Intro to Taming Python series

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Hey Guys,

I just wanted to create a tutorial series that helps people develop skill sets in python to achieve their data manipulation / visualization challenges

The approach is to create precise skills to understand all the steps in achieving a specific challenge.

This approach helps the user to acquire only the skills required for achieving a specific challenge, not more not less.
This saves a lot of time to achieve each challenge with out pondering on unnecessary skills.

For example, if

Challenge = Read csv file, plot all columns data one below the other, save plot as a PNG image,

User story = Create a summary image of voltage time-series from a csv file

The steps and skill sets required may be

Steps

read excel file into pandas dataframe
get the shape/dimensions of a dataframe

get all the column names of dataframe

create a figure with matplotlib subplots as the number of dataframe columns

Set title to the figure

iterate through all columns data of dataframe

plot each dataframe column data inside the generated axis handles with axis title, legend and axis labels included

Skills

using tight layout to optimize plot space in a matplotlib plot (#18) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15, #16, #17)

set plot title, plot size in inches in a matplotlib plot (#19) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15, #16)

set subplot title, x and y axis labels in a matplotlib plot (#20) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15, #16, #17)

enable legends for an axis handle / subplot in matplotlib plot (#21) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15, #16)

save plot image as a PNG/PDF/JPG/SVG file using savefig function (#22) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15, #16)

manipulating variables (#5) (requires #1)

create arrays with sequences (#6) (requires #1)

'range' function to create sequences for using inside a 'for' loop (#7) (requires #1)

'for' loop (#8) (requires #1)

anatomy/nomenclatures of a pandas dataframe (#9) (requires #1, #2, #4)

create dataframe from array of objects (#10) (requires #1, #2, #4, #9)

create dataframe from object with each property as array (#11) (requires #1, #2, #4, #9)

read excel file into pandas dataframe (#12) (requires #1, #2, #4, #9)

get the shape/dimension of a dataframe (#13) (requires #1, #2, #4, #9)

get all the column names of dataframe (#14) (requires #1, #2, #4, #9)

anatomy/nomenclatures of a plot in matplotlib (#15) (requires #1, #3, #4)

basic data plotting in matploltlib using matploltlib.pyplot (#16) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15)

creating figure and axis handles to plot multiple subplots in matplotlib (#17) (requires #1, #3, #4, #15)

setup python development environment (#1)

install pandas library (#2)

install matplotlib library (#3)

import required library modules for using in our python programs (#4)
  • Each skill mentioned above will have a blog post, sample code and references
  • We can see that the user is now clear on what skills to acquire in order to achieve a specific goal
  • This way the user will be motivated to learn the basics (which generally is boring, without knowing the purpose)
  • We can also have a knowledge base of code samples which can help many beginners

Skills database is maintained as a google spreadsheet at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vsw5TSprGmex4k6aNvWiAmGOYAH9RU80OpUFMg9Ahvs/edit?usp=sharing

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