NumPy is not the trendiest Python library in the world. There are libraries such as TensorFlow or Scikit-learn for machine learning. These libraries get all the attention these days. However, in this article, I want to highlight the importance of learning the basics first. You cannot learn TensorFlow before you’ve learned Python. Similarly, you cannot … Read more
I got this question recently regarding Python freelancing and I immediately thought that’s a brilliant idea. (Seriously.) Why should this be a good idea considering that Python freelancers earn $51 per hour on average? Because you can increase your Python skill level but you don’t have to polish your salesman skills from day one. It’s … Read more
Of course, you can. However, the question misses the point. It’s not about how many programming languages you know. It’s about how much expertise you have in the areas that matter. If you are good at Python, you’ve already proven that you have expertise in the technical programming area. Now, it’s much more about how … Read more
Yesterday, I found this email in my INBOX — sent by Finxter Muhammad, one of my most loyal “Coffee Break Python” email readers: ~~~ I have good news I got a job as a Python programmer in a software house.All credit goes to you – Your daily puzzles made me good in Python….. ~~~ While … Read more
Today, I filled in the author questionnaire for any author who publishes a book with the international techbook publisher NoStarchPress. I share this article because (1) other authors may be interested in how the concrete questions look like, and (2) Finxter readers may be interested in the upcoming book “Python One-Liners” (to appear in 2019) … Read more
Say, you are working for a large bank. Your hacker colleague implemented a magic function that uses SSH to log into the bank’s core server (written in COBOL which you don’t know at all), analyzes the CPU usage over the last 24 hours, and returns the result as a cryptic string value. Your boss asks … Read more
You may know the np.cumsum() function from the NumPy library that calculates the cumulative sum of a given NumPy array. How can we implement this function in Python? Studying this will not only show you how the NumPy cumsum function works, but it’ll also make you a better coder because it contains many important concepts … Read more
You can play with the following interactive Python code to calculate the variance of a 2D array (total, row, and column variance). Here’s another practical example: What is the output of this puzzle?*Advanced Level* (solution below) Numpy is a popular Python library for data science focusing on arrays, vectors, and matrices. This puzzle introduces a … Read more
Python’s library for data science, NumPy, allows you to slice multidimensional arrays easily. For multi-dimensional slices, you can use one-dimensional slicing for each axis separately. You define the slices for each axis, separated by a comma. Here are a few examples drawn from my comprehensive NumPy tutorial. Take your time to thoroughly understand each of … Read more
You may have read that Python’s godfather, Guido van Rossum, doesn’t like the map() function too much. He argues that it can be easily replaced with list comprehension which is not only faster but also more readable and shorter. Here’s an example: You can solve the puzzle on the interactive Finxter app before reading on … Read more
All programming is not created equal. Having said this, I don’t know a single programmer who regrets his choice of learning to program. With growing automation, programming becomes more and more a skill that is at the heart of many tasks in our society. No matter whether you work in the medicine, logistics, retail, or … Read more
Becoming a freelance coder is both easy and difficult. It’s easy because everybody can do it within a day or so. And it’s hard because most people fail miserably because they don’t know the right way of approaching this. Maybe you are interested in coding, or maybe you are already very good at coding. But … Read more