Day 2 - Basic Python Constructs
Much of the python code that I wrote today were a couple of the chapter examples in the Udemy Ultimate Python Programming Course. However, having discovered Pylint, I went back and coded up the examples in the chapters that I covered (6 and 7) and made them pass pylint tests.
The most valuable exercise was the ‘python calculator’:
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" chap7ex2.py - udemy chapter 7, exercise 2 """
OP1 = 0.0
OP2 = 0.0
OP = ''
while OP1 != 'q':
print 'Enter first number (q to quit): '
OP1 = raw_input()
if OP1 == 'q':
break
OP1 = float(OP1)
print 'Enter second number: '
OP2 = float(raw_input())
print 'Enter an operation (+,-,*,/): '
OP = raw_input()
if OP == '+':
print OP1 + OP2
elif OP == '-':
print OP1 - OP2
elif OP == '*':
print OP1 * OP2
elif OP == '/':
print OP1 / OP2
else:
print 'Did not recognize operator.'The example basically shows two of the basic programming constructs in Python, the while loop and the if-elif-else construct(s). However, when I ran this again Pylint to test the syntax there were a couple things that needed to be changed:
- A docstring needs to be added at the beginning, explaining what the code is/does.
- All constants in the code should be capitalized.
- The exercise used parentheses around the print statements- those are discouraged in PEP-8 python
- Indentation should be 4 spaces instead of 2
- The break command should not use a semicolon at the end
I think that this exercise was more valuable in the sense of learning pylint, rather than the basic constructs of the language- those I already know. Pylint is explicit on how your syntax should look. This one pass the pylint test with a 10/10. Perfect.
