Getting Started with Python: A Beginner’s Tutorial

Python is a powerful, easy-to-learn programming language that is widely used for various applications, from web development to data science. This tutorial will guide you through the basics of Python, providing examples to help you get started.

Installing Python

To start coding in Python, you need to have Python installed on your machine. You can download Python from the official Python website.

Steps:

1. Go to the Python downloads page.
2. Download the latest version of Python for your operating system.
3. Run the installer and follow the instructions. Ensure you check the box to add Python to your PATH.

Running Python Code

You can run Python code in several ways:

1. Interactive Mode: Open a terminal or command prompt and type python (or python3 on some systems). You can now type Python code directly, and it will execute immediately.
2. Script Mode: Write your code in a text file with a .py extension, then run the file by typing python filename.py in your terminal.

Basic Syntax

Let’s start with a simple “Hello, World!” program.

print("Hello, World!")

Save the above code in a file named hello.py and run it using python hello.py. You should see the output:

Hello, World!

Conclusion

This tutorial covered the basics of Python, including installation, basic syntax, variables, control flow, functions, lists, dictionaries, and file I/O. With this foundation, you can start exploring more advanced topics and building your projects.