Programming Review and Python Intro Part 1: Glossary

Key Points

Python Fundamentals
  • Basic data types in Python include integers, strings, and floating-point numbers.

  • Use variable = value to assign a value to a variable in order to record it in memory.

  • Variables are created on demand whenever a value is assigned to them.

  • Use print(something) to display the value of something.

Analyzing Patient Data
  • Import a library into a program using import libraryname.

  • Use the numpy library to work with arrays in Python.

  • The expression array.shape gives the shape of an array.

  • Use array[x, y] to select a single element from a 2D array.

  • Array indices start at 0, not 1.

  • Use low:high to specify a slice that includes the indices from low to high-1.

  • Use # some kind of explanation to add comments to programs.

  • Use numpy.mean(array), numpy.max(array), and numpy.min(array) to calculate simple statistics.

  • Use numpy.mean(array, axis=0) or numpy.mean(array, axis=1) to calculate statistics across the specified axis.

Visualizing Tabular Data
  • Use the pyplot module from the matplotlib library for creating simple visualizations.

Glossary

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