An opinionated way to get started with Python for data analytics
Set yourself up for productivity and collaboration.
We assume no prior programming experience and that you want to get productive as quickly as possible.
- Set up a working Python environment
- Start managing data and code with GitHub and Git
- Read and execute Python code (using only the Standard Library)
- Start working with Markdown, a super simple markup language
- Explore a variety of data and code
Sign up for a free account with GitHub, a code hosting platform that manages a vast number of programming projects. Follow their website instructions to get started. See the recommendations on GitHub email and username below.
You'll need an email. I use a permanent personal email for most GitHub work, rather than a work or school account (which may be temporary). Your email will not be made public.
You'll create a GitHub username. Your username will be public. Your username can be anonymous (e.g., 'analystextraordinaire') or publicly associated with you. For example, I use 'denisecase'. Your username will be a part of the URL to all of your projects.
Q: Find the username in this repo URL:
https://github.com/denisecase/datafun-01-getting-started
Recruiters may look at GitHub and LinkedIn profiles - it can be helpful to show your skills using modern tools. Be courageous. The best way to learn is by doing, and don't be too concerned about making mistakes. Mistakes are common getting started, and learning to fix issues is a key skill in data analytics. Keep and share your latest, most useful, and best work.
Each coding project lives in a GitHub repository (called 'repo' for short) in the 'cloud' (a distributed group of machines).
- Git (the system) keeps track of committed changes to an evolving project.
- The GitHub repo can be kept in sync with a git repo on your local machine.
- For example:
- This GitHub repo is named datafun-01-getting-started.
- On my machine, it's in my Documents/datafun-01-getting-started directory.
Q: When viewing this GitHub repo in your browser, can you find the username and repo name in the URL?
Once you have a GitHub account, continue.
You'll need the following tools installed on your local machine:
- Git - code management and version control system that interacts with GitHub
- Python (Version 3.7+ required, 3.11+ preferred) - popular, powerful scripting programming language
- VS Code - lightweight, cross-platform editor that helps with code completion, code formatting, and more.
- VS Code Extension: Python (by Microsoft) - makes VS Code fun for Python
- VS Code Extension: GitHub (by GitHub) - makes Git fun with VS Code
See the following subsections for installation recommendations.
When installing, following instructions is necessary, but not sufficient.
Try to understand every new tool installed, accessed, or joined.
While downloading,
- Review the web site.
- Read the 'Introduction and 'Getting Started' sections.
- Do a quick search to see:
- who uses it,
- what it offers,
- why it's popular, and
- when and how it's used.
Important: Follow instructions carefully when installing and configuring a tool. Computers are notoriously pedantic. Capitalization, spelling - even tabs and spaces - matter a lot!
In general, after installing and configuring any new tool:
- Verify the installation by checking the version.
- Start it.
- Click and explore the menus, tabs, icons. Try to get an overview of what is possible and how things are arranged.
- Hovering the mouse over an icon in VS Code will provide a 'tooltip' with more information.
If you don't already have Git, follow the instructions. If you think you might, try checking the version as shown below.
Install - and setup - your Git installation using this guide: https://github.com/git-guides/install-git. Do not install GitHub Desktop. We will use other tools to manage git. Skip the GitHub Desktop part and go down to the instructions for your operating system.
Verify installation by checking the version. Open a new Terminal (macOS) or PowerShell (Windows/macOS) and type the following, then hit return/enter:
git version
If you don't already have Python, follow these instructions.
If you've installed the full Anaconda as recommended in the textbook, that's perfect - don't also install Miniconda3. Anaconda is larger and has more Python modules bulit-in. For today, we'll only need the Python Standard Library - we'll do more with additional modules for data analysis later.
Existing users:
- We use conda rather than pip. It makes some aspects of Python nicer.
- If you can change your Python installation (or add a new one), do so.
- If you cannot change your Python installation, e.g., work requires 3.6 and pip, some features will not work as expected. As we add features, work with the people responsible for your Python environment.
New users (without Anaconda or Mininconda3):
Install Python 3 using the Miniconda3 distribution by following the instructions at this link:https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html.
Read and follow their installation guidelines for your operating system and machine (most will be 64-bit). Note:
"On Windows, macOS, and Linux, it is best to install Miniconda for the local user, which does not require administrator permissions and is the most robust type of installation.".
