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Python Tutorial

A way to learn python through examples that show how better improve your code and python output.

Python type error 

TypeError: ‘float’ object is not callable

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So you have been presented with the TypeError: ‘float’ object is not callable in Python, but unsure how to fix? Well read on so we can get you a solution.

First things an overview of a Float

A float is any number that can contain a decimal place separating an integer from the fractions to the right of the decimal point.

As an example, in the below code, we have the exact same number. But when a computer comes to read it, it treats them differently, due to the fact that b has a decimal point and a fraction to the right of it.

a = 1
b = 1.0

print (type(a))
print (type(b))

Output:
<class 'int'>
<class 'float'>

So how in a piece of code would this error occur?

In the below code, the error occurs. The reason behind this is that float is an actual function that changes a value to a float data type.

As a result, you cannot assign a variable name as “float” and then call it separately in its code. Python specifically does not allow a programmer to use a function as a variable name.

a= float(10)
b= float(11)
c= float(12)
float = a

d = float(a/b*c)
print(d)

Output:
d = float(a/b*c)
TypeError: 'float' object is not callable

So how is this fixed?

In order to fix this, we rename the variable “float” to something else, and make sure that the new name is not another function name!

As can be seen when we do this, the below output runs as expected with no errors:

a= float(10)
b= float(11)
c= float(12)
float_value = a   ===> This line was corrected from above from "float" to "float_value"

d = float(a/b*c)
print(d)

Output: 
10.909090909090908

In summary the crux of this problem is that when creating a variable, it cannot be a function name.

You can see similar posts here on TypeErrors.

Have you seen these posts?

TypeError: ‘float’ object is not callable

TypeError: ‘int’ object is not callable

Python Python Tutorial 

Python Tutorial: Pandas groupby columns ( video 2)

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Pandas groupby using column values

In this second video how to groupby using pandas and as part of expanding the data analytics information of this website, we are looking to explain how you can use a groupby selection but only using the column values and not the column names.

Below we import our data into a dataframe, and then group as follows:

  • Aggregate function
  • Using the cut function and assigning values to bins.
  • Assigning labels to the data frame output based on the bin values.

 

 

Why would you want to use Pandas groupby and column values?

This video looks to help understand the why going by values might be easier than column names:

  • Column names can change from project to project, using by values allows easy implementation of getting the output regardless of the names used.
  • You could apply this to any Python class, and as long as you can inherit will allow the code to run smoothly.
  • Implementing by value allows a clear understanding of the desired output as the values are clearly understood to generate what is required.
  • You need to understand how data within your data set falls within a particular cohort:
    • This use of values in different programs just needs to change, the underlying logic remains the same.
    • Using column names still means that to group them, the logic still needs to be written.
Python Python Tutorial 

Python tutorial: Pandas groupby ( Video 1)

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In this first video about pandas groupby and as part of expanding the data analytics information of this website, we are looking to explain how you can use a groupby selection to sort your data into similar datasets better so they can be better analysed. In the video below, we import our data into a dataframe, and then group as follows:

  • Directly naming the column
  • Through get_group
  • Using a loop
  • Utilising a lambda function

 

 

Python regular expressions 

Regular expressions python

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Regular expressions explained

Regular expressions are a set of characters usually in a particular sequence that helps find a match/pattern for a specific piece of data in a dataset.

The purpose is to allow a uniform of set characters that can be reused multiple times, based on the requirements of the user, without having to build each time.

The patterns are similar to those that you would find in Perl.

How are regular expressions built?

To start, in regular expressions, there are metacharacters, which are characters that have a special meaning. Their values are as follows:

. ^ $ * + ? { } [ ] \ | ( )

.e = All occurrences which have one “e”, and value before that e. There can be multiple e, eg ..e means check two characters before e.

^ =Check if a string starts with a particular pattern.

*  = Match zero or more occurrences of a pattern, at least one of the characters can be found.

+ = Looks to match exact patterns, one or more times, and if they are not precisely equal, then nothing is returned.

? =Check if a string after ? exists in a pattern and returns it. If a value before the ? is directly beside the value after ? then returns both values.

—> e.g. t?e is the search pattern. “The” is the string. The result will return only the value e, but if the string is “te”, then it will return te, as the letters are directly beside each other.

da{2} = Check to see if a character has a set of other characters following it. E.g. sees if d has two “a” following it.

[abc] = These are the characters you are looking for in the data. Could also use [a-c] and will give you the same result. Change to uppercase to get only those with uppercase.

\ = Denoting a backslash used to escape all metacharacters, so if they need to be found in a string, they can be. Used to escape $ in a string so they can be found as a literal value.

| = This is used when you want an “or” operator in the logic, i.e. check for one or more values from a pattern, either or both can be present.

