in Python:

A comment begins with a hash character(#) which is not a part of the string literal and ends
at the end of the physical line. All characters after the # character up to the end of the line are part
of the comment and the Python interpreter ignores them. See the following example. It should be
noted that Python has no multi-lines or block comments facility.

Input / output
txt = input("Type something to test this out: ")
print(txt)
Multiple Statements on a Single Line:

You can write two separate statements into a single line using a semicolon (;)
character between two line.

Indentation:

Python uses whitespace (spaces and tabs) to define program blocks whereas other languages
like C, C++ use braces ({}) to indicate blocks of codes for class, functions or flow control. The
number of whitespaces (spaces and tabs) in the indentation is not fixed, but all statements within the
block must be the indented same amount. In the following program, the block statements have no
indentation.
This is a program with single space indentation.
This is a program with single tab indentation.

Here is an another program with an indentation of a single space + a single tab.

Python Coding Style:

 Use 4 spaces per indentation and no tabs.

  Do not mix tabs and spaces. Tabs create confusion and it is recommended to use
only spaces.

 Maximum line length : 79 characters which help users with a small display.

Python Reserve words:

The following identifiers are used as reserved words of the language, and cannot be used as
ordinary identifiers.

False class finally is return

None continue for lambda try

True def from nonlocal while

and del global not with

as el if or yield

assert else import pass

break except in raise

 Use blank lines to separate top-level function and class definitions and single blank line to
separate methods definitions inside a class and larger blocks of code inside functions.

 When possible, put inline comments (should be complete sentences).

 Use spaces around expressions and statements.

Data types and Type casting
Type represents the kind of value and determines how the value can be used. All data
values in Python are encapsulated in relevant object classes. Everything in Python is an
object and every object has an identity, a type, and a value. Like another object-oriented
language such as Java or C++, there are several data types which are built into Python.
Extension modules which are written in C, Java, or other languages can define additional
types.
To determine a variable's type in Python you can use the type() function. The value of
some objects can be changed. Objects whose value can be changed are called mutable and
objects whose value is unchangeable (once they are created) are called immutable. Here are
the details of Python data types

Numbers

Numbers are created by numeric literals. Numeric objects are immutable, which means when
an object is created its value cannot be changed.
Python has three distinct numeric types: integers, floating point numbers, and complex
numbers. Integers represent negative and positive integers without fractional parts whereas
floating point numbers represents negative and positive numbers with fractional parts. In
addition, Booleans are a subtype of plain integers. See the following statements in Python
shell.
Mathematically, a complex number (generally used in engineering) is a number of the form
A+Bi where i is the imaginary number. Complex numbers have a real and imaginary part.
Python supports complex numbers either by specifying the number in (real + imagJ) or
(real + imagj) form or using a built-in method complex(x, y). See the following statements
in Python Shell.
Boolean (bool)
The simplest build-in type in Python is the bool type, it represents the truth values False
and True. See the following statements in Python shell.

Strings
In Python, a string type object is a sequence (left-to- right order) of characters. Strings start
and end with single or double quotes Python strings are immutable. Single and double
 quoted strings are same and you can use a single quote within a string when it is surrounded
by double quote and vice versa. Declaring a string is simple, see the following statements.

Special characters in strings

The backslash (\) character is used to introduce a special character. See the following table.

Escape sequence Meaning

\n Newline

\t Horizontal Tab

\\ Backslash

`
 \' Single Quote

\" Double Quote

See the following statements on special characters.

String indices and accessing string elements

 Strings are arrays of characters and elements of an array can be accessed using indexing.
Indices start with 0 from left side and -1 when starting from right side.
 string1 ="PYTHON TUTORIAL"

Character P Y T H O N T U T O R I A L

Index (from left) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Index (from right) -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

 See the following statements to access single character from various positions.

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String Slicing
 To cut a substring from a string is called string slicing. Here two indices are used separated
by a colon (:). A slice 3:7 means indices characters of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th positions. The
second integer index i.e. 7 is not included. You can use negative indices for slicing. See the
following statements.

Lists

A list is a container which holds comma-separated values (items or elements) between

square brackets where Items or elements need not all have the same type.

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Creating Lists

 A list without any element is called an empty list. See the following statements.

List indices
List indices work the same way as string indices, list indices start at 0. If an index has a
positive value it counts from the beginning and similarly it counts backward if the index
has a negative value. As positive integers are used to index from the left end and negative
integers are used to index from the right end, so every item of a list gives two alternatives
indices. Let create a list called color_list with four items.
color_list=["RED", "Blue", "Green", "Black"]

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 Item RED Blue Green Black

Index (from left) 0 1 2 3

Index (from right) -4 -3 -2 -1

If you give any index value which is out of range then interpreter creates an error message. See the
following statements.

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List Slice

Lists can be sliced like strings and other sequences. The syntax of list slices is easy;
sliced_list = List_Name[startIndex:endIndex]

Conditional Statements

Python supports the usual logical conditions from mathematics:

 Equals: a == b
 Not Equals: a != b
 Less than: a < b
 Less than or equal to: a <= b
 Greater than: a > b
 Greater than or equal to: a >= b

e.g if b > a:

print("b is greater than a")

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