Algorithms For Dummies

 Getting Started

mathematical notation. The reason that this book uses a programming language 

is to turn those oddly shaped abstract symbols into something that most people 

can understand and use to solve real-world problems.

Before you can use Python to perform tasks with algorithms, you need at least a 

passing knowledge of how Python works. This chapter isn’t designed to make you 

a Python expert. However, it does provide you with enough information to make 

sense of the example code with the commentary provided. The various sections 

help you understand how Python performs tasks in a concrete manner. For exam-

ple, you need to know how Python works with various kinds of data in order to 

determine what the example code is doing with that data. You find the essentials 

of working with numeric, logical, string, and date data in the first three sections.

Imagine a cookbook, or any book for that matter, that provided steps for 

performing every task that the book tells you how to perform as one long narrative 

without any breaks. Trying to find a specific recipe (or other procedure) would 

become impossible and the book would be useless. In fact, no one would write 

such a book. The fourth section of the chapter discusses functions, which are akin 

to the individual recipes in a cookbook. You can combine functions to create an 

entire program, much as you would combine recipes to create an entire dinner.

The next four sections discuss various ways to manage data, which means read-

ing, writing, modifying, and erasing it as needed. You also need to know how to 

make decisions and what to do when you need to perform the same set of steps 

more than one time. Data is a resource, just as flour, sugar, and other ingredients 

are  resources  you  use  when  working  with  a  recipe.  The  different  kinds  of  data 

require  different  techniques  to  make  them  into  an  application  that  solves  the 

problem proposed by an algorithm. These sections tell you about the various ways 

to manipulate data and work with it to solve problems.