Programming Essentials

Master the Foundation with Real-World Practice

Python is one of the easiest and most powerful programming languages used today—from data science to automation, it’s everywhere. Whether you’re a beginner or brushing up your knowledge, this guide walks you through the core essentials of Python with practical examples and a real-world project.

1. 🧠Variables & Data Types #

Variables are containers used to store data. You don’t need to declare a type explicitly in Python—it figures it out for you!

Common Data Types: #

# Example
age = 25
height = 5.9
name = "Hannan"
is_student = True
z = 3 + 2j

2. 🔄 Type Conversion & Type Checking #

Python allows dynamic typing, but you can also explicitly convert between types.

🔁 Type Conversion: #

x = "10"
y = int(x)  # Convert string to int
z = float(y)  # Convert int to float

✅ Type Checking: #

print(type(x))  # <class 'str'>
print(type(y))  # <class 'int'>

Use int(), float(), str(), bool() to convert between types.

3. 📥 User Input & 🖨 Output Formatting #

Getting Input: #

name = input("Enter your name: ")
age = input("Enter your age: ")

Output Formatting: #

# Basic
print("Name:", name, "| Age:", age)

# Advanced - f-string
print(f"Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old.")

f-strings make formatting easy and readable.

4. ➕ Operators in Python #

🧮 Arithmetic Operators #

🆚 Comparison Operators #

Used to compare values. Returns a boolean.

5 > 3   # True
5 == 5  # True
5 != 3  # True

⚙ Logical Operators #

Combine multiple conditions.

x = 10
print(x > 5 and x < 20)  # True
print(not x == 10)       # False

🖊 Assignment Operators #

Assign values to variables.

x = 5
x += 2  # x = x + 2 → x becomes 7

5. ✂ String Manipulation #

Python treats strings as sequences of characters. Let’s look at the most used string methods:

📌 Common Methods: #

text = "hello python"

print(text.upper())      # HELLO PYTHON
print(text.capitalize()) # Hello python
print(text.replace("python", "world")) # hello world
print(text.split())      # ['hello', 'python']

🔁 Concatenation & Formatting #

first = "Hannan"
last = "Hassan"
full_name = first + " " + last
print(f"My name is {full_name}")

🔍 Indexing and Slicing #

msg = "Hello World"
print(msg[0])     # H
print(msg[-1])    # d
print(msg[0:5])   # Hello

🛠 Real-World Use Case: CLI Formatted Resume #

Let’s create a basic command-line resume using Python that takes input and displays it in a nicely formatted structure.

✅ Step-by-Step Code: #

print("===== CLI RESUME BUILDER =====")
print()

# Taking input from the user
name = input("Full Name: ")
email = input("Email: ")
phone = input("Phone Number: ")
summary = input("Professional Summary: ")
skills = input("Skills (comma-separated): ")
education = input("Highest Education: ")
experience = input("Most Recent Job Title: ")

# Formatting output
print("\n\n====== YOUR CLI RESUME ======\n")

print(f"👤 Name: {name}")
print(f"📧 Email: {email}")
print(f"📱 Phone: {phone}")
print("\n📝 Summary:")
print(f"{summary}")

print("\n💡 Skills:")
for skill in skills.split(','):
    print(f" - {skill.strip()}")

print("\n🎓 Education:")
print(f"{education}")

print("\n💼 Experience:")
print(f"{experience}")

🔧 Sample Output: #

===== CLI RESUME BUILDER =====

Full Name: Abdul Hannan
Email: hannan@example.com
Phone Number: 0300-1234567
Professional Summary: Enthusiastic Python Developer with 2 years of experience.
Skills (comma-separated): Python, SQL, APEX, Git
Highest Education: BSc in Computer Science
Most Recent Job Title: Oracle APEX Developer

====== YOUR CLI RESUME ======

👤 Name: Abdul Hannan
📧 Email: hannan@example.com
📱 Phone: 0300-1234567

📝 Summary:
Enthusiastic Python Developer with 2 years of experience.

💡 Skills:
 - Python
 - SQL
 - APEX
 - Git

🎓 Education:
BSc in Computer Science

💼 Experience:
Oracle APEX Developer

🧠 Wrap Up #

This article covered:

• Variables and Data Types (like int, float, str, bool)
• Type Conversion & Checking
• User Input & Formatted Output
• Operators (Arithmetic, Logical, Comparison, etc.)
• String Manipulation
• CLI Resume Builder – A real-world use case

✅ Try It Yourself #

• Add a save_to_file() feature to export the resume as .txt.
• Use datetime to add current date or experience durations.
• Convert the CLI to a GUI using libraries like tkinter.

Let me know if you want this as a downloadable PDF, or the next article in the Python tutorial series (like “Control Flow in Python” or “Functions & Loops”).