Hi Everyone,

It’s been 6 months since my last post, but I’m still here.  The last several months have been very busy, but I’m excited to start blogging again.

I’m going to start using this space to start journaling the things that I learn in Python.  As someone who does some scripting in my career and is comfortable on a command line, I’ve been looking for opportunities to re-attack learning to code.  I believe this will benefit my script writing, but I’m also very interested in creating some original applications, as well. 

As someone who has struggled with staying dedicated to learning code due to the commitment requirements, I knew I needed a system that had built-in accountability, but also practicality in the content it was teaching.  Based on several reviews I found on Reddit, I decided to go with 100 Days of Code: The Complete Python Pro Bootcamp by Angela Yu.

I’m going to withhold a full review of the curriculum until I have finished it, but the gist of the curriculum is this:  for 100 consecutive days, I will ideally spend an hour or more practicing Python.  Angela’s curriculum is project-based, so the user is always working towards completing some kind of an app that uses the specific tools being introduced during the day’s teaching.

Without further ado, here are some of the things I learned in my first 5 days of the course.

Day 1

• On this day, the general course format was overviewed.  The primary environments were introduced (Replit for a browser-based IDE and Coding Rooms for graded assignments)
• Python syntax was explained, especially the importance of indentation.
• With my previous coding / scripting experience, there weren’t any particularly interesting methods introduced.  Printing to the console, creating variables, and concatenating strings were all reviewed.
• Apps Created: Band Name Generator

Day 2

• Datatypes were discussed (strings, integers, floats, etc.) as well as their ability (or lack thereof) to interact with certain methods.  The ability to convert data between datatypes (such as integers to strings) was discussed.
• F-Strings were introduced, which allow in-line printing of variables in a string.  Coming from PowerShell, I’ve never used anything like this, but it’s awesome.
• Mathematical operators were discussed ( +, -, *, /, %)
• Apps Created:
  • BMI Generator
  • Remaining Life Calculator (Days, Weeks, Months remaining assuming 90 day lifespan)
  • Party Tip calculator

Day 3

• Introduced if / elif / else statements.
• Reviewed nesting the conditional statements.
• Introduced Logical Operators (==, !=, <=, >=)
• Apps Created:
  • Odd or Even Number Determiner
  • BMI 2.0 (calculating the index and providing a meaning)
  • Leap Year Determiner
  • Pizza Order Cost Calculator
  • “Love Calculator”
  • Treasure Island / Text Adventure Game

Day 4

• Introduced the random module.
• Introduced lists and list manipulation.  Nested lists and indexing errors were also covered.
• Apps Created:
  • Heads / Tails Coin Flip
  • Randomly select who pays the dinner bill.
  • Treasure Map (using list manipulation to plant an object on grid coordinates)
  • Rock Paper Scissors

Day 5

• Introduced For Loops.  Iterated over lists and ranges.
• Apps Created:
  • Calculate avg Height from list of heights
  • Calculate high score from list of scores
  • Solving the Gauss Addition Problem (add all numbers from 1-100).  Also added all even numbers in the same range.
  • FizzBuzz (counting, identifying common multiples)
  • Password Generator