Miniconda3 includes Python and conda (an important tool for managing Python packages and environments). More information is available below.
After installing:
Verify installation. Open a new Terminal (macOS) or open Anaconda Prompt (Windows) and type the following, then hit return/enter:
conda update conda
Then again, type the following and hit return/enter:
python --version
Then try each of these commands (hit enter after each - we won't usually repeat that part):
conda list
python
Q: Do you see >>>?
That means you're in interactive Python mode. You can now run Python commands.
Type 2+2 and hit return/enter. Python handles expressions.
Type print("Hello, world!") and hit return/enter. You just called the bulit-in print() function.
Do a web search for "how to exit interactive Python mode" to get out - or call the bulit-in exit() function like you called print() above.
Congratulations - that's a great start - being able to execute Python commands makes amazing things possible!
✅ Accessing Python interactive mode is a generally useful skill in analytics.
Install the VS Code editor from here: https://code.visualstudio.com/download.
If you need more help, use the official VS Code docs, for example, additional Mac instructions are here.
Recommendation: Add VS Code to your Dock (macOS) or Start Menu (Windows).
After installing, open VS Code. Explore the information provided - check out the menus.
Recommendation: In VS Code, verify File / Autosave is checked.
After VS Code installs, install the VS Code Python extension from here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python.
If you have troubles installing, click the link that says "Trouble Installing?" and it will show you how to add extensions from within VS Code.
Once you install the extension, it'll ask if you want to get started with Jupyter Notebooks. Ignore this for now - close that tab in VS Code.
In VS Code, look at the icons down the left. Look for 4 squares. Mouse over it to see the tooltip "Extensions". Click it.
On the top of the primary left side panel, you'll see the installed extensions.
If GitHub Repositories is not installed, find it in the recommended list of extensions below, do a web search, or find it here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=github.remotehub
✅ Leveraging an IDE is an important skill and can increase productivity significantly.
Recommendation: After doing any significant installation, it may help to restart. After adding extensions, you may restart VS Code, after Git, Python, or tools that affect your environment, you may need to restart your terminal, IDE, and sometimes, your machine before continuing. Ensure your environments are fully updated.
Your machine is ready - now let's get some code.
First, we'll get this repo into your GitHub account.
- Open your browser to https://github.com/denisecase/datafun-01-getting-started.
- Look at the URL and the web page - note the account is denisecase.
- Look at all the options available for a repo.
- Find and click the Fork button at the top.
- Keep the defaults and click 'Create Fork'.
- When it finishes, look at the repo - note the account (it should be yours).
Forking is just a term for copying a repo from one account to another.
Now we want to clone your new GitHub repo down to the Documents folder on your local machine.
- Open VS Code.
- From the menu: select View / Command Palette.
- Start typing Git: Clone and select it.
- Provide the URL of your new GitHub repo.
- When it asks where to put it, select your Documents folder.
Note: The first time you do this, you'll be guided through a process to sign into GitHub from VS Code.
You can read more about cloning - and clone your repo without VS Code by following the instructions here.
When complete, verify you have a new folder in your Documents directory:
Documents/datafun-01-getting-started
Explore your new project repo in VS Code.
If the project is not already open in VS Code:
- Open VS Code.
- From the menu choose File / Open Folder / and select Documents/datafun-01-getting-started.
- In the primary side bar, expand the repo folder.
Once opened, explore - consider these questions:
- Where is this README.md file?
- Can you see a .gitignore file?
- What do you think the .gitignore file does? (Hint: open it.)
- Review the files and the organization.
- Check the file extension (e.g., .py) to see what types of files are included.
- Click on the about.py file to open it for editing.
- Can you figure out how to run the Python file? Hint: look for a "play" icon
▶️ . - Click the run button (arrow) in the upper right to execute/run.
- Watch what happens in the integrated terminal window.
- Click in the terminal window.
- Hit the up-arrow key 🔼 on your keyboard to get the last command.
- Hit Return (or Enter) to rerun the file using the python command.
- If successful, you should get a new about.txt file.
For more information about options for executing a Python program in VS Code, see Run Hello World.
The about module provides a lot of useful information about your Python environment. Review these paths carefully - it tells a lot about your Python installation and environment.
