For those who have embarked on learning Python

DatabaseHead

What strategies did you use?

Currently I am stepping through a 4.5 hour training video off of Lynda and then taking another off of Pluralsight. Once completed I'll reevaluate and see where I am at.

Coursera seems to have some really cool specific courses. I really want to get into extracting data using API's. Big gap there now.

the_Grinch

https://www.codeschool.com/learn/python <---this in my opinion was the best training that got me started with Python.

https://www.udemy.com/python-the-complete-python-developer-course/learn/v4/overview <---for something in-depth this is the way to go

Once you get the basics I've found that Googling to find answers is pretty easy. A recent project I did was to parse bittorrent data and it was a real bear. Took a couple long days, but eventually using a combo of output from commands and some reading on the protocol I was able to get what the Investigators needed. At the time the software they used didn't have the ability and of course the day before I finished it got added, though they like using my program better and I can update it quickly when they need it.

Node Man

I've used many resources over the years. The best first step : Youtube : Jessica McKellar.

DatabaseHead

Do you feel those courses gives you a strong grasp of API's and how to access and extract web data?

Node Man

Some courses might touch on API's or provide examples, and I admit that I dont have alot of experience with them, but Ive found that every service or vendor that provides an API requires its own figuring out.

the_Grinch

Yeah I've not seen any training geared towards API. In my opinion, there are so many it would be hard for a course to cover them. API Documentation for a lot of API's is pretty decent though so if you have a solid foundation you should be fine.

DatabaseHead

Thanks again gang I appreciate it.

stryder144

Check out edX.org. Microsoft has a Professional Certificate revolving around databases that includes both Python and R courses. Might be worth a look.

SteveLavoie

Node Man wrote: »

I've used many resources over the years. The best first step : Youtube : Jessica McKellar.

Sorry if it sound sexist (well it is), but I can't tell for now how much she know about Python, but at least she gave me the intention to watch her video

Node Man

She literally wrote the book on Twisted and is on the Python Foundation board of directors.

Slowhand

SteveLavoie wrote: »

Sorry if it sound sexist (well it is), but I can't tell for now how much she know about Python, but at least she gave me the intention to watch her video

I Googled her name and found out in about 5 seconds that she's one of the foremost experts on Python in the world. Just sayin'.

jrisbrook

To be honest a lot of the more formal courses don't really get you far. To start off I would suggest Bucky Roberts of thenewboston[.]com . He is also on youtube. He has plenty info that is very simple and fun and in nugget form. Secondly I suggest you become a member of stackoverflow[.]com . That is the go to site for programmers of all levels. There you can ask questions, post code and read the code of others. That is the best way to learn through immersion in the world of coding lol. Charles Severance also has a good series that follows alon with his book that actually walks you through scripts you can use to create useful code. Hope this helps.

DatabaseHead

Thanks for all the great insights....

yoba222

How do you guys feel about learning/figuring out how to do stuff based on the built-in help documentation? I grasp man pages pretty well and that had a bit of a learning curve to it, but I still have the hardest time getting my hands around using help documentation in Python. I feel like relying on duckduckgo is sort of like cheating. Perhaps there is a technique I have figured out yet.

Node Man

i dont know much about built in. my problems are seldom in the standard library.

jrisbrook

You will def use the python docs but that is more so to figure out how to do small things or why you are getting certain errors. For example you may be using a number like 9 but want it to be treated as a string but forgot to type str("9") and got some sort of error. You won't learn how to code from the docs its more like a dictionary or thesaurus if you can understand that analogy.

DoubleNNs

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is probably a great first step to actually becoming useful with Python. Even if it doesn't help you with the actual tasks you want it to a first, it will free up time from other tasks so you have the time to dive deeper.

Free HTML book:
https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

Cheap online video version of the book:
https://www.udemy.com/automate/

And you can buy the physical and PDF versions of the book if you want to.

DatabaseHead

I'm actually looking at some libraries specific to managing lots of data, 20 mil rows or more... I'm starting there and moving on, I agree automation piece is really nice, but I am in BI not IT, so.... We are locked down except for our warehouse and marts... Along with Informatica and some other ETL tools.

The hope is to gain enough experience/skill using Python to get into a shop to use it daily, that IMO is the best way to learn, but you have to get there first....

Just curious what IDE are you using?

Node Man

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Just curious what IDE are you using?

I tried a bunch. Mostly I stick to Vi