Wolkite University

College of Computing and Informatics

Department of Information Systems
Artificial Intelligence Course Laboratory Manual
Python Programming
Lab 1

It is highly recommended that you work in a group of two students.

1. Submission
Include the following in your lab report.
 Your full names in the upper right corner of the first page in large print.
 A cohesive summary of what you learned through the exercises in this lab. Try to get at
the main idea of the exercises, and write your answers to the questions.

2. Objectives
 To describe the history of Python.
 To learn about computers and programming
 To write and run your first python program
 To explain the basic syntax of a Python program.
 To write and run a simple Python program.
 To explain the differences between syntax errors, runtime errors, and logic errors.
 To use the operators +, -, *, /, //, %, and **
 To obtain input from a program’s user by using the input function.

3. Introduction
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Python is a powerful modern computer programming language. Python was developed by Guido
van Rossum, and it is free software. Python allows you to use variables without declaring them
(i.e., it determines types implicitly), and it relies on indentation as a control structure. You are
not forced to define classes in Python (unlike Java) but you are free to do so when convenient.

Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has efficient high-level data
structures and a simple but effective approach to object-oriented programming. Python’s elegant
syntax and dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for
scripting and rapid application development in many areas on most platforms.

The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are freely available in source or binary
form for all major platforms from the Python Web site, https://www.python.org/ , and may be
freely distributed. The same site also contains distributions of and pointers to many free third
party Python modules, programs and tools, and additional documentation.

3.1. Python Features:

Python's feature highlights include:

 Easy-to-learn: Python has relatively few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly
defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language in a relatively short period
of time.
 Easy-to-read: Python code is much more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain: Python's success is that its source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library: One of Python's greatest strengths is the bulk of the library is
very portable and cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode: Support for an interactive mode in which you can enter results from a
terminal right to the language, allowing interactive testing and debugging of snippets of
code.
 Portable: Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the same
interface on all platforms.
 Extendable: You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These modules
enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.
 Databases: Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
 GUI Programming: Python supports GUI applications that can be created and ported to
many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC, Macintosh,
and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable: Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than shell
scripting.

3.2. Getting Started with Python

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Let’s get started by writing a simple Python program that displays the messages “Welcome to
Python and Python is fun “on the console. The word console is an old computer term that refers
to the text entry and display device of a computer. Console input means to receive input from
the keyboard and console output means to display output to the monitor.

3.3. Launching Python

First install Python 3.6 (32 or 64 bits) on your computer. Assume you have Python installed on
the Windows OS. You can start Python in a command window by typing python at the command
prompt, or by using IDLE.
IDLE (Interactive DeveLopment Environment) is an integrated development environment (IDE)
for Python. You can create, open, save, edit, and run Python programs in IDLE. Both the
command-line Python interpreter and IDLE are available after Python is installed on your
machine.

1. To launching Python using CMD (on windows command prompt)

Set the system’s PATH variable to include directories that include Python components and
packages we’ll add later. To do this:
 Open the Control Panel (easy way: click in the Windows search on your task bar and type
“Control Panel” then click the icon).
 In the Control Panel, search for Environment; click Edit the System Environment
Variables. Then click the Environment Variables button.

 In the User Variables section, we will need to either edit an existing PATH variable or
create one. If you are creating one, make PATH the variable name and add the following
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 directories to the variable values section as shown, separated by a semicolon. If you’re
editing an existing PATH, the values are presented on separate lines in the edit dialog.
Click New and add one directory per line.
C:\Users\Kelemwa\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36
C:\Users\Kelemwa\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Lib\site-packages
C:\Users\Kelemwa\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Scripts

Now, you can open a command prompt (Start Menu | Windows System | Command Prompt) and
type: python
That will load the Python interpreter:

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 2. To launching IDLE (Interactive DeveLopment Environment)
Click in the Windows search on your task bar and type “idle or Python” then click the icon

After Python starts, you will see the symbol >>>. This is the Python statement prompt, and it is
where you can enter a Python statement. Now, type print("Welcome to Python") and press the
Enter key. The string Welcome to Python appears on the console. String is a programming term
meaning a sequence of characters.

3.4. Creating Python Source Code Files

Entering Python statements at the statement prompt >>> is convenient, but the statements are
not saved. To save statements for later use, you can create a text file to store the statements and
use the following command to execute the statements in the file:
python filename.py
The text file can be created using a text editor such as Notepad. The text file, filename, is called a
Python source file or script file, or module. By convention, Python files are named with the
extension .py.

