Python Quickstart

These pages introduce coding with Python. They are designed to get you up and running as fast as possible while also explaining all the information you need. Work through them in order, but skip any you're already familiar with. The course at the end is a very full introduction to the basic language, and centres on building an Agent Based Model: probably the most popular kind of model in the social and ecological sciences.

What is programming? What makes up a program?

If you haven't done any programming before, this will introduce the basic concepts of variables; operators; branching; loops; objects; procedures and libraries.

Understanding the command prompt and directory navigation

If you don't know what "cd .." means, please read through this.

Understanding Windows Explorer

If you can't make directories in Windows, please read this.

Introduction to Python

This introduces the different ways of running python, and helps you write your first program. It introduces the Python Prompt (for programs of a few lines); IDEs (for programs of a few lines to thousands of lines); and Jupyter Notebooks (for code imbedded into documents, for data analysis and auditing). Specifically, it will build up your knowledge until the point where you understand how to work with Jupyter, and you'll need to understand Jupyter for the next practical...

Introduction to Data Analysis with Python from Software Carpentry

This uses Jupyter to introduce basic data analysis. Note that this is written for the UNIX/Linux/Mac operating systems. If you are on Windows, use the command prompt instead of the "shell", and you don't need to type the "$" - these are just what appears as a prompt.

Full Python Course; Building Agent Based Models with Python

This is a complete course. It teaches you the basics of core Python, including things like web scrapping. However, it doesn't go into data analytics. Instead it concentrates on Agent Based Modelling.

Support at Leeds

There are a wide variety of support options for people at Leeds Uni learning Python. For more details see the main programing courses page support section.