Forem: AdaChime

Data visualization with python for beginners

AdaChime — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 20:41:19 +0000

You might have heard of data visualization previously but do you really know what that means. Well data visualization is the graphic representation of data using charts, graphs, plots etc.

Why is data visualization important
Data visualization is important for the following reasons

Identification of useful patterns from data:
Data visualization helps us know if our data has any form of correlation whether positive or negative.
Better understanding of our data:
Data visualization helps us ask reasonable questions as to why something is the way it is. It makes the data easier to comprehend. From the plot below we know that the table we the size of 4 pays the highest tip.

Generating useful insights: When data is been visualized, it helps decision makers get useful insights from the data. For example, in the plot below there are more customers on Saturday etc. This helps you know on what day you should have more waiters and so on.

Making profitable business decisions: Through the useful insights derived from data, decision makers are able to make profitable business decisions.

When plotting visualization we need to take to note the type of data we have whether it is continuous or categorical.

Continuous data or continuous variable is a type of quantitative data that can have a wide range of set of numbers or values. Examples of continuous data is the scores of students in a test, the prices of house over a given period of time. We use some specific plot for this kind of data, eg

Scatter plots
Histograms
Swarm plots
Line plot
Strip plots etc

Categorical data or categorical variables is a type of variable/data that has a discrete amount of possible values or can be grouped. Example of categorical data are gender, days of the week, race, eye/hair color, highest level of educational qualification etc. Some of these plot can be used to visualize categorical data,

Point plot
Count plot
Bar plot
Pie chart
Bar charts etc

Why do we use python
Python as a programming language can be used differently. It can
be used for website development, software development, data visualization etc. It has amazing libraries that can be used to visualize data. Example of this libraries are matplotlib and seaborn. These libraries have comprehensive visualizations.
One of the most used IDE(integrated development environment) for visualization is Jupyter notebook which can be installed from anaconda. Jupyter notebook is been used because it is user-friendly, it's said to be safer, it doesn't require internet connection etc. Other IDE that can be used be used in place of jupyter notebook are Pycharm, spyder etc

To create visualization we first import these libraries into our notebook

import pandas as pd #used for data analysis
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

We are going to do a simple visualization

#this is what the syntax for making visualization looks like
x = [2, 3, 6]
y = [10, 30, 50]
plt.plot(x, y)

To learn more about data visualization you can watch this video or you can take this course .
Always remember google is your friend.

Python for everyone: Mastering python the right way

AdaChime — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 17:10:28 +0000

So today I'm going to be talking about how to master coding the right way using python. I bet it's going to interesting read so sit back and relax. If you haven't read my previous post on getting started with python, I will really recommend you read it.

Before you start learning python, you need to ask yourself a few questions so that you don't get frustrated and give up. Getting constant errors in your code can be really frustrating, believe me.
You should ask yourself, why am I learning this language? , what do I want to achieve with?, what problems do I want to take active participation to solve using my coding skills?, these questions and lots more.

Another important thing you should have in mind before starting out are your goals, it could be long(2-5 years), medium(6 months- 1 year),or short(a week - 6 months) term goals. Those things you want to achieve within a specified time duration it will help you a lot.

*There are basic things you should know as a pythonista or a pythoneer *

Problem solving skills: The first thing you must know is that you must encounter challenges and problems, it's a must. What can help you to get solution to those problems are just good problem solving skills. Learn how to troubleshoot and debug codes, it will go a long way in helping you.
If the problem is persistent, then you can reach out for help from google, stack overflow or any other python community.
_Know/learn how you learn:_This simply implies that you should know which learning patterns works best for you. You may love to read books a lot and view video tutorials as a waste of time, then go for books. There are many great books out there that can help you master python the right way. If you feel video tutorials work best for you, then fine. You can sit down for some couple of hours watching tutorials, and doing hands-on practice, that's still ok. It can be a mixture of both, any learning method is good as far as you know what works for you.
Commitment: You have to actually commit to learning python, it could be your long term goal to write at least one line of code everyday for maybe 6 months or more. From there you can see yourself becoming a pro, I know you like the sound of that. One thing that can really help you is to avoid procrastination, there's always a negative consequence for it.
Learn the basics first: Learn the first things first, learn how codes actually work, how the environment you're coding in works. Remember learn don't memorize, just know how it works. learn the data types, structures, strings etc. It's very important.
Code readability: Yes, this is very crucial. You don't write codes for just yourself that one thing you should take note of. Use the hash tags(#) to comment meaningful on the code you're writing so that other people can draw meaningful insights from it.

Another way you can master it well is by actually explaining it to someone else, you may have written a program you tell someone how the program actually works.
Having a coding partner or joining a python community is crucial, it makes you want to know more and makes you challenged thereby helping you grow.
You should also note that any and everybody can master python programming irrespective of whatever you can think of.
You can also get free materials that can be of value to you from different websites, udemy, coursera, code academy, solo learn etc to mention but a few.