Running a Python program from a script file is known as running Python in script mode.
Typing a statement at the statement prompt >>> and executing it is called running Python in
interactive mode.

print statement

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  To use, or call, a function in Python, you need to specify
1. The name of the function you want to use (in this case, print).
2. Any values the function needs to carry out its task (in this case, "Welcome To Python!"). The
technical term for such a value is an argument. Arguments are enclosed in parentheses with
multiple arguments separated by commas. The number of arguments required depends on the
function. A sequence of characters enclosed in quotation marks " Welcome To Python!" is called
a string.

By default, the print function starts a new line after its arguments are printed.
For example,
print("Hello")
print("World!")
prints two lines of text:
Hello
World

If no arguments are given to the print function, it starts a new line. This is similar to pressing the
“Enter” key in a text editor.
For example,
print("Hello")
print()
print("World")
prints three lines of text including a blank line:
Hello

World

3.5. Comment

A comment that documents what the program is and how it is constructed. Comments help
programmers communicate and understand a program. They are not programming statements
and thus are ignored by the interpreter. In Python, comments are preceded by a pound sign (#)
on a line, called a line comment, or enclosed between three consecutive single quotation marks
(''') or (“””)on one or several lines, called a paragraph comment.

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Errors
What happens if you make a typing error such as
print("Hello, World!)
Note the missing quotation marks at the end of the greeting.

Exercise 1
1. What does the following statement print?
print("My lucky numbers are", 3 * 4 + 5, 5 * 6 – 1)
2. What does this program print?
print("39 + 3")
print(39 + 3)
3. What does this program print? Pay close attention to spaces.
print("Hello", "World", "!")
4. What is the compile-time error in this program?
print("Hello", "World!)

3.6. Python Identifiers

A Python identifier is a name used to identify a variable, function, class, module or other object.
An identifier starts with a letter A to Z or a to z or an underscore (_) followed by zero or more
letters, underscores and digits (0 to 9).

Python does not allow punctuation characters such as @, $, and % within identifiers. Python is a
case sensitive programming language. Thus, Manpower and manpower are two different
identifiers in Python.

Here are naming conventions for Python identifiers −

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  Class names start with an uppercase letter. All other identifiers start with a lowercase
letter.
 Starting an identifier with a single leading underscore indicates that the identifier is
private.
 Starting an identifier with two leading underscores indicates a strongly private identifier.
 If the identifier also ends with two trailing underscores, the identifier is a language-
defined special name.

3.7. Lines and Indentation

Python does not use braces({}) to indicate blocks of code for class and function definitions or
flow control. Blocks of code are denoted by line indentation, which is rigidly enforced. The
number of spaces in the indentation is variable (most common indent is 4 space), but all
statements within the block must be indented the same amount.

For example:-
if True:
print ("True")
else:
print ("False")

3.8. Python Numbers

Number data types store numeric values. They are immutable data types, means that changing
the value of a number data type results in a newly allocated object.

Number objects are created when you assign a value to them. For example −

var1 = 1
var2 = 10

3.9. Number Type Conversion

Python converts numbers internally in an expression containing mixed types to a common type
for evaluation. But sometimes, you need to coerce a number explicitly from one type to another
to satisfy the requirements of an operator or function parameter.

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  Type int(x) to convert x to a plain integer.
 Type long(x) to convert x to a long integer.
 Type float(x) to convert x to a floating-point number.
 Type complex(x) to convert x to a complex number with real part x and imaginary part
zero.
 Type complex(x, y) to convert x and y to a complex number with real part x and
imaginary part y. x and y are numeric expressions

3.10. Mathematical Functions

Python includes following functions that perform mathematical calculations.

Function Returns ( description )

abs(x) The absolute value of x: the (positive) distance between x and zero.
ceil(x) The ceiling of x: the smallest integer not less than x
cmp(x, y) -1 if x < y, 0 if x == y, or 1 if x > y
exp(x) The exponential of x: ex
fabs(x) The absolute value of x.
floor(x) The floor of x: the largest integer not greater than x
log(x) The natural logarithm of x, for x> 0
log10(x) The base-10 logarithm of x for x> 0 .
max(x1, x2,...) The largest of its arguments: the value closest to positive infinity
min(x1, x2,...) The smallest of its arguments: the value closest to negative infinity
The fractional and integer parts of x in a two-item tuple. Both parts
modf(x)
have the same sign as x. The integer part is returned as a float.
pow(x, y) The value of x**y.
x rounded to n digits from the decimal point. Python rounds away
round(x [,n])
from zero as a tie-breaker: round(0.5) is 1.0 and round(-0.5) is -1.0.
sqrt(x) The square root of x for x > 0

Random Number Functions

Random numbers are used for games, simulations, testing, security, and privacy applications.
Python includes following functions that are commonly used.