() = Looks to group pattern searches or a partial match, to see if they are together or not.

 

Special sequences, making it easier again

\a = Matches if the specified characters are at the start of the string been searched.

\b = Matches if the specified characters are at the beginning or the end of the string been searched.

\B = Matches if the specified characters are NOT at the beginning or the end of the string been searched.

\d = Matches any digits 0-9.

\D = Matches any character is not a digit.

\s = Matches where a string contains a whitespace character.

\S = Matches where a string contains a non-whitespace character.

\w = Matches if digits or character or _ found

\W = Matches if non-digits and or characters or _found

\z = matches if the specified characters are at the end of the string.

 

 

For further references and reading materials, please see the below websites, the last one is really useful in testing any regular expressions you would like to build:

See further reading material here: regular expression RE explained

Another complementary page to the link above regular expression REGEX explained

I found this link on the internet, and would thoroughly recommend you bookmark it. It will also allow you to play around with regular expressions and test them before you put into your code, a very recommended resource Testing regular expressions

 

Definition Python 

What are the reserved keywords in Python

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What are python reserved keywords?

When coding in the Python language there are particular python reserved words that the system uses, which cannot be accessed as a variable or a function as the computer program uses them to perform specific tasks.

When you try to use them, the system will block it and throws out an error. Running the below code in Python

import keyword
keywordlist = keyword.kwlist
print(keywordlist)


Produces the below keyword values
['False', 'None', 'True', 'and', 'as', 'assert', 'async', 'await', 'break', 'class', 'continue', 'def', 'del',
'elif', 'else', 'except', 'finally', 'for', 'from', 'global', 'if', 'import', 'in', 'is', 'lambda', 'nonlocal',
'not', 'or', 'pass', 'raise', 'return', 'try', 'while', 'with', 'yield']

When writing your code, it is important to follow the following guidelines:

(A) Research the keywords first for the language you are writing in.

(B) Ensure that your programming language highlights keywords when used, so you can fix the issue.

(C) Setup your computer program in debug mode to highlight keywords use.

With some programs running into thousands of lines of code, with additional functions and variables, it can become harder to spot the problem, so good rigour in the initial stages of coding will help down the road any issues that you may find that need to fixed.

This code was run in Python version 3.8

Python Python Tutorial 

Python tutorial: Create an input box in Tkinter

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Using an tkinter input box for your data projects

There may be an occasion as you are building out a data science or data analytics project, checks need to be performed on the dataset as follows:

  •  Big data sets and speed requirements in conjunction with
  • The need to reduce the volume of data returned which is impeding performance

and this is where input boxes and Tkinter can help!

In the below video, we are demonstrating an introduction to using an input box and validating the input.

We demonstrate how to validate the data entered into the tkinter input box and return a message, this will ensure the user gets the correct data.

Types of uses for a tkinter input box are varied, here are some thoughts:

  • Use an input box to return a set of data for a particular day.
  • Using them to filter down the results to a particular cohort of data.
  • Conduct a string search to find data quality issues to be fixed.
Python Python Tutorial 

Python tutorial: How to create a graphical user interface in Tkinter

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How would you like to present your data analytics work better?

When starting your data analytics projects, one of the critical considerations is how to present your results quickly and understandably?

Undoubtedly this is true if you are only going to look at the results yourself.

If the work you do is a repeatable process, a more robust longer-term solution needs to be applied, this is where Tkinter can help, which is a python graphical user interface.

When you are importing tkinter, some of the functionality that can be used include:

  • Use them to build calculators.
  • They can show graphs and bar charts.
  • Show graphics on a screen.
  • Validate user input, through building entry widgets.

Where this all fits in with data analytics?

While going through a set of data and getting some meaning to it can be challenging, using the python graphical user interface tutorial below can help build the screens that will allow a repeatable process to display in a meaningful way.

Using the tkinter widget could help achieve the following:

  • Build a screen that shows data analytics errors in a data set, e.g. The number of blank column values in a dataset.
  • Another application is to run your analytics to show the results on a screen that can be printed or exported.
  • Similarly, you could also have a screen where a user selects several parameters that are fed into the data analytics code and produces information for the user to analyse.

There are many more ways that you could do this, but one of the most important things is that data analytics can be built into a windows environment using Tkinter.

These GUI applications are what the user would be used to currently seeing. As a result, this could help to distribute a solution across an enterprise to lots of different users.

Also, another benefit is that they will work on many different operating systems.

The only thing that needs to happen is that the requirements the user needs are defined, and the developer then builds on those, with the data analytics code run in the background of this program with Tkinter and output into a user-friendly screen for review.