Open, read, and run each remaining Python script (each file will have a .py extension) in order. You don't need to fully understand the code yet.
Instead, try to figure out what each file is doing. Like learning any new language, reading is a bit easier than writing - we can learn much just by seeing it.
By the end of the course, the code will make much more sense.
When you finish, you'll have an idea of the types of things possible using just the Python standard library.
Being able to work with your Python environment is a key foundation to accessing some powerful tools for analytics.
✅ Creating and running Python scripts is a foundational skill in analytics.
Next, edit this Markdown file to record how things went.
- In the checklist below, mark the tasks completed that you were able to complete successfully.
- If any could not be completed, leave them as they are.
- Try to complete all but the last one.
Now it's time to get the local work you did (on your machine), back up to the cloud repo in GitHub.
With git, we first git add any new files, then git commit them to source control (with a message), then git push them up to GitHub.
VS Code makes it pretty easy.
- On the VS Code side panel, click the source control icon (look for a blue bubble with an number in it).
- Important! Above the Commit button, it will say "Message". You must include a message.
- In that message input box, type "initial setup".
- Click the blue "Commit" button and follow instructions to Commit your code and sync/push it up to your GitHub repo.
Verify: Open a browser to your GitHub repo and see if the files have appeared.
In addition to the original files, you should have one or more new files and an edited Markdown file.
If not, return to VS Code and edit/execute files as needed.
If your computer hangs because you forget the a commit message, just enter your message in the top line of the file it shows in the editor. Then click the checkmark in the upper right to close that file and save your commit message. "Sync your changes" to push.
If we didn't use VS Code, the commands are pretty easy in Git Bash or Terminal as well:
git add .
git commit -m "initial setup"
git push origin main
✅ Git is a powerful tool, widely used in industry. Your skills can facilitate onboarding.
Change the open boxes [ ] below to checked boxes [x] as you complete the tasks.
- Task 1. Sign up for GitHub
- Task 2. Install (and configure) Git
- Task 3. Install Miniconda3 (or other)
- Task 4. Install VS Code
- Task 5. Install VS Code Extension: Python
- Task 6. Install VS Code Extension: GitHub Repositories
- Task 7. Fork this repo into your account
- Task 8. Clone your new GitHub repo down
- Task 9. Explore the repo in VS Code
- Task 10. Execute a Python script.
- Task 11. Check the boxes (edit a Markdown file)
- Task 12. Commit changes (with a message!) and push to GitHub
Finally - after your initial commit and push, you can check the last box. Check the box, commit your changes (with a message!), and push/sync again.
Update important view settings as needed.
When negotiating files and folders, you should be able to view file extensions (e.g, .py, .md). If these aren't visible, seach for how to view file extensions on your operating system.
See Hidden Files
You may want to see hidden files. Find this option in the Windows File Explorer ribbon. Toggle it in Mac Finder with Command Shift . ("command shift dot").
Your repo has a hidden .git folder that maintains changes to your code. Do a web search to learn more as needed.
Suggestion: If you're in VS Code, and you don't see the Source Control icon with a blue bubble, right-click on the sidebar icons, and make sure "Source Control" is checked.
Suggestion: If you're in VS Code, On Windows, trying to run a script or execute a conda command and you get an error "conda: The term 'conda' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program." Your VS Code terminal is likely Powershell (look for a the PS before your path). We want to switch it to "Command Prompt" for Python commands. From the VS Code menu / View / Command Palette. Start typing 'Terminal: Select Default Profile' until it appears, click it and change from Powershell to Command Prompt.
Suggestion: Sure. If VS Code suggests an extension, it's often good to go ahead and try it. Read up a bit if curious, but the suggestions are usually helpul.
Suggestion: VS Code Extension: GitHub Repositories seems to work well and may especially good for beginners. If you get a recommendation to use GitHub Pull Requests and Issues, you can try that. It might be more suitable for experienced developers. Here's a good article for getting started. You're encouraged to share your thoughts in the discussions.
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For more information about editing Markdown task lists, see how to mark a task complete.
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For more information about Git in VS Code, see Using Git source control in VS Code.
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For more information about editing Markdown in VS Code, see Markdown and Visual Studio Code.