Function Description
choice(seq) A random item from a list, tuple, or string.
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randrange ([start,] stop
A randomly selected element from range(start, stop, step)
[,step])
random() A random float r, such that 0 is less than or equal to r and r is less than 1
Sets the integer starting value used in generating random numbers. Call this
seed([x])
function before calling any other random module function. Returns None.
shuffle(lst) Randomizes the items of a list in place. Returns None.
uniform(x, y) A random float r, such that x is less than or equal to r and r is less than y

Trigonometric Functions

Python includes following functions that perform trigonometric calculations.

Function Description
acos(x) Return the arc cosine of x, in radians.
asin(x) Return the arc sine of x, in radians.
atan(x) Return the arc tangent of x, in radians.
atan2(y, x) Return atan(y / x), in radians.
cos(x) Return the cosine of x radians.
hypot(x, y) Return the Euclidean norm, sqrt(x*x + y*y).
sin(x) Return the sine of x radians.
tan(x) Return the tangent of x radians.
degrees(x) Converts angle x from radians to degrees.
radians(x) Converts angle x from degrees to radians.

Mathematical Constants

The module also defines two mathematical constants −

Constants Description
pi The mathematical constant pi.
e The mathematical constant e.

3.11. Python Strings

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Strings are amongst the most popular types in Python. We can create them simply by enclosing
characters in quotes. Python treats single quotes the same as double quotes. Creating strings is as
simple as assigning a value to a variable. For example −

var1 = 'Hello World!'

var2 = "Python Programming"

Accessing Values in Strings

Python does not support a character type; these are treated as strings of length one, thus also
considered a substring. To access substrings, use the square brackets for slicing along with the
index or indices to obtain your substring.

Escape Characters

Following table is a list of escape or non-printable characters that can be represented with
backslash notation. An escape character gets interpreted; in a single quoted as well as double
quoted strings.

Backslash Hexadecimal
Description
notation character
\a 0x07 Bell or alert
\b 0x08 Backspace
\cx Control-x
\C-x Control-x
\e 0x1b Escape
\f 0x0c Formfeed
\M-\C-x Meta-Control-x
\n 0x0a Newline
\nnn Octal notation, where n is in the range 0.7
\r 0x0d Carriage return
\s 0x20 Space
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\t 0x09 Tab
\v 0x0b Vertical tab
\x Character x
Hexadecimal notation, where n is in the range 0.9, a.f, or
\xnn
A.F

String Special Operators

Assume string variable a holds 'Hello' and variable b holds 'Python', then −

Operator Description Example

Concatenation - Adds values on either side of the
+ a + b will give HelloPython
operator
Repetition - Creates new strings, concatenating
* a*2 will give -HelloHello
multiple copies of the same string
[] Slice - Gives the character from the given index a[1] will give e
Range Slice - Gives the characters from the given
[:] a[1:4] will give ell
range
Membership - Returns true if a character exists in
in H in a will give 1
the given string
Membership - Returns true if a character does not
not in M not in a will give 1
exist in the given string
r/R Raw String - Suppresses actual meaning of print r'\n' prints \n and print R'\n'prints \n

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 Escape characters. The syntax for raw strings is
exactly the same as for normal strings with the
exception of the raw string operator, the letter "r,"
which precedes the quotation marks. The "r" can
be lowercase (r) or uppercase (R) and must be
placed immediately preceding the first quote
mark.
% Format - Performs String formatting

String Formatting Operator

Format Symbol Conversion
%c character
%s string conversion via str() prior to formatting
%i signed decimal integer
%d signed decimal integer
%u unsigned decimal integer
%o octal integer
%x hexadecimal integer (lowercase letters)
%X hexadecimal integer (UPPERcase letters)
%e exponential notation (with lowercase 'e')
%E exponential notation (with UPPERcase 'E')
%f floating point real number
%g the shorter of %f and %e
%G the shorter of %f and %E

Other supported symbols and functionality are listed in the following table −

Symbol Functionality
* argument specifies width or precision
- left justification
+ display the sign
<sp> leave a blank space before a positive number
add the octal leading zero ( '0' ) or hexadecimal leading '0x' or '0X', depending on
#
whether 'x' or 'X' were used.
0 pad from left with zeros (instead of spaces)
% '%%' leaves you with a single literal '%'
(var) mapping variable (dictionary arguments)

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 m is the minimum total width and n is the number of digits to display after the decimal
m.n.
point (if appl.)