Python Python Tutorial 

How to create a combobox in tkinter

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Here we have delivered a complimentary video on How to create a graphical user interface in Tkinter .

It will demonstrate how a Combobox can be used to select values and then validate the entry chosen.

Using a Combobox in the computer programming world has been around for some time.

It is a useful way to select from a choice and could in many ways in data analytics help as the following examples show:

  • Select a date to filter a data set down to values that are in the dataset.
  • Using matplotlib to plot data points in charts, you could have dynamic values that change the diagram based on values chosen from the Combobox.
  • Utilizing data analytics reports that the user accesses, the Combobox could be used to change the data shown dynamically to allow comparisons.
  • When looking to fix data quality issues, use the Combobox to select values for a date that needs to be fixed, apply the fixes on screen, and then save back to the database.

Developing a Tkinter GUI and the possibilities it brings

In this video, we use ttk, written to help split the behavior of code from the code implementing its appearance.

You can see plenty more on it here ttk information. This is a handy piece of functionality as styling an object can interfere with how it works.

We also have a function that helps with the validation. In the below, it accomplishes the following:

  • Allows the combobox value selected to be retrieved.
  • Validates the entry chosen in the combobox using an if statement.
def checkifireland ():
    x = combolist.get() # asssigns the value inside the combobox to x so it can be processed
    if x == "Ireland":
        messagebox.showinfo("Correct answer", "You will love it in Ireland")
    else:
        messagebox.showinfo("Incorrect answer", "You should visit Ireland first!")

The effectiveness is especially handy as it helps to ensure that the code returned from the Combobox to the function is correct

The below video will take through this step by step and explain the concepts discussed above.

The next steps

There are many informative Python – working with excel videos that are on our YouTube channel.

We are looking to bring them in and show them on a graphical user interface tutorial.

To see how to load a set of values into a combobox from an SQLite database table, have a look at how to load values into a combobox

Python 

Tkinter python tutorial

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Let’s make the introductions 🙂
Tkinter is a package that allows a programmer to build a GUI interface, which then can be opened on a computer screen by a user. There are many different types of GUI apps, but examples include a calculator or a text editor that opens when you click it.

Tkinter would be the most commonly used GUI package in Python, due to its simplicity, but PySimpleGUI, PYQt or PySide are other alternatives. Ensure you research these before using to make sure they suitable for your needs.

Why use Tkinter?

  • Relatively simple and easy to learn, upskilling is quick.
  • A great introduction to the concepts and ideas for building GUI apps, you will get a good grounding in the techniques and approaches needed.
  • Very well documented, so a programmer should be able to find the answer to anything specific they need to understand.

Now we are introduced, let’s see how to utilise it:

Install Python as usual, and make sure that Tkinter is working and you have the correct version. Note that import tkinter is for version 3.x, before that use import Tkinter

Please note that you will see in places when using Python code, that capitalization is important. This will sometimes puzzle you as to why some of your code does not work, usually, the interpreter should flag it for you.

While it is correct to put a capital at the start of a line, the programming language will ignore written English convention. An example is as follows:

list = ['a','b','c']
Print(list)
gives 
NameError: name 'Print' is not defined
whereas
list = ['a','b','c']
print(list)
gives ['a', 'b', 'c'] 
No errors

When saving your python script DO NOT call it tkinter.py as I did, the import statement will not work. Call it something like tkinter_test.py, see red arrow below.

At the start of the video below the code will look like this. the first six lines are the creation of the Tkinter screen its size and any buttons that will appear on it.

Note that all code should appear betwee line two and line six, so that the screen output works and looks correctly.

Added to this code in the following video:

  • Button – which will open our YouTube channel
  • An image
  • A clickable link – Which will bring you to our Home Page

A screenshot of the final output is as follows:

See a link to the Python documentation here Tkinter on python.org

Python Data Cleansing Python Tutorial Working with databases 

How to data cleanse a database table

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In Data Analytics, that is a very relevant question, and something I look to implement in most projects, sometimes it is too easy to click the shortcut icon to your spreadsheet application!

Here we are looking to bring a little automation into these videos. Building on How to import data from files and Removing characters from an imported CSV file this video connects to a Microsoft Azure cloud database table, brings in the data with errors on it, fixes the errors and displays the correct output on the screen.

What can this do for organisations?

There are several benefits to automating this step:

  • Less manual intervention if there is a need to fix data issues.
  • Better productivity.
  • Better data flows with no errors and quicker reporting.

 

Moving away from files

The process of moving away from files and into automation has several steps:

  • Be clear on your data needs.
  • Understand what you are trying to achieve.
  • Build a process that is repeatable but can be updated easily.
  • Ensure that you build in data quality checks, helps deliver the better output to the users.

Thanks for stopping by!

Data Analytics Ireland