Concepts

• Interpreter
• Statement
• Function
• Function Call
• Argument
• Data Type
• Variable
• Assignment Statement
• File
• Directory
• Folder

Interpreter

• A program that that turns a scripting language like Python
• The interpreter reads each line in the program starting at the top
• It the Python code into machine language that the CPU understands
• Then it runs the machine language code

Statement

• A statement is one or more lines of code ...
• that performs a complete action
• It is like a Python sentence
• The interpreter runs though a Python script statement by statement ...
• translating each into machine language

Function

• A function is a group of Python statements ...
• that has a name ...
• and does something useful
• A function is a package of Python statements

Function Call

• A function call is a statement that runs a function
• It consists of the name of the function ...
• followed by parentheses, ( ) ...
• which usually contain values called arguments
• Here is the format

  FUNCTION_NAME([ARGUMENT, ...])

• Some functions take no argument
• But the function name MUST be followed by ( )

Argument

• An argument is a value given to a function when it is called
• Arguments appear within the parentheses of a function call ...
• separated by commas

Data Type

• Computers deal with different types of values
• For example, the arguments in functions can be
  • Integers
  • Decimals
  • Words
• Each of these values must be handled differently by the machine
• So they are represent in different formats in memory
• Each of these formats is called a data type
• Each of the value types above is a different data type
  • int: Integer
  • float: Decimal
  • str: String

String

• A string is a collect of characters
• The characters of a string are stored in memory as binary numbers
• We need a table of characters and the numbers that represent them
• The table we use is called Unicode
• Python uses the UTF-8 encoding to represent characters

Variable

• A variable is a word of memory that has a name ...
• and holds a single value
• A variable can hold a value of any data type
• And you can change the data type of the value at any time

Assignment Statement

• An assignment statement is a statement that give a value to a variable
• You create a variable by using an assignment statement to give it it's first value
• Here is the format

  VARIABLE_NAME = VALUE

File

• A file is linear arrangement of data on some storage device
• Linear means it is one dimensional
• It has a beginning and an end
• Files live on hardware like
  • Hard drives
  • Thumb drives
  • SSD drives
  • CDs

Directory

• A directory is a container that holds files and other directories
• It is used to organize data on an electronic device
• Directories are sometimes called folders