Single Statement Suites

If the suite of an if clause consists only of a single line, it may go on the same line as the header
statement.

Here is an example of a one-line if clause −

var = 100

if ( var == 100 ) : print ("Value of expression is 100")

print (Good bye!)

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Value of expression is 100

Good bye!

Built-in String Methods

Python includes the following built-in methods to manipulate strings −

SN Methods with Description

capitalize()
1
Capitalizes first letter of string
center(width, fillchar)
2
Returns a space-padded string with the original string centered to a total of width columns.
count(str, beg= 0,end=len(string))
3 Counts how many times str occurs in string or in a substring of string if starting index beg
and ending index end are given.
decode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')
4 Decodes the string using the codec registered for encoding. encoding defaults to the default
string encoding.
5 encode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')

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 Returns encoded string version of string; on error, default is to raise a ValueError unless
errors is given with 'ignore' or 'replace'.
endswith(suffix, beg=0, end=len(string))
6 Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and ending index end are
given) ends with suffix; returns true if so and false otherwise.
expandtabs(tabsize=8)
7 Expands tabs in string to multiple spaces; defaults to 8 spaces per tab if tabsize not
provided.
find(str, beg=0 end=len(string))
8 Determine if str occurs in string or in a substring of string if starting index beg and ending
index end are given returns index if found and -1 otherwise.
index(str, beg=0, end=len(string))
9
Same as find(), but raises an exception if str not found.
isalnum()
10 Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are alphanumeric and false
otherwise.
isalpha()
11 Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are alphabetic and false
otherwise.
isdigit()
12
Returns true if string contains only digits and false otherwise.
islower()
13 Returns true if string has at least 1 cased character and all cased characters are in lowercase
and false otherwise.
isnumeric()
14
Returns true if a unicode string contains only numeric characters and false otherwise.
isspace()
15
Returns true if string contains only whitespace characters and false otherwise.
istitle()
16
Returns true if string is properly "titlecased" and false otherwise.
isupper()
17 Returns true if string has at least one cased character and all cased characters are in
uppercase and false otherwise.
join(seq)
18 Merges (concatenates) the string representations of elements in sequence seq into a string,
with separator string.
len(string)
19
Returns the length of the string
ljust(width[, fillchar])
20 Returns a space-padded string with the original string left-justified to a total of width
columns.
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 lower()
21
Converts all uppercase letters in string to lowercase.
lstrip()
22
Removes all leading whitespace in string.
maketrans()
23
Returns a translation table to be used in translate function.
max(str)
24
Returns the max alphabetical character from the string str.
min(str)
25
Returns the min alphabetical character from the string str.
replace(old, new [, max])
26
Replaces all occurrences of old in string with new or at most max occurrences if max given.
rfind(str, beg=0,end=len(string))
27
Same as find(), but search backwards in string.
rindex( str, beg=0, end=len(string))
28
Same as index(), but search backwards in string.
rjust(width,[, fillchar])
29 Returns a space-padded string with the original string right-justified to a total of width
columns.
rstrip()
30
Removes all trailing whitespace of string.
split(str="", num=string.count(str))
31 Splits string according to delimiter str (space if not provided) and returns list of substrings;
split into at most num substrings if given.
splitlines( num=string.count('\n'))
32 Splits string at all (or num) NEWLINEs and returns a list of each line with NEWLINEs
removed.
startswith(str, beg=0,end=len(string))
33 Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and ending index end are
given) starts with substring str; returns true if so and false otherwise.
strip([chars])
34
Performs both lstrip() and rstrip() on string
swapcase()
35
Inverts case for all letters in string.
title()
36 Returns "titlecased" version of string, that is, all words begin with uppercase and the rest
are lowercase.
translate(table, deletechars="")
37 Translates string according to translation table str(256 chars), removing those in the del
string.

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 upper()
38
Converts lowercase letters in string to uppercase.
zfill (width)
39 Returns original string leftpadded with zeros to a total of width characters; intended for
numbers, zfill() retains any sign given (less one zero).
isdecimal()
40
Returns true if a unicode string contains only decimal characters and false otherwise.

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