Python Scripting: Files, Inheritance, and Databases

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-scripting-files-inheritance-databases

Introduction

### Course Review: Python Scripting: Files, Inheritance, and Databases #### Overview The "Python Scripting: Files, Inheritance, and Databases" course on Coursera is the third installment in a comprehensive series aimed at equipping participants with the essential skills and knowledge needed to thrive in programming roles. This course emphasizes three fundamental programming concepts: file handling, inheritance, and the use of external libraries, allowing learners to deepen their understanding of how Python can be utilized effectively in real-world applications. #### Course Content and Syllabus The course structure is thoughtfully divided into four main modules, each focusing on a key area of Python programming: 1. **File Input and Output**: This module introduces learners to data persistence by covering how to write to and read from files. You'll explore both text and binary file formats, gaining hands-on experience with file handling techniques. By the end of this section, you'll be equipped to ensure your data lives beyond a program's execution, which is a critical skill in programming. 2. **Inheritance**: Inheritance is a crucial concept in object-oriented programming, and this module sheds light on how to implement is-a relationships through it. The course discusses how inheritance can help streamline and abstract your code by allowing base classes to share characteristics with their derived classes. Learners will also touch upon exception handling, enhancing their understanding of how to manage errors in a more structured manner. 3. **Python Libraries to Access Databases**: As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decision making, understanding how to interact with databases is vital. This module introduces popular libraries in Python that facilitate database access, thus expanding your programming toolkit to include data retrieval and manipulation capabilities. 4. **Additional Python Libraries**: This final module broadens your knowledge even further by delving into various Python libraries tailored for specific tasks such as data visualization, list processing, and data cleaning. Here, you will learn how to leverage external libraries to solve complex information technology problems effectively. #### Learning Experience One of the standout features of this course is the incorporation of labs and exercises. These practical components reinforce the theoretical concepts covered in the lectures, enabling learners to apply their newfound knowledge in a hands-on environment. This blended approach ensures that you not only learn the material but also gain valuable experience coding real-world applications. The instructional materials are well-structured, with informative lectures that are both engaging and easy to follow. The pacing of the course is appropriate, making it suitable for both beginners with some foundational knowledge and intermediate programmers looking to sharpen their skills. #### Recommendations I highly recommend "Python Scripting: Files, Inheritance, and Databases" for anyone looking to further their programming skills, especially those aspiring to become proficient Python developers. Whether you're a student, a career changer, or a seasoned professional seeking to refresh your knowledge, this course provides essential insights into critical programming concepts. Additionally, the course's practical focus on real-world applications sets it apart from more theory-heavy courses. By the end of the course, you will feel confident handling files, utilizing inheritance in your code, and leveraging Python libraries for database access and data manipulation. Overall, this course is a valuable investment in your programming education and career, paving the way for future learning and opportunities in the tech industry.

Syllabus

File Input and Output

In this module, we look at how we can persist data to files so that it will exist beyond a single execution of a program. We will look at how we can write data to files in both text and binary formats. We follow-up with ways to read that data back into the state of an executing program.

In this module, we look at how to implement the is-a relationships we modeled earlier in our UML diagrams through the use of Inheritance. Inheritance provides additional ways to abstract code in taxonomies where base classes share code with specialized versions of the classes. We will add a discussion about exceptions work in Visual Basic now that we can discuss inheritance.

In this module, we extend our scripting tool chest by looking at libraries available for Python to access a database.

In this module, we continue our exploration of tools available in Python scripting to solve information technology problems. We will explore libraries for plotting data, processing lists of data quickly and analyzing, cleaning, exploring, and manipulating data.