Python for Everyone: Getting Started with Python for Non-Developers

Course Description:
This hands-on course teaches students from non-development backgrounds the basics of programming and scripting using Python. This course leads through programming essentials, working through the fundamentals of writing and running Python scripts to advanced features such as file operations, regular expressions, working with binary data, and extensive functionality of Python modules. This course provides an excellent kick-start for users new to Python and scripting, enabling them to use basic Python skills on the job in a variety of ways. Students can apply the course skills to use Python in basic web development projects or automate or simplify common tasks with the use of Python scripts. The course also serves as a solid primer course/foundation for continued Python study in support for next-level web development with Python, Python for data science/machine learning, or Python for systems admin or networking support.

Course Objectives:
Throughout the course students will learn to write essential Python scripts using the most current and efficient skills and techniques. This course is about 50% hands-on lab to 50% lecture ratio, combining engaging, informed instructor presentations, demonstrations and discussions with extensive machine-based student labs and practical project work. Working within in an engaging, hands-on learning environment, guided by our expert instructor, students will learn to:

• Create working Python scripts following best practices
•  Use python data types appropriately
• Read and write files with both text and binary data
• Search and replace text with regular expressions
•  Get familiar with the standard library and its work-saving modules
• Use lesser-known but powerful Python data types
• Create "real-world", professional Python applications
• Work with dates, times, and calendars
• Know when to use collections such as lists, dictionaries, and sets
• Understand Pythonic features such as comprehensions and iterators
• Write robust code using exception handling