DRAFT 08 Getting involved with Python.md

Title	Teaching	Exercises	Question	Objectives	Activity	Keypoints
Getting involved with Python	30	1	How do you assign values to variables in Python?	Understand the concepts of values and variables.	Create a mini database in Python - also known as a dictionary.	Remember that programming is about language as much as maths - you _can_ talk to a computer and it will understand if you know the language!

Ready to splash a little with Python?

• In a new cell, select 'code'. Remember that the code cell looks different to the markdown cell. How can you tell?

  Type the following inside the cell:

  d = {'employee': 'Juanita Lopez','salary':81000, 'startdate': '2010-11-1'}

  e = {'employee': 'Peter Gynn','salary':83400, 'startdate': '2008-3-25'}

  f = {'employee': 'Jolie Talofa','salary':96800, 'startdate': '2007-3-14'}

  print (d)

  print (e)

  print (f)

• Click on 'run' or Shift+Enter.

[SCREEN SHOT]

So what is going on here?

The equal sign (=) is used to assign values to groups of variables. This creates a kind of shorthand for working on these variables later.

[NEED MORE EXPLANATION ABOUT WHAT THIS IS USEFUL FOR]

[MIGHT NEED AN ACTIVITY HERE TO PRACTICE WHAT WE JUST DID ABOVE?]

• In a new code cell, type the following:

  d.keys()

  d.values()

  d.items()

• Click on 'run' or Shift+Enter.

• In the next cell, type:

  for k,v in d.items():

  print(k, v)

• Click on 'run' or Shift+Enter.

• In the next cell, type:

  for k,v in e.items():

  print(k, v)

• Click on 'run' or Shift+Enter.