The goal of this book is to bring you up to speed with Python as quickly
as possible so you can build programs that work—games, data
visualizations, and web applications—while developing a foundation in
programming that will serve you well for the rest of your life. Python
Crash Course is written for people of any age who have never before
programmed in Python or have never programmed at all. This book is for
those who want to learn the basics of programming quickly so they can
focus on interesting projects, and those who like to test their
understanding of new concepts by solving meaningful problems. Python
Crash Course is also perfect for middle school and high school teachers
who want to offer their students a project-based introduction to
programming. If you’re taking a college class and want a friendlier
introduction to Python than the text you’ve been assigned, this book
could make your class easier as well.
The purpose of this book is to make you a good programmer in general
and a good Python programmer in particular. You’ll learn efficiently and
adopt good habits as I provide you with a solid foundation in general
programming concepts. After working your way through Python Crash
Course, you should be ready to move on to more advanced Python
techniques, and your next programming language will be even easier to
grasp.
In the first part of this book, you’ll learn basic programming concepts
you need to know to write Python programs. These concepts are the
same as those you’d learn when starting out in almost any programming
language. You’ll learn about different kinds of data and the ways you can
store data in lists and dictionaries within your programs. You’ll learn to
build collections of data and work through those collections in efficient
ways. You’ll learn to use while loops and if statements to test for certain
conditions so you can run specific sections of code while those conditions
are true and run other sections when they’re not—a technique that
greatly helps you automate processes.