You that join the challenge 100 days of code, it can help take you from where you are to where you want to be, if you are willing to do it consistently.

To download python, I would recommend python 3.7. You can also use anaconda or pycharm.

If you got one or two insights from this article, be sure to like and comment.
Remember google is your friend.
Thanks for reading!

Introduction to data structures and algorithms

AdaChime — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:05:44 +0000

Before we start we are going to define the terms in our topic.
So the first term that needs to be defined there is data, so what is data? Data simply means processed information that is stored in a computer.
Data structures are simply different ways that data can be organized in a computer for efficient use.
Algorithms are step by step methods of solving a particular problem to get an expected output.

Types of data structures

List
Dictionaries
Tuples
Sets
Queues
Stacks
Linked lists etc

List is an ordered collection of items that can be altered. List can contain integers(2, 3), strings("hello") etc. A list uses square brackets[] to contain its items.

#type of a list
int_list = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]
print(int_list)

#output
[1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]

In python, items can be numbered the first one being 0, the second 1 and so on.
When I say a list can be altered it means you can add an item to it or remove an item from it.
To remove an item we use we either use clear(), pop() or remove() and to add an item to the end of the items we use append().

For example

#adding 3 to the end of the list
int_list = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]
int_list.append(3)
print(int_list)

#output
[1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2, 3]


#removing 7 from the list using remove
int_list = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]
int_list.remove(7)
print(int_list)

#output
[1, 2, 3, 5, 3, 9, 2]


#pop is used to remove the nth terms in a list of items. Eg:
int_list = [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]
int_list.pop(2)
print(int_list)

#output
[1, 2, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2]

#It removed 3 which is technically the 2nd term in the list

Dictionaries are unordered collection of item which stores the items in key-value pairs. Dictionary uses curly brackets{}

#an example of a dictionary
Student = {
          "name" : "Sharon",
          "age" : 20,
          "country" : "Nigeria"
          }

print(Student)

#output
{'name': 'Sharon', 'age': 20, 'country': 'Nigeria'}

Remember python is case and quotation mark sensitive.

Tuples are ordered collection of items that cannot be altered. It uses parenthesis() and the items are separated by commas.
Example:

#example of a tuple
my_tuple(1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2)
print(my_tuple)

#output
(1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2)

Sets are unordered collection of items that can be altered and has no duplicate item. Set uses curly brackets{}. You can't change the items in a set but you can add to it using the add() fuunction.

#example of a set
myset = {1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 3, 9, 2}
print(myset)

#output
{1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9}

Queues are linear list of items that stores the items in First In First Out (FIFO) manner. In a queue, the first item is removed first.
The insert and delete operations are called enqueue and dequeue. Deletion of an element can take place only at one end called the front and insertion can take place on the other end which is termed as the rear.
Queues can be used to serve clients.

Stacks is a linear list of items that stores items in a Last-In/First-Out (LIFO) or First-In/Last-Out (FILO) manner. In stack, a new element is added at one end and an element is removed from that end only. The insert and delete operations are often called push and pop.
Using a stack of books for example, the last book that was added to the stack is the first the leaves.

Linked list is a linear set of data elements which is also termed as nodes. To learn more about linked list, click here.

Remember google is your friend.

Thanks for reading!

Introduction to modern python: Getting started with python

AdaChime — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 15:13:57 +0000

As a code newbie, when someone talks about python the first thing that comes to mind is probably the animal lol well it's not.
Python is a computer programming language that enables users to build websites, analyze data and visualize data.
It was originally created by Guido van Rossum in 1991 and further developed by the python Software Foundation. Guido wanted to create a programming language that was that used simple syntax and had code lines that were easy to read. he named python python because he wanted a name that was unique and kind of mysterious.

So why should you want to learn how to code using python
There are many reasons why you want to learn python

It's highly versatile: Python can be used to carry out several functions across many industries. Functions such as analyzing data etc.
It uses simple syntax: This makes coding easy to understand and learn. It is said that if you can write 'hello world' that you can write any line of code. Believe me this is very true.

 print ("hello world")

Python has a large and very supportive community where you can ask any confusing question and get answers. Communities like stack overflow etc.
Python is one of the most used programming languages in the world. Many big companies use this language, companies like google, facebook, amazon, netflix to mention but a few.
The demand for python and skilled python users is on the increase. The career opportunities and salary is also increasing, it is used in fields like data science, app development, web development, machine learning etc.

**
So where can you learn python from**
You can learn python from
*Bootcamps
*Online courses: Courses from udemy, coursera, codecademy, udacity, sololearn etc.
*Youtube
One of the most amazing things is that most these sites offer free courses.
You can also read blog post on medium, hashnode, dev.to etc, they will help a lot.

Incase you are confused on any syntax, you can google it, websites like stack overflow, geek for geeks, w3schools will help out.
Remember google is your friend.

Thanks for reading!